Sunday, April 11, 2010

Workless

A friend of my teacher's came to speak in my gender and politics class this week. She works for the UN in one of their many departments aimed at helping women. Anyway, at the end of her talk she said "if anyone is interested in becoming an intern at the UN let me know." A girl raised her hand and asked about the requirements, etc. "Well, you have to at least have a master's degree," said the speaker. She proceeded to tell us how she interned at the UN after getting her master's at SciencesPo and many of her fellow interns had PhDs. I'm sorry, but is a master's really necessary to be an intern? I'm all for education, but how are you expected to get any real working experience if you need a master's to be an intern?

I guess I'm just bothered by summer job hunting. So many things are unpaid and many interesting internships want you to be in graduate school. I've gained so much out of my internships, in many cases more than in classes. I think it's unfair to say you need a certain amount of education so you can intern (without pay, mind you) in a field you're truly interested in. Of course, you should have some general interest or knowledge in the subject, but let's not go overboard. Also, let's start paying interns, shall we? I know the economy sucks, but as a recent NYT article noted, a lot of interns to work that used to be that of an entry level employee. Companies are just realizing they can get people to do it for free because it looks good on their resume. At least pay interns with experience? Or those who have degrees?

Other than thinking about how awful the job market is, I've been studying a lot. I have a paper on Pakistan and U.S. relations, a paper on some film tbd, a commentaire on something also tbd due within a week. I had a "galop" this weekend. It was basically a midterm. The prompt I chose was "to be a nationalist in Europe between 1848-1939." Riveting stuff, my friends. I think my paper resembled that of what a 12 year old French kid would have written. Oh well!