Are internships usually paid or unpaid?

[DomS]

I'm in grad school right now, and part of the program is that each year you have to do an internship. 98% of them are unpaid though, with a few of them having a stipend. Is this normal? I was talking with my family about it and they think it's a bit odd. Does it vary by field you're in? Most of my friends have internships (in other grad programs), and all of them are getting paid..

 

[Cooler]

It can vary greatly depending on the size of the university and subject matter. If you?re going to a research intensive university in a science field, 10-20k stipends and free tuition are not uncommon.

 

[BassBomb]

Waterloo Engineering Coop program (similar to internships in USA) are all paid unless you volunteer (ie you did not find a job).

I am in my third work term and I have been paid the following:

10$/hr (middle of First year)
15.25$/hr (between First year and Second year)
19.75$/hr (current, middle of Second year)

I have 3 more work terms to go, it basically goes to my tuition + books + rent for next term.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I think it depends. My wife is doing an internship that's mandatory for the curriculum. Not only is she going to be working 50 hours a week for the next year, she's going to be paying $35k a year to do it. Enjoy.

I had a lot of friends that did IT internships years ago and were compensated roughly $12-14 an hour working 20-30 hours a week. Most were offered full-time positions starting at twice that after they proved themselves. Not too bad considering everyone wants experience as well as a degree.

 

[Injury]

I voted for the only option that allowed me to not say for certain what the answer is.

The field, the city, the amount of students saturating the potential interns, the perks of the internship, the actual work you will be doing, etc. all determine this. In other words, it's entirely situational. Maybe it's not that 98% of them are unpaid, maybe it's just that you haven't been looking in the right places or being assertive towards offering your less-experienced dirt cheap services to companies. I mean, the ones you hear the most about are probably going to be unpaid ones as it's cheaper to have one person in their company take 5 hours out of their week to whore themselves out to all of the colleges and recruiting sites to pick up some people that are desperate to get their credit hours. Why pay someone for the work if there are clearly people willing to do it for free?

My brother worked at a radio station for a while and was responsible for the interns. They were unpaid internships and they had to have about a dozen hours in the office a week and attend at least 2 events a week for around 20 hours. The benefit to them was that they got some great experience and exposure and built a hell of a network... on top of getting to see a free occasional concert, they got to meet plenty of celebrities, see lots of free movies, and have flexible scheduling. My brother did his best to help all of the ones who were great at the job to find a real job when they were done, even if it wasn't for his radio station. Worth it for these people? You bet your ass.

 

[evident]

what field are you in. if its anything to do with comp sci or comp engineering or EE, your ass better be gettin paid

 

[DomS]

Some clarification:

I'm in a counseling program, basically training to become a therapist. The internships are found by the school, and assigned by you. You can ATTEMPT to find your own, but the school always shoots them down for one reason or another. They also don't do a good job of matching you up with what field you want to get into. I'm actually thinking of transferring into another program for this and (many many many) other reasons.

 

[DomS]

any other input?

 

[Deeko]

My school was a co-op school...5 years, the middle three are 6 months class/6 months co-op. The vast, vast majority of co-ops were paid, many paid pretty well too.

 

[Miklebud]

My internship at a private Graphic Design Firm was un-paid. 24 hours aweek.

 

[Biggerhammer]

Interns at my company are paid during the summer... other times of year it is unpaid.