The 29 year old woman I recently counselled would seem to represent a perfect package to launch a career as a\u00a0communications professional. Along with undergraduate and master\u2019s degrees from prestigious Canadian universities and\u00a0two additional diplomas, she is also funny, poised, and with a history of entrepreneurship to boot.<\/p>\n
Yet rather than landing in an entry level professional job\u00a0with a top firm, she is now working in her third unpaid internship. And although she carries the title of \u201cco-ordinator,\u201d her work consists largely of fetching coffee,\u00a0posting content on the web, and\u00a0fixing her boss\u2019s iPod.<\/p>\n
Most of us are all too familiar with this story: In a highly competitive market, even the strongest of young job seekers can\u2019t make headway with employers who want workers with demonstrated experience.\u00a0 So they turn to internships, with the promise of getting a foot in the door.<\/p>\n
But rather than getting portfolio-building skills, these educated but debt-ridden 20-somethings are forced to become cheap or free labour, doing work which adds nothing to their resume.<\/p>\n
Organizations ultimately pay a price when\u00a0future hires feel\u00a0soured by exploitation. Young workers pay an even higher price- their future mortgaged by employers only too happy to have free labour without providing much development\u00a0 in return.<\/p>\n
And this is the subtle, but even more devastating part of the story – a young person\u2019s loss of feelings of competence and belief in their future: Not only do these young people fail to get the skills they need to build a professional portfolio, but worse, their sense of self is\u00a0pummeled.<\/p>\n
The twenties is a critical developmental period. In the last few decades it has been the time during which young people have learned how to become adults while still being allowed some forbearance.\u00a0 It should be a chapter in life that allows them some modest screw-ups while they figure out what they want to do, test themselves, and feel the joys and challenges of starting to become self-sufficient.<\/p>\n
But these days, 20-somethings are becoming anything but self-sufficient, living at home and scrounging off parents. And they are deprived of delicious self-esteem enhancing feelings \u2013 Yes, I found this apartment, yes, I can live on a budget, yes, I can furnish my apartment cheaply, yes, I can live on my income. Rather than this period being about grooming to become an adult, it has become about being infantilized.<\/p>\n
And being stressed. \u00a0According to the recent annual \u201cStress in America\u201d survey\u00a0 conducted by the American Psychological Association, members of\u00a0 the millennial generation feel more stressed than older generations and are more likely to say they don\u2019t think they are managing their stress well. The top reported stressors: work, money, and job instability.<\/p>\n
The stress and infantilizing play out in the workplace. Many young workers offered internships are promised \u201ccareer enhancing real- world professional skills\u201d\u00a0only to be treated like third class citizens. Being assigned the most menial tasks,\u00a0along with the freight of living at home, further guts their confidence. More egregious, as one young intern I know recently said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t smile when asked to get coffee, and act\u00a0 as if you are the luckiest person alive to be doing this, they pull the, \u2018Your generation is sooo entitled thing on us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The result: Instead of navigating their way to adulthood, they look to bosses for approbation and start to feel grateful for any bone tossed their way.<\/p>\n
Employers are often complicit in fostering feelings of incompetence and lack of readiness to take on something bigger. One former intern, who had just lost her job, said that her boss never let her forget that she didn\u2019t \u201cknow anything\u201d and treated her \u201cwith a kind of noblesse oblige.\u201d She had to beg to be included in the most minor meeting, and when he finally agreed, he acted like he was being extremely generous.<\/p>\n
And when she asked for guidance, he was always \u201ctoo busy,\u201d or implied she was needy. Nonetheless, \u201call of the interns competed for who is the biggest sycophant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Most disturbing – when I suggested to this talented woman that maybe this time around she should look for a proper job, she said, \u201cBut I don\u2019t have the skills. I am just an intern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizations may be able to kick the tires before they buy and in the process, get bargain- priced labour. To make themselves feel better, they may tell themselves they are giving a young person a leg up.\u00a0 But unless hiring managers are actually providing meaningful work experiences, this isn\u2019t a recipe for grooming the people who will be paying our pensions.<\/p>\n
Employers should take a page from one manager I know. When he hires an intern, he shows them what their resume will look like when their internship is completed.<\/p>\n
Of course, not all internships are a formula for attacks on self-esteem and soul-sucking drudgery. Unlike many 20-somethings who don\u2019t have any idea about their desired career, one young woman I know was fortunate in that she knew exactly what her dream job was – to run an art gallery. She made a list of the skills she needed to develop, and researched\u00a0gallerists who would be able to provide those skills.<\/p>\n
She got the trade she wanted with a top gallery owner who also enjoyed mentoring: The intern offered inexpensive labour and in return received the learning experiences she needed. This is how it should be.<\/p>\n
She recently opened her own gallery.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Advice for under employed and unemployed young people<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n Parental Career Advice \u2013 Less is More<\/a> by Barbara Moses<\/p>\n Nine Tips for Young Job Hunters<\/a> by Barbara Moses<\/p>\n\n
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