The citizens of Intern Nation raise the alarm

I have just finished Ross Perlin's Intern Nation (how to earn nothing and to learn little in the brave new economy) as I am setting out for an internship in China. It was a sobering experience, considering that I am doing what Perlin would a complete waste of time and resources.

One of the problems that Ross Perlin has with internships is that society (including business, fashion, entertainment, NGOs, the education sector and governments) don’t really understand what internships are and that leaves people open to exploitation and abuse.

He gives many examples of internships that are unpaid and give the participant few opportunities for skills development or exposure to the key business of the organisation. He argues that internships are often touted as nothing more than an introduction to a shallow culture of an organisation or industry.

He regards this concept of exposure as being problematic when he says, ‘anything that bring “exposure” can now be a learning experience – flipping burgers for Disney, having a chat at the water cooler, spending an afternoon  at the copying machine’ (2011, 94). Unlike medical internships or “Articles” for newly graduated lawyers in the legal profession, without a tradition of providing real structured training to graduates, many interns fail to get the great learning experience and student-to-professional transition that they were hoping for.

Because of the misunderstandings surrounding internships, Perlin believes that their vague and unstructured nature allows both employers and interns to spin them to suit their own agenda.

Part of an employer’s agenda may often be to save money. This point was a major part of Perlin’s book and looks at the common trend of replacing paid staff by interns and it became clear that in this current economic climate with companies cutting back on staff, in many circumstances internships are used as cheap labour.

So what usually happens is that employers might spin an internship out to be this great learning experience but actually it is just doing the “grunt work” that is usually done by a paid employee because why pay someone to do it when you can get an intern to do it for nothing? Saving a salary just by putting a positive spin on the internship!

The intern on the other hand, might have fallen for the spined internship and, having realised that they were conned, continue the cycle of spin and writing it on their CV in a way that makes it sound better than it is.  

Despite the book being a reality check of the world of internship that I am currently engaged in, I thought it was a good analysis of the problems of unpaid programs that aim to assist you transition from university to the world of work. 

However, author Ross Perlin failed to dedicate enough time on why people sacrifice so much to do unpaid internships even if they offer so little in return. 

It was only in the 'afterwords' where he discussed the decline of employers willing to take new graduates (or even school leavers or career changers) and train them up rather than what usually happens now where they choose to hire people with lots of experience. Perlin notes that ‘unlike the “ageism” which affects some older workers, the closure of the workplace to young people without “experience” has become absolute and systemic, the disappearance of the entry-level job a primary symptom. The paradox of raised in Intern Nation remains unanswered: how do we get experience if we don’t already have experience?’ (2011, 227). His offers few alternatives and what he does offer, as we shall see later in this blog is simplistic and naive.   

   
The demise of the entry level job has also lead to more competition for positions further up the career ladder and therefore if you have just finished university and there a few opportunities available to get a foot in the door and learn to apply your "trade". So you soon realise that you have to do something such as internships as an attempt to address this problem of gaining experience and to give you an edge in an uber competitive job market. 

This is why I have chosen to pay a sum of money to intern in China, so that I may address a regular complaint by potential employers that I ‘don’t have enough experience’.

Internships, I am promised, are the key to getting the experience required to land a job.

So, why to people still fall for them?

Perlin cites, Economist Greg Caplin’s argument: ‘you get paid what you’re worth, and when you start out you are not worth very much. You’ve got to invest in human capital. People are willing to work for nothing because they are going to get a huge pay off in the future’   (2011, 128)

If you have little experience and employers are not willing to give you the foot in door that you need, what else are you going to do other than pay for the privilege to work unpaid in order to get some experience behind you?

Perlin sums it up well by noting that ‘applying human capital theory to internships at least allows for a guarded optimism: students and their families may feel compelled to invest heavily in education and skills-building, but they are rewarded in the end – hard work always wins out.’ (2011, 129) It is human nature and that people want to hold on to something and hope for the best.

With the job market not so kind to those without work experience or access to polished “personal spin machines” people put all their hope in to something that will help them to signify that they can do the job.  

In regards to my adventure over the next six weeks, I am sure that Perlin would not approve of what I am doing. He would tell me to ‘Figure out how to turn a job at the mall into something with a future: talking honestly about your ambition to your supervisor, interacting with customers, pressing for better work conditions and career advancement. Strike out and develop a new skill – whether   it’s taking a Spanish class or learning from a friend how to fix cars – and turn it into a career opportunity.’ (2011, 205).  While it is important not to devalue working in the local shopping centre or taking an evening class but I don’t see this advice working for those new grads wanting to gain employment outside the area that they used to fund their university studies.

While doing jobs to pay the rent and working on informal projects with friends are the catalyst of developing a large number of skills but in this day and age I doubt that they have much value in the job market. With so much emphasis on, not only on achievement and developing an impressive portfolio of experiences but also the charisma to make this collection sparkle like a football field of diamonds, the everyday experiences like doing a job to pay the rent, raising a family or helping out in your family’s shop doesn’t have the same level of impressiveness to potential employer.  

Internships have also crept into the world of volunteering. With the students everywhere wanting to get ahead, volunteering has lost its value in the market. Once volunteering with the Red Cross and the RSPCA was an indicator that you were motivated and a team player or being a leader in your local Girl Guides highlighted your leadership and interpersonal skills but nowadays this is not enough. For a good example of this check out this site.

As a result, organisations now promote volunteer placements as internships so that they attract students who are desperate to take part in activities that show that they are motivated, keen and capable.

You can see the debate played out in the America where spending the summer as a camp councillor is becoming seen as time not as well spent as spending the same time interning.  Just click here and here. 

People end up doing internships because they perceive them to having currency in the job market even though in reality they might not.

But as I leave sleepy old Perth for the big smoke of Shanghai, I hope that this internship doesn’t turn out to be another empty experience but an intense learning encounter that I’ll remember for a lifetime.

Link

Perlin, Ross. Intern Nation – How to earn nothing and learn little in the brave new economy. (London and New York: Verso, 2011)  

Old but not passé

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there has been a bit of a renaissance in Perth of late.

When I first arrived here in Perth almost 20 years ago (seriously, has it been that long?) many of the older buildings were empty. I found this a little sad coming from a country where many old buildings were still used and admired. 

But as I soon realised Perth, with its superficial attitude and effervescent lifestyle, always favoured the new over the old.   

All of a sudden in the past 18 months or so, many of Perth’s “Old” buildings have been given a face lift and new lease on life.

What started this renaissance seems to have come from the building of another office tower in Perth’s CBD for recourse giant BHP Billiton and of course, they needed somewhere to party.

So what better place than to use the old buildings directly at their feet? These lovely buildings used to accommodate The West Australian Newspaper (including its Print Hall), The Perth Trustee/Insurance as well as the Perth Technical College and Old Boys School.  

The redevelopment of these beautiful old buildings has given us a new precinct that is very cool.

It is this here where you can also find a room top bar (very appropriate, given Perth’s weather), on top of the appropriately named Print Hall with its four floors dedicated to fine dining and sophisticated New York style entertainment.

Along the Terrace you can find The Heritage Restaurant. The Heritage is truly amazing with its Belle Époque theme transporting you back to pre-war Paris.

Its great atmosphere, food and service making it ideal for those special occasions when you’ve got something to celebrate or just want to enjoy the finer things in life, even if it leaves the credit card begging for mercy.  

Next door is The Trustee, with its Art Deco theme is equally as suave.

 

The only gripe that I have about this area is that the outdoor area seems a little windswept and devoid of energy or personality. I wonder how long it is before we could have a jazz trio playing or a solo Sax dude filling up that empty space and drawing people out from the various venues.

Of course there are a few other places around, like Bar LaFayette or Bobéche which are smaller, quieter but no less sophisticated or cool. 

These buildings also accommodate a coffee shops and vintage clothes shops as well as (with their large windows providing plenty of natural light and high callings) an art gallery.

Walking around this gallery made me wonder what it took them so long to start using these amazing spaces. Of course all it takes is one to start off a trend but thankfully there are a few buildings that have stood vacant or underdeveloped for many years that are now being developed into boutique hotels and restaurants.

I hope these buildings remain appreciated well into the future and as the recent developments in Perth show, just because something is old it doesn’t mean it is passé.  The old buildings can sit side by side with the uber new and ultra modern and don’t have to be knocked down when tastes change, unless they were built in the 1960s then go right ahead and pull them down. 

2013 Arts Festival helps Perth to lose its “dullsville” tag

With the weather slowly warming up I am beginning to look forward to all the cool things that summer brings and the Perth International Arts Festival has to be one of my all time favourite events.   

Last night I was lucky enough to score an invite to the Perth Festival launch of its 2013 programme.    

It might sound like no big deal to sit through a multimedia presentation of shows that haven’t yet opened but it was just a reminder of the impact that PIAF has on the cultural life of Western Australia’s capital city.

Perth is one of the most geographically isolated places on earth and in the past the city has been labelled Dullsville on account of its often small town mentality and sometimes ethno-centric attitude.

I've written before on how cool the Festival is but after seeing what the 2013 programme will be, I am sure that next year’s festival will be no different.

The format of the Festival is of no surprise, with a plethora of different art forms such as film, theatre, circus, dance and music - spanning from early music with Carlo Gesualdo, right through to a 110 piece symphony orchestra playing Bartok and a commissioned work by the divisive classical contemporary Phillip Glass and all the way to the world’s coolest blues, jazz and pop shows performing in the Festival Garden.     

There are also plenty of shows for children and families as well as many free events if you are, like me and many others, on a budget.

The 2013 highlights are Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, Sydney Theatre Company’s adaptation of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and an Australian excusive/premier of the Mission Trip directed by Rachel Chavkin.

There are also shows that cross genres, break the conventions and bring you stories in ways that are unusual.

Mariano Pensotti’s La Marea designed to be performed in various apartments and viewed by passer bys in the street. This will be something not to be missed as drama spills out from the theatre halls and into the street.

 

Another break from convention is the National Theatre of Scotland’s The Strange Undoing of Prudence Hart. This show had a phenomenally successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and will take places, not at the State Theatre Centre, but among the tables of Little Creatures’ Loft.

The shows that I have my eye on are the A History of Everything all the way from Belgium and Samuel Beckett’s play Watt, performed by the Gate Theatre Dublin.

Circus Rolado’s La Cucina Dell’arte with its vaudeville inspired act that include pizza throwing and plate spinning hilarity will no doubt be a show not to be missed.      

As for the Chevron Festival Gardens, I’ll be there every night enjoying the uber cool atmosphere and the super cool tunes that will electrify Perth’s cultural centre. With its great music and awesome vibe it makes me happy to be alive.   

I love a good Writers’ Festival and this part of PIAF is something that I always look forward to.

Having just finished  All That I Am, I can't wait to  hear Anna Funder speak as well as Margaret Atwood of the Blind Assassin fame.

But we don’t have to wait until February 8 2013 to enjoy artistic creations from overseas.

The Lotterywest Festival Films begins in late November 2012 and continues right through to mid April 2013.

Outdoor movies are a great way to enjoy balmy Perth nights and after enjoying a picnic and a glass of wine, watching movies from all around the globe making it a perfect end to a great night out.

The locations are at the University of WA Somerville outdoor movies and at Joondalup Pines, which is also outdoors. 

Choosing which shows to go to is already proving difficult but I am sure the 2013 Perth International Arts Festival will enrich the lives of the citizens Perth and making our city an exciting place to live. 

Being single and loving it

Recently I have been planning my annual overseas adventure. Earlier this year it was Ghana and in January 2013 it will be six weeks interning and travelling in Shanghai and India.

During the planning process I have had been so glad that I was single and could peruse my passion for travel as well as study and music without having factor in some else’s interests and work requirements.

While this blog post is not about these adventures in particular but more a lifestyle that is undervalued.

I always found relationships slightly fascinating and especially when romance seems to be touted as the be all and end all of the human existence. 

Especially myths such as that being in a relationship with someone that “completes you” or that it increases the “fun factor” in your life.

 

This is not to say that being married is bad in any way as the joys of being in a relationship are many and varied, but why do single people focus on what they don’t have when being that way can also be so rewarding?

You don’t need to be romantically involved with someone to have rich and rewarding life or to be complete.

There are many advantages to being single, such as:

• You can live in your own place and enjoy having your own space.

• You can travel to the far flung places of the globe  or even interstate and take up opportunities that might be little difficult to take up if you had a partner and kids.

• Travelling solo gave me the opportunity to hang out with people that I met at youth hostels which has been really cool. 

• Leaving the airport alone in some crazy new city and finding your way to your accommodation provides the most amazing adrenaline rush. 

Another part aspect of relationships that I always found interesting is the tradition of rushing down the aisle by parts of West Australian community.

Spending my late teenage years in a particular social-religious community (of which I am no longer part of) when I first arrived in Australia where marriage is of paramount importance and children are the only indicator of maturity and that you’ve reached  adulthood.

I grew up wondering why this had to be so and why everyone was in such a rush to get married and as soon as it was legal to do so.

I also wondered why single gals in this community who, through no fault of their own, have such a complex about not being joined at the hip with their childhood sweetheart.

It seemed baffling that they put so much pressure on themselves to be married by 19. As if something was seriously wrong with them if they weren't, which was far from the case.

Those who weren’t were just normal people who hadn’t found Mr Right. But the focus on marriage is intense.   

For examples, click here and here.  

Instead of focusing on how good life can be so many seem to focus on what their lives could be like if they were married.

These are just my experiences and I look forward to many years of adventure and excitement, with or without a man! 

     

Nursing the work life balance

I’ve been struggling with the whole work-life balance concept recently, not so much in the traditional sense in amount of time I spend working and playing but coping with shift work.

While it is a fundamental part of working in a hospital, the 24/7 nature of the sector seems to make working to live more difficult.

Trying to organise a life around an ever revolving shift pattern has been very difficult. With most people generally working on a 9 to 5 ish timetable and Monday to Friday (I do appreciate that many people take work home, stay late or go into work on weekends) means that a lot of social events and things such as book clubs, sport, music, political meetings, evening classes, etc occur during in that evening time slot.

Although you not always working a late shift, the logistical difficulties in ensuring that you’ve got a  particular evening off so you can go to something involves planning ahead 6 or more weeks in advance.   

Even then, you’re not guaranteed anything and trying to swap post roster being issued is almost impossible.  

Ever since I began as a Nursing Assistant on a very busy general medical ward in a large metropolitan hospital, I realised how completely physically and emotionally demanding working there could be.

It is not like a desk job where you are sitting down for much of the time. Nursing gives you a big physical workout with being on your feet for 8 hours and the heavy lifting.  

By the time the weekend comes around, you're exhausted and worn out in a way that doesn't occur when you're at a desk for the majority of your working week.

  

Not only are the shifts full on but you’re often expected to work a late shift followed by an early shift which, if you’re not an early morning person like me, leaves you with very little energy to do anything else.

This raises the question, what happens to your “work-life balance” if your work is so physically demanding that, at the end of the day, you collapse on the couch with little energy to follow your dreams, do what you love and spend time with your family and friends?