There are no Product Design companies anywhere near me and to work at one I would have to move.
Now if I did, that would mean having to pay rent somewhere, meaning I would have to get money from something. Freelance is an option, but definitely not a steady income by any means. Working weekends and nights would be possible but would severely impact my ability to perform at my best during the day. A friend of mine secured an unpaid internship and had to cross London every day to get to it. It took him 2 hours each way and by the end of the year had debts of £2000!

Design companies realise the value of an internship and exploit it. Even minimum wage would be acceptable, it wouldn’t cost the company much and it would give the student a sense of their work being valued by being paid to provide a service.

Adam
http://www.coroflot.com/adamborton

Also, after reading your post, you seem to have either missed something, or have a personal vendetta against this type of thing (hiring an intern). It happens everyday, all over the planet, in almost every industry. Do some interns get taken advantage of? Sure. I would bet that most, however, do not.

So, relax, and lose the “!!!!” in your writing. It looks bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the value of an internship and think it’s the best thing a student can do. I undertook one for 9 months (fulltime with accommodation and living allowance).

The same goes for design competitions that are nothing more than a means of avoiding to employ an additional designer or a cheap means to idea input.

I have less respect for Indesign, which i previously held at high esteem.

I think we’ve both made valid points.

I’ll concede that considering the size of the place i did my internship, they could have paid me, but it would have been a very different experience. In fact i continued to volunteer there after my internship finished. I also picked up about 200 hours work doing mostly CAD. I had a meeting there today and will do some more CAD, and while i was there was invited to have coffee/beer with people, thanked for a postcard i sent them, asked how i was doing job wise etc etc. I did not feel undervalued at all. (though perhaps undervalued in a monetary sense)

I will point out that being able to volunteer has been a luxury that i have been able to afford recently (as I had another job to bring the cash in). i can understand that others may not have this freedom.

i will also point out the enjoyment of work is not derived from the amount of money made, and so volunteering or an unpaid internship can be immensely satisfying for the singular reason that you are not getting paid at all! Rather, your colleges personally and professionally value your work.

All matters considered I am now happy to quote them on a higher rate for CAD work. I think you’ve given me the confidence to value my own services more than before, with a dollar value and an end output.

This then leads to these businesses devaluing the design profession as a whole and thus leads to more issues. I know of one company that undervalues their designers so much that they won’t allow them to attend the weekly company WHIP meetings! What those designers are doing there I’ll never know, although they have a massive design staff turnover, which does in the long run affect their business.

But all these types of behaviors in various business breed a wide spread culture of undervaluing design and designers. And personally I think that it is ridiculous you weren’t paid, as I know who you did you internship with and with the amount of government funding they receive you can’t tell me there wasn’t enough in the budget to pay an intern even minimum wage – despite what they claim.

I suppose it depends on the individual and the organization. Now if it was an organization with, say more than 10 employees I would say the intern should be paid. On the other hand if it is a small business with 2 employees – different story. It is definitely situation dependent. I was offered an internship with a lighting company in Melbourne. They make a pretty tidy profit, have an almost monopoly in their particular sector and at that point I was in the final semster of my degree. But they refused to pay me anything for my time. Yet I could go and work at the corner store down from my house and earn more then that. I wouldn’t get the experience (it might have been amazing, on the other hand maybe not? ), but at least I can pay my bills, stay alive and get more experience later on.

I say this from experience in an unpaid internship. It has given me lots of opportunities in my chosen field, and has allowed me to explore career possibilities that i would not have otherwise encountered. Even more than that, i feel like i am treated as an equal in the studio, and can OFTEN solve problems that others can’t (especially with regards to technology and newer computer programs).

I can see your point that they are undervaluing a student’s expertise or education. However, I would stop short of branding it as exploitation. I think in many cases the opportunity is suggested by the student, and sometimes the position would not exist without a student or potential intern’s initial interest.

some people get paid a lot, and aren’t worth it. Some interns are there to have it on their CV. But in my experience, i couldn’t put a dollar value on the connections, professional relationships, exposure, encouragement, studio experience and friendships that i have earned and been rewarded with since starting my internship and volunteering.

maybe you should go for the indesign internship? i would.

and on a personal note, i wouldn’t swear on your blog – it makes it seem like you are insulting indesign and your readers. you write too well to need to resort to swearing, don’t give in to it!