Newsflash: Hiring newbies is not supposed to be about accessing their experience but instead about banking on their potential. That involves employers taking a risk – a very small risk. Some of the time employers will get a bad apple but much of the time they’ll get a loyal and improving worker who appreciates the leg up and sees a future with that company. And, better yet, society will get 25 year olds who will have the money to put down roots, have kids and contribute their talents before they are 45.

Come on Nation – let’s see employers take that teeny tiny risk!

But volunteering is a must for any of the CUPE covered positions. There is no other way to get into sweet public sector jobs unless your relative/friend is already there.

My friend’s daughter had to start volunteering during last year of highschool in order to be accepted into registered nurse program. Another friend of mine had to pull strings to get his son volunteering for Vancouver park board first year, next year he was paid sweet $20/hour for driving around in a truck picking up litter. Nice summer job for a student.

I think, however, that unpaid interns in media jobs are a different ball-game than in many other places. One supporting argument of that is that in a media company, an unpaid worker isn’t as likely to be taking over a job that would otherwise be a paid position: the media is bleeding jobs, and already many outlets are operating while short-staffed because they simply can’t afford another person on their balance sheet. In this scenario, the intern isn’t doing boring work: they are doing vital work, in close contact with a supervisor, because the organization is short on hands.

Journalism is learnt hand-on, as well: so a university-trained, but practically inexperienced reporter, IS at a disadvantage during a job hunt.

It is, unfortunately, completely true that unpaid interns are replaced with unpaid interns, at least until journalism figures out how to make money again. Or until the unpaid interns figure it out, that is.