Here's an recent egregious example from Craigslist (edited for brevity and to protect the guilty):
We are “XX team,” the unofficial athletic & social club of the [Unnamed Gov't Agency] . Our mission is to help [Gov't Agency] employees and contractors make friends throughout The Agency - and you can help! This is a great opportunity for you to learn about the [Gov't Agency], make valuable contacts – and play softball and/or kickball!
YOUR DUTIES: Your Main Responsibility - We play our games on The National Mall, in the shadow of The Washington Monument. Most fields are on a first-come, first serve basis. Your primary duty will be to arrive at The Mall around 3pm on game days, and “camp-out” on a field until the team arrives at 4:30pm. Feel free to bring a book and a camping chair and work on your tan! Additional Duties - The XX Team also has a need for creative writers, journalists, photographers, web-site & graphic designers. If you have any of these skills (or would like a chance to develop them) let us know! Other Opportunities - After you've joined our organization, you may see opportunities to add value that we hadn't thought of. Let us know your ideas - we may let you run with it!BENEFITS TO YOU: Your internship will take place outside! You'll get to play softball & kickball on The National Mall! You’ll get to make new friends! You’ll learn about the [Gov't Agency] and make valuable networking contacts! And while we can’t promise you that one of your contacts will turn into a job opportunity, there is always that possibility!
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PLEASE NOTE: (!) This is not an [Gov't Agency] internship. We are not officially affiliated with the [Gov't Agency] . We are merely a large club composed of Agency employees & contractors. You will be interning for an extracurricular sports club - not a government agency.
I especially love how they dangle the vague possibility of making contacts that might in some obscure way eventually lead to a job when it's clear that this "internship" holds no more networking potential than hanging out at your local Starbucks or crashing cocktail parties on the Hill.
One crucial way in which this does NOT differ from an actual job description is that even in an actual paid position, most of our duties involve arriving at a specific time and "camping out" until something happens. And on most days, nothing does.
ReplyDeleteYour description sounds more like my life.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't believe the stuff they try to pass off as internships in DC. Apparently the whole city woke up one day and decided that nobody would have to pay for research, social marketing, Website design, video editing, writing, or anything some college student/recent grad might conceivably know how to do. Not to mention camping out.