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[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 75 points 3 months ago

Ask her to lead by example.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 60 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

She claims to have done so:

"I went to the business listings and I just started calling up companies and asking them if they had internships available and that I would be willing to work for free.”

It worked. Mathur’s first foot in the door of employment was at the travel firm Travelocity during her first summer at the University of Texas. She did admin and research for its general council—all for free.

I wonder how the money worked at that stage in her life. Was she living off loans? Was she living off wealth from another source?

[-] maniii@lemmy.world 42 points 3 months ago

Highly likely that there was some connections to grease a bit of the wheels of commerce.

All these "i worked as an intern" usually have some connections that "picked" them from that intern pool. The other interns usually tend to be the fall guys. "So sorry all of you missed out but this person is the bestest!". While being the son/daughter/friend/family of someone in that company.

[-] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago

I used to work at an insurance company, and I ran the internship program for my department once. When we were doing the interviews, one of the candidates was from my geographic area, which is pretty rural and not many of my coworkers were from anywhere near there. He’d launched a free tutoring program at his high school and carried it on a few hours a week through his first couple years of university until that point. For paid work experience, he had mostly agricultural work, because he had to support his family.

I’m realizing now that I may have been a little naïve about it, but no one else even wanted to consider him compared to the students who were able to do many more extracurricular activities and were able to dedicate more hours to non paid work.

What I’m trying to say is that even if nobody is actively corrupt, it’s a structurally classist system.

[-] maegul@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago

What I’m trying to say is that even if nobody is actively corrupt, it’s a structurally classist system.

Yep ... this.

Whether there are lies or nepotism or completely inapplicable experiences or just confirmation biases ... the very idea of the internship to get your foot in the door is classist.

The idea that you have time to burn for free for the sake of your career is classist. The idea that an economic system premised on everyone being employed somehow should work by having those employees constantly "hustle" to get employment is classist. To speak of these notions as universally applicable without acknowledging their classism ... is classist.

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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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