I think there’s a time and place for both. *Note: Opinions are solely my own.

I truly believe that the learnings from the unpaid internships are what got me the paid ones and eventually what got me my full-time gig.

In your first internship, you’re usually more a drain on resources than you are a producer of resources. In most cases, the company hiring you is likely just trying to vet the best producers to train into awesome second-year interns or full-time employees.

This is usually when unpaid internships make sense — you go get to learn from X company for free (versus paying multi-thousand dollars for a university course).

In your second internship, you should have some ability to produce to the point you’re a benefit or a breakeven for a company. This is when you should be paid. You have skills to produce — now it’s about producing more than you cost.

Is it a perfect system? No.

But your unpaid internship is a way in. This is especially true when you don’t have the right pedigree (bad GPA, non-target school, etc.)

If you’re good at what you do, getting your foot in the door is the most important part. After that, everything compounds.

#TheMillionImpactMission