Breakfast Debate: To pay or not to pay

Internships.com CEO Robin Richards puts forth a compelling argument in The Huffington Post this morning on why employers should pay their interns.

I know that in the past, Robin has been critical of the government telling businesses they can’t hire unpaid ones — partially because of the probability that these regulations would knock small enterprises out of business when we need them the most. But he also acknowledges that there’s a moral dilemma and threat to workplace efficiency that comes with pricing out qualified candidates who can’t afford to take unpaid internships.

People have varying and passionate opinions on the matter, and Robin does an excellent job here of clarifying the conflict behind an issue that’s not nearly as simple as it seems. If you have any interest in the future of entry-level employment, this is a must-read.

Breakfast Debate: Should more companies hire paid interns?

Though some signs point to a slightly improving labor market, many employers have been very reluctant to expand their payrolls during the long climb out of the Great Recession. The result? Today’s graduating classes are becoming very familiar with the phrase “unpaid internship” — and not everyone feels the same way about it.

Mark Cuban Credit: James Duncan Davidson/O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Is the explosion of unpaid internships an opportunity, exploitation or a little of both? Today we present two (somewhat) opposing viewpoints on the matter.

• Dallas Mavericks owner, entrepreneur and media mogul Mark Cuban lashes out at the government’s attempts to regulate unpaid internships in this blog post from 2009.

• Small business owner Dawn Reshen-Doty of Benay Enterprises, a Connecticut business management service, suggests employers can help the economy, a frustrated generation, and even Egypt by doing whatever it takes to hire one extra paid intern.

Do you think it’s fair for employers to hire unpaid interns? Leave a comment below.

Fashion Internships & Pop Culture: Gossip Girl Joins the Mix

Healthy competition never seems to hurt...

Internships pervade pop culture (and reality TV) and if you’ve read our blog in the past, you know that tons of celebrities got their careers started as interns. Sweet.

Shows like The Hills and The City have come and gone – offering viewers an inside look into the competitive lifestyle of high fashion interns in New York. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a new entrant into the pop culture internship domain through the uber-popular show Gossip Girl.

Blair and Dan landed internships at a fashion magazine in NYC, and well, the rest was history… No spoilers here, in case you still have the last few episodes saved on your DVR.

We just wanted to give a little shout-out to our neighbors, the CW Network, here in Los Angeles, for developing an internship storyline smack in the middle of internship search and application season. Though the events may be exaggerated and may not mirror real life, that’s besides the point… What is more important, is that Gossip Girl is superbly capturing the anxiety, competition and general zeitgeist of a ‘stressed out’ internship search and experience.

Our goal at Internships.com is to make that experience much less stressful than it seems to be for Blair and Dan. So, good luck in your internship search this spring.

Check out the hundreds of fashion opportunities available on-site today.

Coffee Clicks

Links to click while letting the caffeine sink in…

• Internship tips from a recent post on BNET.
• Top 10 companies that pay their interns the best.
• Virtual internships: for those who want to spend more time at the office?
• Calvin Klein intern spotted on NBC NY’s Street Style feature.