• maniii@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    4 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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      4 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 (he/they)
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        4 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.