Unpaid internships are becoming a more and more sadly prominent fixture in the life of college students and recent college grads. Oftentimes, they feature batshit insane bosses, demeaning tasks, and/or a the gradual deflation of a young individual’s dreams. Sometimes they feature office pets who are better treated than the intern staff.
In an attempt to sublimate your pain into humor, we made an open call for your internship horror stories. Here’s our first installment:
Arguably the worst type of internship is one in which you’re subject to the deranged whims of a boss who is completely out of touch with reality, kind of like a significantly less interesting version of The Devil Wears Prada. You could have the sort of position where you’re expected to pick up dog poo and no one ever bothers to learn your name. Conversely, you could find yourself enmeshed in a situation in which your boss becomes overly involved in your life and calls you at 10:30 at night because he can’t figure out how to turn on his computer and wants to make you listen to stories about the time he did coke with Tim Allen. Either way, it’s exploitative and it’s the opposite of fun and enriching.
Confirming this, here is a tale from someone who had a government-subsidized internship working with a terrible woman who is clearly the Baba Yaga in disguise:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
