You can't eat prestige

Be wise about when you work for free

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to make sure you have a really
good reason if you choose to do valuable things for free.

(00:27):
I know a lot of us raised our eyebrows upon
reading a recent New York Times article describing a job
posting at U c l A for a person with
a PhD to serve as a course instructor for no pay.
According to this article, universities often pay students in academics
shockingly low wages or no wages for their work. The

(00:50):
New York Times article quoted a doctoral candidate and labor
organizers explanation for this. There is the belief that you
can eat Christie Aage, So I am here to tell you,
as this person implied, that you can't eat prestige. Volunteer
work and hobbies are wonderful, but professional work is different.

(01:13):
When others are realizing real value from your labor, you
should get something of value too, and I mean real
tangible value. If you choose to work for free or
reduced rate in the hopes that it might lead to something,
make sure there is a very clear an immediate payoff.

(01:36):
It is summer as I am writing this episode, and
summer is intern season. Every year, plenty of organizations with
large budgets try to get young people and sometimes not
so young people, to work for free. It is a
misperception that calling something an internship means you don't have
to follow minimum wage laws, but I know this is

(01:59):
a wide bread belief. If you are in such an
organization that does have a summer internship program, please pay
your interns. Not doing so doesn't save you that much money.
What it does is guarantee that the majority of your
interns will be from families that can afford to fund them.

(02:22):
It seems unlikely that the circle of people whose families
can fund their summers exactly overlaps with the circle of
people you'd like to hire in the future, so it
is a short sighted move. But most people are looking
at this question more from the other side of the equation.
You face the situation where you are asked or expected

(02:45):
to do some sort of work for free or for
a much reduced rate. The offer is that association with
a prestigious organization will lead to something in the future,
and maybe it will. But as far as I know
U c l A wasn't offering whoever took that unpaid
teaching job a clear promise that, barring disaster, they'd be

(03:07):
hired for a regular, full time job. They were not
offering guaranteed letters of recommendation and referrals, and I don't
think they were even offering free tuition for family and friends.
It was just the hope that the experience would lead
to something. Hope is a tricky strategy. The only thing
that is guaranteed to come from unpaid labor is that

(03:30):
you will do work you won't be paid for. Everything
else is a question of odds, So before you agree
to work for free, you want to do your due
diligence so you know the odds. Have other folks who
have done what you are being asked to do wound
up with great professional positions right afterwards, or they immediately

(03:53):
showered with amazing professional opportunities thanks to the exposure. Talk
to them, if you can do they feel the time
was worthwhile. What exactly made it worthwhile? And sometimes there
are truly great upsides. Giving a main stage ted talk
can lead immediately to good opportunities. Sometimes there aren't upsides.

(04:18):
You want to know what you're looking at. You can
also make sure that things other than pay are being
offered to you. Will people for sure refer you to
open positions within the organization. Can they say that, barring disaster,
the big names that your organization will write letters of
recommendation for you. Can you get other benefits that might

(04:41):
approximate the rate you would be earning. Again, I'm not
saying that you'll never work for free or that you
should never work for free. If you're early in your
career or you are changing from one career to another,
that is vastly different and there may be a place
for some unpaid work. For instance, if you have taught
yourself graphic design, you might need to do a few

(05:03):
projects for nonprofits you care about as a volunteer before
you get your first paid project. Some very competitive fields
like museum work. I like to see that people have
put in time volunteering at their local institutions. Doing so
will help your name rise to the top of the list.
But most of these things aren't full time work. They

(05:25):
are gigs on the side that have the clear goal
of getting you paying gigs for everything else. Make sure
you are going in with your eyes open. You can't
eat prestige, so be sure that you are getting something
of value in exchange for the value of the work
you are providing. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks

(05:49):
for listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.

(06:12):
That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

(06:34):
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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