Should You Take An Unpaid Internship?

This is one of the many questions you will have to think about as you consider taking on an internship. There is no one right answer to this question. It would certainly be nice to get paid for the work you are doing, but sometimes an opportunity comes along that sounds promising and ticks all the boxes for you, except one—it’s unpaid.

Should you take an unpaid internship?

If money is a huge issue for you, then you might consider turning it down to look for a paid opportunity. However, if you can afford to overlook the financial downside of an unpaid internship, and if the opportunity is related to your potential career, you should definitely consider taking it up for other experiences that you will get.

Consider these benefits:

• You will learn a lot in a field that you are interested in.
• It helps you test drive a career that you are considering but are not 100% sure about.
• An internship helps you build and expand your network of professional contacts.
• It can be a valuable addition to your resume when you start looking for a job after you graduate.

Your internship experience will help you to overcome that inevitable catch-22 situation that most new graduates find themselves in, where prospective employers want to hire someone who has had some work experience.

Use College Raptor to discover personalized college matches, cost estimates, acceptance odds, and potential financial aid for schools around the US—for FREE!