Intern Nation by Ross Perlin

In Intern Nation, Ross Perlin tracks the development of the internship and its implications for labor, especially when unpaid interns replace paid workers, usually engaged in administrative tasks. Perlin begins his discussion by describing the internships offered by Disney--and finds them sadly lacking, if not exploitative, though a typical example of how fall the internship has fallen. He describes the development of the internship, possibly from early guild apprenticeships into their current modern form. Perlin examines the internship labor market in the United States, what makes a quality internship, and some of the characteristics of a demeaning and time-wasting work experience, and the potential rise, and resistance, to the spread of American style internships in the rest of the world.

Perlin also argues that without an internship it is becoming increasingly difficult to pursue the career that a person has gone to college for, such as in journalism, fashion and design, and if you can't work for free for a long period. Parents and loans are increasingly subsidizing students to take on unpaid internships and the cost can be high, considering that some internships can last for a year, could be undertaken in series and offered in places, such as Washington DC, where the cost of living is quite high. And, as others have asked, just who can afford these internships and pay for their children while engaged in these experiences? If it comes down to cost, what about the quality of the interns, if they are not selected based on merit? What does it mean for workplace diversity? And finally, is a college student shut out of their chosen career because they cannot afford to work for free for a long period of time? Perlin's answers are that if internships continues on the path they are on, qualified candidates will be shut out and homogeneity will be a significant issue in the culture and media industries which are currently permeated by free and serial internships.

Perlin sees the internship as part of the increase on the reliance of contingent labor by employers, which others might argue is part of the freedom seeking "free agent nation", and identifies a European term, precarity, to show that internships, and other contingent labor, devalue work and extinguish hope in career security, or the freedom to enter and pursue a career based on the education the person has attained. Internships affect a significant proportion of the population that are pursuing a college education and who believe that a college education will allow them to further their career plans--though many of the signs are showing, as Perlin argues, that without an internship, or three, the value of a college education is diminished, unless the student is in a legally protected profession, from pursuing a white collar career.

There are some minor editing and proofreading issues in the book, but they do not diminish the importance of the argument. Personally, I feel this is an important landmark book on the study of internships.


Authors@Google


From the Advisory: Training and Employment Guidance Letter NO. 12-09

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has developed the six factors below to evaluate whether a worker is a trainee or an employee for purposes of the FLSA:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic
educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

Further Reading

Employment Law Rights of Student Interns (Abstract).
Intern Nation Author Ross Perlin: Interns Need A Bill Of Rights. The Gothamist
Trickle down unemployment and corporate sleight of hand by James Marshall Reilly, about how  low pay or no pay internships are replacing entry-level employment.
Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not. NYT April 2, 2010

Other Coverage:

Book challenges rise of the Intern Nation. Careers on MSNBC.com (from Associated Press). April 20, 2011.
Canada Turning Into Intern Nation. National Post. June 11, 2011.
Intern Nation. Inside Higher Ed. April 15, 2011.
"Intern Nation": Are we exploiting a generation of workers?. Salon.com. May 29, 2011.
Intern Nation: Overdue And Under-Delivered. Business Insider. May 4, 2011. (Not a favorable review of the book, but left me wondering if the review's author had read more than the first chapter.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Guardian. May 7, 2011. (Includes a story about an auction of  prestigious internships at a political event in the UK.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Observer. May 15, 2011.
Intern Nation - Review. The Telegraph (UK). June 5, 2011.

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy

Apply with LinkedIn button

Since LinkedIn had it's IPO, the company has been rolling out several new tools. One of those tools is the Apply with LinkedIn button, which allows job applicants to for a position by submitting their LinkedIn profile

Follow Companies on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has had a Follow Companies feature for a while, and it means exactly that: follow companies and their updates within LinkedIn, without being connected to anyone in the company. Once you follow a company, you can see who in your network is employed at that company, and how distant your relationship is.

The image above shows a snapshot of the Harlequin company profile on LinkedIn. You can see a blurb about the company, information about anyone in your alumni group that is employed at the organization, as well as your LinkedIn connections to people in that company. Clicking on the Careers tab will also show any available jobs, as posted on Linkedin (though you are usually redirected to the company website for an application). If you explored the New Hires tab, you could see the profiles of new hires, as much as that user allows according to their privacy settings.

You can also see any employee traffic, such as position changes or promotions, that the user has recorded on LinkedIn, as well as links to mentions about the company in the news, as shown below.

For librarians, there are many libraries listed on LinkedIn, as well as publishing, software and tech companies, in addition to the universities and colleges, not to mention the many companies who may have a special library in your preferred industry, such as law, finance, manufacturing, or healthcare, just to name a few. It can't hurt to start monitoring their activity on LinkedIn.

However this is only the activity recorded within LinkedIn. For example, if a person does not update their profile when they move to a new company, you may not know if a company has made a new hire. The Follow Company feature still provides very useful information about organizations, their employee turnover, the number of hires that they are making, and indicates if you have anyone in your online network who could get you closer to a permanent or contract position or offer a recommendation.

The Unemployed Need Not Apply

Catherine Rampell's piece in the NYTs The Help-Wanted Sign Comes With a Frustrating Asterisk exposes how some employers are discriminating against applicants that are unemployed, while pointing out that "the average duration of unemployment today is nine months". However, discrimination on this point is not really discrimination since unemployment is not a "protected ground", though the article does list some states that are prohibiting this practice in job ads.

I really liked The Cynical Girl's response when she pointed out that HR should not participate in this practice and that there is probably a method that the major job boards could use to remove job postings with an "unemployed candidates need not apply" caveat.

Chronicle releases Great Colleges to Work for

The third edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education's Great Colleges to Work For survey was released in late July 2011. This is a useful resource for any librarian that is researching positions in an academic setting in the US.

According to the methodology over 43000 people were surveyed at 275 institutions, with approximately 14000 "professional staff members" responding to the survey--it is possible that librarians were categorized as either faculty members or professional staff members, which would probably depend on how the institution categorizes them.

The summary of the results can be sorted by institution size, 2 year and 4 year institution, as well as by the category to see which institutions were recognized in that area.

Subscribers will probably receive a print edition of the survey as an insert; if you are not a subscriber, but you are determinedly researching academic librarian positions, you may want to consider purchasing your own copy.

Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian Cornell University

This job came via an alert on TweetDeck, through Indeed, scraped from Diverse Jobs, pulled from Cornell University postings. I think this would be a great job for person with an undergraduate degree in fine (visual) arts, or a person who has experience working in a fine arts or civil engineering/architecture library.

Description

Cornell University Library seeks an experienced and innovative public services professional to serve in a new position: the Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian. Working under the direction of the Director of the Music and Fine Arts Libraries, the VR&PS Librarian will serve as the primary point of contact for students, faculty and staff in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning on topics related to finding and using digital image resources; the person in the position will also serve as a visual resources contact person for library staff and other members of the Cornell community. In addition, the individual will oversee outreach and instruction in the Fine Arts Library, as well as providing one-on-one assistance through consultations and reference. The individual in this position should have a deep working knowledge of current visual resources and their associated digital technologies for research, teaching and presentation purposes. She/he should also demonstrate a commitment to understanding, evaluating, and implementing emerging technologies based on their pedagogical uses within the fields of architecture, art, planning, design, and landscape architecture and be able to facilitate the transition from traditional visual media to digital media. A record of and commitment to effective and dynamic service to all patron groups, and demonstrated successful interpersonal skills are required to succeed in this position.

The VR Librarian will work closely with faculty and students to ascertain their needs and how to effectively integrate new resources into the evolving curricula of the departments. The individual must take a pro-active role in helping faculty and students navigate the wide range of services available through CUL and various campus entities. He/she will take an active role in CUL’s Visual Resources Working Group, and will work synergistically with librarians and digital consultants throughout the library system and campus community to inform and coordinate the support of visual and digital image resources on a campus-wide basis.

The VR Librarian will be responsible for the purchase and promotion of new discipline-specific image resources at both the local and institutional levels. Other responsibilities include: visual and information literacy instruction, research consultations, workshop development and presentation. Promotional activities include: curatorial responsibility for digital displays of new materials in public areas; keeping the library website up-to-date with information on resources and technological tools and applications; and use of social media technologies to connect users with both subscription-based and freely available image content. This individual will also serve as a liaison to appropriate information technology personnel. She/he will work closely with the Architecture Librarian & Coordinator of Collections to provide a wide range of outstanding services to the user community.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to work successfully with a team of staff within an art, architecture, fine arts, or design library setting.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to foster effective working relationships with faculty, students, staff, and library colleagues.
• The successful candidate should have at least two years of academic library experience, and an understanding of and enthusiasm for new technologies and their application in the evolving academic/information environment. Involvement in, or interest in becoming involved in appropriate professional associations. A
• graduate degree or equivalent experience in an art or design field and an M.L.S. or equivalent degree from an accredited institution are required.

Background:

Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning is one of the university's seven endowed colleges, and the departments of architecture and planning are consistently ranked near the top of their fields nationally. AAP is committed to the belief that art and design are simultaneously intellectual and material practices, and that leadership in cultural production demands deep expertise both in a specific discipline and in the liberal arts. Students and faculty in the College make extensive use of visual materials in their teaching and research.
With the completion of the College’s new studio addition Milstein Hall, AAP is reprogramming portions of the existing buildings, including the existing FAL. The FAL is scheduled to move from Sibley Hall into Rand Hall in the near future, triggering both a spatial and programmatic reconceptualization of the library to fully integrate new technologies and innovative space usage. The College recently moved away from slides as the principle medium of visual images, and the VR Librarian will need to provide to a high level of service in assisting with this transition. The faculty, students and administration of the college will turn to the VR Librarian for leadership and vision in realizing a world-class, contemporary art and design library.

Cornell University is an Ivy League comprehensive research university located in Ithaca in the scenic Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The town and university offer a unique cosmopolitan and international atmosphere in a beautiful natural setting of waterfalls, gorges, and lakes. The university comprises 14 schools with over 2,700 faculty members and nearly 21,600 students enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. The Cornell University Library is a vigorous professional organization with a strong track record in innovation and service quality. It contains nearly 8 million printed volumes, 99,000 current serials in print or online, over 650,000 additional networked electronic resources, and rich materials in other formats. The Library was a recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in 2002.

Benefits: Comprehensive benefits package including 22 vacation days, 11 paid holidays, health insurance, life insurance, and university retirement contributions (TIAA-CREF and other options). Professional travel funding available.

Application Procedure: Review of applications will begin on August 15, 2011. Please include a cover letter, resume, and the names, phone numbers, and addresses for three references. Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Contact information on original posting at Cornell University.

Cornell University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer strongly committed to diversity. We value qualified candidates who can bring to our community a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution. Its staff, faculty, and students impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas and best practices to further the university's mission of teaching, research, and outreach.

Interview Questions in a Flash

Interview Questions in a Flash is a book of interview flash cards, separable by perforated pages close to the fold of each page, meant to help a person study for their interview. The cards have a question on the front, suggestions for an answer below the question and the flip side has a very short sample answer and lined space for the reader to insert their own notes for an answer. The answers are grouped topically, such as 37 questions on work background, or 27 sample behavioral-situational questions. There is a summary, or index of questions, at the beginning of the book for ready reference.

The front section of the book includes preparation checklists which the person can use to make sure they have all their supplies, or additional items, such as a map of the interview location, which would be very helpful if the candidate needs some help getting organized.

I think this book would be useful for someone who is preparing for an interview and who may also want to reuse answers to questions in an interview. It would also be useful for interview prep, since like regular flashcards, the candidate can give the cards to a partner and the partner can ask a question and evaluate the candidates response. However, the book is not very tough: just rip the perforations apart and keep them in an envelope upon the first use of the book.

Note to librarians: If you are buying this book for your collection, the perforated pages are very sensitive and even a cautious page turning on the first review of this book made at least two pages fall out. This book may be better suited to a kit or as a tool for a seminar on job seeking.

Time sheet app

The DOL released a Timesheet app (available on iTunes) meant specifically for employees to keep track of their hours, including breaks and overtime. The app is available in English and in Spanish.

The hourly rate appears to be set by the user, so it can be adjusted for overtime, for raises, or for the payments accepted from various contracts. This app may be particularly useful for librarians who are teaching job seeking or money management classes, or if they have questions from clients about wages--especially from teenagers who may not have tracked their own wages before.

Chief Librarian/ Archivist - NBC News

I got this job via Twitter from @needalibraryjob, but I really had to search for the full posting. For future reference, NBC International jobs are accessible from this website, by selecting the Careers tab, and NBC Universal jobs are available on this site. I love the requirement to work "unsociable hours".


1952BR
Job Title: Chief Librarian/Archivist - NBC News
Business Segment: News & Information
Function: News Production

About Us

NBC News has been a leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years, first on radio, and today via broadcast and cable television, the Internet, radio, and cell phones.

The London News Bureau plays a key role in providing the coverage of international news and in supporting overseas field operations. This is a busy environment covering stories 24/7 and therefore a flexible approach, a sense of humour and an interest in international news are essential.

We work on quick turnaround news packages to tight deadlines, you will demonstrate the ability to locate relevant good quality pictures for stories being edited to deadline.

Career Level: Experienced
City: London, UK

Responsibilities

• Manage the processes to ensure that all stills/video content of archival value is registered and has a route to the digital archive, along with associated editorial information. 
• Collate NBC-generated material, as well as material from external sources.
• Point person in the Library for Rights and Clearance issues, scheduling Librarians and dealing with day to day procedural issues involving the Library team.
• Research pictures from various sources for stories as requested by News and Show Producers from the London News Bureau and from other locations, often under tight time constraints. 
• Negotiate and obtain the relevant rights and clearances for items used by a variety of NBC platforms.

Qualifications/Requirements

• Picture Librarian in a digital environment working with a demanding customer base in a busy broadcast environment; strong IT skills are essential for this role and prior experience of Avid Interplay would be an advantage.
• Manage the processes to ensure that all stills/video content of archival value is registered and has a route to the digital archive. 
• Collate NBC-generated material from field and studio recordings as well as requesting material from Eurovision, RTV, APTV, ITN and the BBC. 
• Search a variety of new media sources for new and unusual content and upload appropriate items onto NBC server.
• Manage the small team of Librarians, communicate new procedures and workflow changes, issue schedules, deal with inter-personal issues if required.
• Create simple and rights compliant conventions for the News Desk and production teams to search and retrieve content and upload, edit and broadcast the material.
• Liaise closely with Rights and Clearances department in New York to make the best deal and cover as many platforms as possible when licensing material.
• Manage organisation and access to the database by Production colleagues.
• Train the News Desk Editor and Production teams to use archive systems.
• Deal with research requests for material and anticipate developing stories so that material is readily available.
• Working unsociable hours is a regular feature of the job. 
• Flexibility to work long shifts, during weekends and in the evenings is essential; must be prepared to accept out of hours phone calls/e-mails and drop everything and come in if a big story breaks.

Desired Characteristics

• Strong IT skills; experience of Avid Interplay an advantage.
• Technically competent to ensure NBC News content is preserved appropriately and archived and catalogued according to agreed conventions and rights considerations.
• Research skills to search catalogued and un-catalogued archives and the skills to continue the development of the NBC News archive
• An excellent `picture eye’ and attention to detail
• Team player with strong interpersonal skills and customer-focus approach; able to work collaboratively with a multi skilled team and deal with members of the public and interviewees diplomatically and sensitively. Ability to deal with interpersonal issues in a mature and patient manner when they arise.
• Able to deliver quality work under pressure and to tight deadlines; able to maintain high attention to detail, organisation and problem solving skills in challenging environments
• Understand the news market and NBC audience dynamics and bring this context to each production. Good general knowledge of local and world current affairs is essential.
• Current knowledge of the relevant legislation, regulations, and associated procedures, including Libel and Contempt, Copyright, Data Protection, Public Liability, etc., and how to comply with regulatory requirements
• The responsibilities associated with this position are not limited to the above job description and may be modified at any time by the Company.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove they are able to work in the United Kingdom.
For US Citizens; Must be covered by Solutions; NBCU’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program.

Your Degree: Is it All About the Money?*

On May 24, 2011, Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce released What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors? and, using census data, tried to show how a degree = X amount of dollars. The big winner, petroleum engineering; the big loser, counselling psychology. (Sorry librarians, there wasn't enough in the sample to make any conclusions about library science degree graduates.)

Several different news media have picked up the report and tried to shame the degrees that offered the lowest salaries and crow with joy over their confirmation of their suspicions that engineers make more money. Fast Company could not resist making the dig that even if Steve Jobs thinks the humanities are worth studying, Apple doesn't hire philosophers to make iPhones--but the author should have pointed out that Apple doesn't hire Americans to make iPhones either. Some of the media have acknowledged that the point of the study was to show that college was still worthwhile when considering a lifetime of earnings. Other writers have urged parents to keep their little lambs close and put them firmly in the engineering paddock in college.

Here are some other issues that some journalists and bloggers did not consider when smacking their self-satisfied lips over the study:

• The study looked at all salaries, not just for recent graduates. It should not be a surprise that an entry-level worker will make less than an experienced worker. Throwing out the number $120,000 for a petroleum engineering grad does not consider that most engineers will still have to spend a period as an engineer in training, not an engineer, and that they are certainly not receiving $100,000 during this period. It can also take up to five years to start breaking the $70,000 mark. In addition, the actual median for engineering as a whole was $75,000. Fixating on $120,000, a salary that possibly includes ten or more years experience, a graduate degree and extended travel to some of the politically hottest places in the world, is not giving recent grads, or their parents, a very realistic idea about their salary.
• According to the study, the average for the humanities and liberal arts group is $47,000. Though this is not as high as the engineering group, it is still a healthy enough income to buy a house and raise a family. In addition, according to the study, the people who completed a graduate degree in this field boosted their incomes by 48%. And that is close to the average engineering group salary. Though it is true that the humanities and liberal arts grad will have to pay for his graduate degree, unlike the engineer who gets paid for her apprenticeship, you could consider the graduate degree an equivalent to the engineer in training period.
• Some of the lowest paying degrees indicate that a bachelor's degree is not the minimum requirement to enter professional practice. For example, most counsellors and psychologists have to have a graduate degree to practice their trade. When counselling psychology majors completed a graduate degree, earners in this field received a 63% earnings boost. You should also consider that 19% of the salary reporters with this degree only worked part-time, which can significantly affect salary.

I would also like you to consider that flooding specific majors with people who are only into the career for the cash means that our bridges, roads and heart valves are going to be made by people who have no genius and possibly little interest in creating, making and building. I suddenly feel so much safer knowing that I have to walk across a bridge built by a mercenary.

And though we could use more engineers and scientists--since finance won't make the pay grade either since the business group average only makes $60,000--flooding these programs with more graduates will equal greater supply and, potentially, lower salaries. (Especially if we are paying those scientists and engineers in rupees and renminbi--but we won't get into that.)

And petroleum engineering? Ever heard of peak oil, the green economy--even the word "unsustainable"? Try "non-renewable". Yes, I know the well has not dried up yet, but I would really rather have some engineers and scientists making solar panels, reduced emission cars and biodegradeable replacements for plastic. Our civilization is a lot about the crude but maybe it should be more about unplugging the hose and reducing the suffering it causes.

Finally, I would like to address the parents that are reading most of these misleading articles and urge you to consider the following issues:

• There is more to salary than getting one: you have to spend it wisely. If your child has already demonstrated a tendency to accumulate excessive credit card debt and has put in no money to the college fund that you have been hoarding, I think you have bigger fish to fry, since a larger salary may only set them up for a bigger load of debt. Consider: $47,000 with good spending habits and $10,000 in savings, versus $75,000 with $25,000 in consumer debt, 0 savings and a bankruptcy? Maybe you should be taking them to a financial planner, in addition to an admissions counsellor.
• What if they flunk? I'm sure your child is brilliant and can take on any academic challenge--and I'm sure they are smart enough to self-sabotage. Let's calculate the cost of not finishing a despised  degree program, financed by a student loan.
• I hope your children show as much compassion and concern for your needs, as you demonstrated by coercively selecting their program of study, when your sweet little lambs have to pick the facility that will house you through your final days, months, years. Thanks to the education that you paid for, it is possible that they could afford the best--but will they pay it? Maybe living in your kids' basement will be a viable option?

It is more important to consider what you do with the money you have, as opposed to how much money you get. However, this was not the purpose of the study--except to say that taking the money you have and completing a college degree is a much better investment than no college. I think the true purpose of the study was to get people to complete a college degree, because people with a college degree, should they satisfy the legal and professional conditions of their occupation, would make more than the 66% of US wage earners who make less or equal to $39,000 per year.


On a final note, thanks to the Globe and Mail for their absolutely idiotic article How will your kid's university choice affect their salary? (refers to the UK White Paper that matches degrees with salary) which also did not consider that the Canadian and UK labor markets are different and that the current UK economy will also have an enormous impact on salary and job prospects for new graduates. You guys deserve a kick in the seat of the pants.

* I really wanted to call this article, Why Can't Journalists Count?, or Please Stop Writing Hysterically Dumb Blog Editorials about Humanities Majors, but I do know some journalists and bloggers who are excellent at covering the economy. Please guys, start writing more thoughtful analysis for prospective and current university students.

95% of career centres have a library

According to NACE, 95.5% of "average" (or "typical") career centers have a career resource library. This makes me extremely happy, even though they don specify how many are sharing those resources with the local library or how big their collections are.

Dear NACE, you could have covered those results with awesome sauce if you had asked how many had a librarian. Just sayin'.

Gender Battle on LinkedIn

LinkedIn asked the question, who is the better online networker, men or women? Apparently, this can vary by industry, and men come out ahead in some industries, cosmetics for example, and women come out ahead in some industries, such as ranching, where you might not expect them to be the better networker.

LinkedIn's definition of a savvy networker is:

A professional with a robust network of trusted business contacts who actively work toward creating new career opportunities for themselves and the people in their network

I am not sure how LinkedIn decided to measure this, based on the blip on their blog: is this by number of contacts (so LIONs win bonus points?), based on activity on Answers, or InMails (which you pay for)? Did they survey members and ask for best networker nominations and look at the gender of the nominees? If I overlooked this in the blog or you know more about the measures used, I would love to have that in the comments.

One other question: what if the best networkers are really on MeetUp?

For more on this topic:

• Is LinkedIn a Gender Equalizer? from FastCompany
• LinkedIn Data Reveals Men Are Savvier Online Professional Networkers Than Women from Yahoo! Finance