Why I Quit My Unpaid Internship
& why you should too

Last week I had two jobs. I would wake up around 9–10:30am and take the public transit, arrive at my marketing internship around 10:30–11:30am, leave around 2–4pm for my restaurant job that would start between 4:30–5pm and end at 12:30–1am. I would catch the last train and do it all over again.
This was my life for almost three weeks and it was exhausting.
I’ve always had conflicting feelings about ‘unpaid internships’ and would usually turn them down unless there was great learning/mentorship opportunities. The reason why I disagree with unpaid internships is because I don’t believe in ‘volunteering’ for companies that are in the business to make a profit. I value my work and know I’m worth more than just “an opportunity to potentially get hired next summer”. In short — I refuse to work for free.
But four weeks ago, when I got the offer to work as a marketing intern in a company that valued entrepreneurs greatly, I was thrilled, excited and forgot all the reasons why unpaid internships are a bad idea. As someone who has little background in marketing, I was excited to be given an opportunity. I felt like this was my chance to break into the industry and had high expectations to learn a great deal.
Instead, I learned nothing. I was expected to handle most of the “marketing” on my own. The ‘tasks’ were confusing, inconsistent and on most days it felt like a small battle to come to an agreement on certain things. The company was unclear on the product’s stance in the market and had a hard time coming to an agreement on who the target-market was and how they wanted to position the company in response. When I realized that I was expected to contact influencers, create a sponsorship package, content and post on social media with little to none in return with no real basis of the direction the company was heading, I knew I had to leave.
Having said this, I believe none of the individuals working for the company intentionally wanted to take advantage of me even when I found out that they had more than enough to pay their interns. Maybe they thought they had more to offer in terms of “learning opportunities” or was just disorganized, but in the end I still decided to leave.
My time is valuable and I would rather spend it achieving my own goals than someone else’s especially if they are taking advantage of my hard work.
My advice to anyone working an unfair, unpaid internship, or plans on accepting one: reconsider. You are worth more than nothing, and I guarantee you that if you work hard and smart, a great company will recognize and respect that.
And if you’re a company hiring unpaid internships (and can afford not to) or is considering it, I would recommend that you think again. As a student, I am eager, but I am also capable. Unless you have a great mentorship/learning program integrated into the internship, or is planning on giving the intern something fair in exchange of their time and work, please do not offer unpaid internships. Please have the integrity to at least realize that we, just like you have bills to pay and families to support. By making us work for free it shows that your company doesn’t give a sh*t about their employees, and once the employees realize that, they won’t give a sh*t about your company, which ends up hurting you and your company.
