The funny (and racist) practical joke regarding the Asian pilot names was the result of intern error.
Interns.
I'm not sure the solution to this problem, but in case it isn't obvious, technology has rendered the need for a lot fewer employees in low margin businesses like news, movies, government gigs, etc. But technology cannot yet answer the phone and fact check, etc, and these jobs are falling to interns. These internships ARE NOT educational. They build job skills, yes, but they are not educational. We used to have an employment system which trained people on the job. In Hollywood, companies use interns to do menial work and in exchange they learn some basic skill sets that are useful for securing low paid assistant jobs. This is not educational, in my opinion. I learn soccer skills by playing pick up, but I don't consider this educational. Someone can learn to work a cash register -- but that isn't educational -- it is a technical skill. My point is this: interns are being ripped off in multiple ways. They are being ripped off by the companies who use them to perform menial tasks. They are being even more ripped off by the schools who take their parents money (or worse, borrowed loans) for credit. This is a huge scandal.
There is a culture in Hollywood and government jobs to do summer or school internships. In truth, no one designing these programs are trying to manipulate any one given individual. The companies and places who hire interns don't have the money to employ a full time person. But the problem is - jobs in these industries are highly skilled and someone needs to learn how to do them. But there is not enough money out there to train people on the job. The intern-assistant road is a the work around. In some ways, it works. It weeds out people. But if you ask me, it is a highly immoral system. If anything, I could see them retaining summer internships, but no intern on the planet should need to pay school tuition.
I hope the Federal intern case will change things.
This was not a coherent post.
2 comments:
It's not what you know, it's who you know.
Access to the power structure is worth something. That's what internships provide more than anything.
i was trying to make another point. i actually do think it is what you know. my point is that we don't have any systems to train people on the job. the work around is internships-assistants, which basically means 3-6 years of unpaid or under-paid type of jobs for people to learn the skills necessary to perform the jobs. the problem with such a system is that it favors anyone who can afford to work without pay (rich kids) and young people who can live on less than older people. maybe this isn't the worst scam in history, and the system certainly isn't unique to the entertainment industry, but it explains - if you extrapolate it out - why we have high young people unemployment. it also further stresses young folks who have overpaid (been ripped off) by colleges and grad schools, getting scammed into overpaying for healthcare, and are being priced out of housing markets because of tax incentives favoring existing home owners.
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