This isn't click-bait. An unpaid internship IS unpaid work.

In Australia and a number of other countries they are ILLEGAL. (Other than when it forms a small part of a degree).

Unpaid internships are work, and it seems you agree. This CMO is literally saying people should be willing to work for free to get their foot in the door, a disgusting and illegal practice which only gives employers even more power.

Please stop normalising unpaid internship.

It's fucked up that unpaid internships are even a thing in the US. In Canada, they are illegal. And guess what? Most companies still hire interns. The only reason they don't pay them in the US is because they can get away with it.

Their quoting of "unpaid internship" as something other than "unpaid work" is a distorted view, and part of the problem. No one should work for free unless they are volunteering for charity or something. No one should work for free at a for-profit company, that's for sure.

Six one way half a dozen the other. I mean, it's not so different as you imply. No conditions are right to exploit this way.

When looking back at her own success, going from internship to employment, and eventually landing at Squarespace, Mathur insists “you’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes” early in your career. “I was willing to work for free, I was willing to work any hours they needed—even on evenings and weekends. I was not focused on traveling,” Mathur concludes. “You really have to just be willing to do anything, any hours, any pay, any type of job—just really remain open.”

Unpaid internships are basically just a way for rich kids to leverage their parents wealth into a career. The vast majority of people cannot afford to work for "experience", this is only applicable advice for people whose parents are willing and able to foot the bill.

While I disagree with your comment, I do like that you made it because it presents an opportunity to say that there's nothing special about unpaid internships that make them more ethical than any other underpaid work. It's all about the exploitation of people who are in weak positions for the benefit of people in strong positions or setting the requirements for entry such that someone must already be in a strong enough position to survive those requirements. It seems different because it's been normalized, but "normal" doesn't equal "good".

I'd also say similar about how healthcare workers are treated, though that is more about the ridiculous hours and on call times than pay. And any other profession that has accepted it "needs" to abuse people trying to get in.

Btw, that "underpaid work" above includes the majority of jobs in the western economy because capitalism itself is all about exploiting the labour of those who don't own everything they need for survival or participation in the economy. Ironically, the owners themselves are in the same boat, since they don't own the labour they need for their own participation, but somehow we've landed in a situation where most people think that ownership is far more important than time and effort.