The internship from hell?

Fierce competition for decent jobs means unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of desperate graduates. Like many young people desperate to break in to a particular profession, this frustrated intern felt exploited by her experience. She prefers to remain anonymous.

It's 3am and I've just finished a sixteen hour working day; nine hours as an unpaid intern at a public affairs firm and seven hours at my bar job.

I live outside London with my mother, who is a disabled single parent living in social housing, and my younger sister, who is in her first year at university. The concept of interning is alien to my family; they can't understand why, with five A's at A-level and a strong degree from a top university, I have to work for free. It's difficult for me to justify it when we lack basic necessary household items such as a washing machine and a cooker. In fact, I have to help my mother pay her rent and buy food because she can't afford it, and help out my sister with money for books.

But it's ok, right? Because I'm getting valuable experience at a company where I'm proving what I can do and will be able to work my way up.

Wrong.

"The company survives on interns; without them, it would need to employ two or maybe three more members of staff."

My tasks mainly consist of stocking the fridge full of clients' favourite goodies, making the tea and picking up my boss' coat when he leaves it at various supermarkets around London. The exploitation is truly awful. I took this particular internship because they were advertising a graduate vacancy. When I started I discovered they did not, in fact, have a vacancy. They think it looks good for 'business purposes' if they appear to always be recruiting. The company survives on interns; without them, it would need to employ two or maybe three more members of staff. As it's a small company, the number of interns actually outweighs the number of paid staff.

My travel expenses are only covered within London, so I have to pay £400 a month for a peak train ticket to London. One day I had to phone in sick because I couldn't afford the fare. I wear the same suit everyday because it's all I can afford. I've cut all the tags out so that they don't find out it was from Primark. At lunch, the other staff head to a restaurant over the road, but I can never afford to go. I live off their biscuit collection.

Luckily, this nightmare is coming to an end I've got what looks like a much better internship lined up, where they'll actually pay for my transport, for example. I don't know if it will lead to a job, but I've got my hopes pinned on it.

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