Thoughts on Internships and Value

[Anonymous]

If your son wants to take the internship, he should be working during the semester to save money to help fund it. You shouldn't be sponsoring his entire life style.

[Anonymous]

If it's financially feasible to support him, do it. If not, let him know. He is an adult, he needs to know that we can't buy everything we want.

[Anonymous]

I would. But, can he get a part-time job to cover basics.

[Anonymous]

You have two problems, OP: The value in this internship and dad trying to mold DS into his fantasy private equity golden child. They will have to be dealt with separately.

[Anonymous]

My friend’s son did something similar. I think he was paid, but it was not much. The hours were long, so I am unsure if additional part time work would be an option. One thing he did learn was that EVERYONE was pretty much overworked and underpaid. After all, the sports teams busy season is the summer. This led to him changing his mind about the industry once her graduated. To sum up, the learning experience can be valuable.

[Anonymous]

Agree with folks about the DOL having rules on this. If your kid isn’t getting college credit, then this is illegal.

Setting that aside, I agree with the poster that said there are two problems here. Your DH sounds like a jerk and pretty terrible parent whether you fund this internship or not. This could screw up your relationship with your kid for life.

Personally, if I could afford it, I would fund an internship in my kid’s dream profession assuming it looked like DOL rules were being followed.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. DH isn't as bad as I probably made him out to be. I was a little cranky with him at the time but he has never stopped DS from doing what he wanted, regardless of his own opinions.

Second, I appreciate being directed to the DOL rules. It looks like unpaid internships are allowed as long as it's clear from the beginning that it's unpaid and it isn't replacing other employees. That is, it has to be educational and a learning-experience. I think any job can be made out to be that at the lower levels. It did say that internship experience needs to be for the benefit of the intern with regard to their education (ie: credit)

So I've advised DS to send a polite email asking about the possibility of a stipend (not a salary) to offset the cost of living and long hours (which means a second job really isn't possible). Alternatively, he would like academic credit but he really doesn't need it.

He's worried about upsetting the recruiter as it is a very competitive position and they have already mentioned that they have other applicants so they need to know sooner rather than later.

Do you think the email request is reasonable or should he just accept? Every one of my friends believes he should just accept and not start off the internship looking like a beggar. But you guys have more experience with older kids in these situations so I'm curious as to your additional opinions.

[Anonymous]

Won’t hurt to ask. First, no He won’t piss off the recruiter. Their job is to close the deal on a candidate and the recruiter is this close to getting this Req done and off his plate. Second, your son can learn self advocacy. Which every adult needs to do when navigating their career. Just make sure he words it well.
“Very excited about the job offer and looking forward to accepting it. I was wondering if there would be a possibility of a small stipend to offset living costs?” (Wait for answer)…. If no, “thank you for the response. Since a stipend is not available would it be possible for the organization to work the process with my school so I can obtain college credit for the work experience?” (I really hope the org says yes to this. Only a lousy employer would say no)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Know a kid making $55k with a masters degree in business and works in the industry. Athletes make all the money. In house staff make nothing.

OP, this is the most important comment. Any "sexy" industry knows it can attract talent due to the attractiveness of the industry and not the pay.

If you work for a pro sports team, only like 10 of the staff of hundreds make any real money. The senior coaches, the GM, and other senior execs can do well...nearly everyone else is making chump change.

This is not one summer of being an unpaid intern, but rather many years of being significantly "underpaid", so understand that you are in for potentially years of your kid having little to no money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Know a kid making $55k with a masters degree in business and works in the industry. Athletes make all the money. In house staff make nothing.

OP, this is the most important comment. Any "sexy" industry knows it can attract talent due to the attractiveness of the industry and not the pay.

If you work for a pro sports team, only like 10 of the staff of hundreds make any real money. The senior coaches, the GM, and other senior execs can do well...nearly everyone else is making chump change.

This is not one summer of being an unpaid intern, but rather many years of being significantly "underpaid", so understand that you are in for potentially years of your kid having little to no money.

Yes, we are aware of this issue, which explains DH's hesitancy to be 100% in. It is also the reason that DS is reluctant to send the email asking about a stipend or credit. Just trying to navigate these waters as it seems to be so different than other internships we keep hearing about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Know a kid making $55k with a masters degree in business and works in the industry. Athletes make all the money. In house staff make nothing.

OP, this is the most important comment. Any "sexy" industry knows it can attract talent due to the attractiveness of the industry and not the pay.

If you work for a pro sports team, only like 10 of the staff of hundreds make any real money. The senior coaches, the GM, and other senior execs can do well...nearly everyone else is making chump change.

This is not one summer of being an unpaid intern, but rather many years of being significantly "underpaid", so understand that you are in for potentially years of your kid having little to no money.

And a lot of those positions are given based on nepotism (find me a head coach not stashing idiot kids or nephews on their staff) or will go to former players or will come with ownership from their other businesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. DH isn't as bad as I probably made him out to be. I was a little cranky with him at the time but he has never stopped DS from doing what he wanted, regardless of his own opinions.

Second, I appreciate being directed to the DOL rules. It looks like unpaid internships are allowed as long as it's clear from the beginning that it's unpaid and it isn't replacing other employees. That is, it has to be educational and a learning-experience. I think any job can be made out to be that at the lower levels. It did say that internship experience needs to be for the benefit of the intern with regard to their education (ie: credit)

So I've advised DS to send a polite email asking about the possibility of a stipend (not a salary) to offset the cost of living and long hours (which means a second job really isn't possible). Alternatively, he would like academic credit but he really doesn't need it.

He's worried about upsetting the recruiter as it is a very competitive position and they have already mentioned that they have other applicants so they need to know sooner rather than later.

Do you think the email request is reasonable or should he just accept? Every one of my friends believes he should just accept and not start off the internship looking like a beggar. But you guys have more experience with older kids in these situations so I'm curious as to your additional opinions.

I would ask him what department the internship is in. Presumably he wants to end up in the front office, so is the internship with the analytics department or is it with marketing. Everyone can say they work for the team, but the guy selling season tickets will never cross over to the ops side

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Know a kid making $55k with a masters degree in business and works in the industry. Athletes make all the money. In house staff make nothing.

OP, this is the most important comment. Any "sexy" industry knows it can attract talent due to the attractiveness of the industry and not the pay.

If you work for a pro sports team, only like 10 of the staff of hundreds make any real money. The senior coaches, the GM, and other senior execs can do well...nearly everyone else is making chump change.

This is not one summer of being an unpaid intern, but rather many years of being significantly "underpaid", so understand that you are in for potentially years of your kid having little to no money.

Yes, we are aware of this issue, which explains DH's hesitancy to be 100% in. It is also the reason that DS is reluctant to send the email asking about a stipend or credit. Just trying to navigate these waters as it seems to be so different than other internships we keep hearing about.

I would not ask about a stipend outright. This is a pro team, they have lawyers and a budget department, so I doubt that they are going to receive an email from a student and suddenly change their policy to pay a stipend. What he could do is not email them and very politely ask given that it is an educational unpaid internship, is there any possibility of getting credit? Though now that I think about it, it might be better to ask his school.

[Anonymous]

yes, you should! With the caveat that your son needs to work to stop the takeout/unnecessary spending.
If he truly wants to be in sports management, this internship is the best way to get there. many wait years for opportunity to work with a professional level sports team.

Without this, he may be stuck in non-sports management jobs and ones that don't pay much for years. With this, he is opening the door to his dream job(s) and within a few years might be decently paid (and most importantly, this is the career path he wants).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What national level sports organization has the gall to offer an unpaid internship?! That’s crap. If it’s his dream internship and he can parlay into an offer or line himself up to a great role at graduation then I guess do it OP. I just question the culture and values of an organization that cannot eek out even 7k (!!!) out of its payroll to give a kid a moderate salary for the summer. For comparison my DD is lining up her third paid internship for this summer. The last one gave her a wage, a sign on, a stipend and corporate housing. That’s the distance between your sons offer and what others are getting.

Umm...that's how it typically works with sports organizations. Those that want their "foot in the door" do the unpaid internships. Do you realize how hard it is to even land one of those? Obviously your DD is not in "sports management" so the comparison does not matter.