How Intern helps younger creatives form their careers
If you embarked on a career in the creative industry after the 2008 recession, you are likely familiar with the concept of the unpaid internship – you may even have done one yourself. While the origins of internships have their roots in traditional apprenticeships that date back to the Middle Ages, the idea of unpaid internships came to the fore in the US in the 1970s when more students than ever went to college but also graduated special tough job market.
For Alec Dudson, who graduated with a degree in sociology in 2010, it quickly became clear that the only way to work for free is to realize his dream of working in magazines. "Very little information could be found about the word internship, certainly in the UK lexicon," he told CR. "I did two internships over nine or ten months, and in this relatively short time I met so many people in this world that it was something like this secret underclass of workers."
While Dudson grew up promising that graduation would automatically lead to a decent job, he was quickly exposed to the dark underbelly of the creative industry, where entry-level jobs were essentially exchanged for freelance workers. "It's the whole BS Exposure thing they're still trading in. I think it's a fundamental failure to support or do something positive for young people in the creative industry." They just continue a system where people from under-wealthy backgrounds have to give up because there is nothing for them, ”he says.
In 2013, due to persistent frustration with the placement system, Dudson started his own magazine, Intern.