If you have been job-hunting anytime in past years (and who hasn’t), you know that internships are viewed as a golden key to the door of employment. And in an increasingly competitive market, college and graduate students find themselves competing against seasoned job hunters for the opportunity to work for free, or even worse, to pay hefty tuition fees to work for free. Perlin examines the history and legality of these internships, looking at some very good programs, and others which seem designed to capitalize on the desperation of hopeful graduates and soon-to-be graduates.

The author begins with the Disney franchise, which has hosted thousands of interns, many of whom fill positions which would otherwise require permanent, paid employees. Perlin notes, “like other employers around the country, Disney has figured out how to rebrand ordinary jobs in the internship mold, framing them as part of a structured program — comprehensible to educators and parents, and tapping into student reserves of careerism and altruism… yet training and education are clearly afterthoughts: the kids are brought in to work” (3). He finds this across the board in all forms of internships — far more interns are used as replacements for paid labor, rather than for any training or educational purpose. And for the most part, schools know and condone this; many of them see internship credit as a way to increase their tuition flow without having to actually offer classes or much structure. Perlin also investigates the legal ramifications of internships, noting that most use the loophole of “training” to avoid paying their interns, and points out the fact that offering academic credit does not make an illegal internship legal, contrary to what many companies believe. He examines how a constant flow of free labor impacts the value of work and the job market as a whole, suggesting that instead of contributing to a well-rounded, educated entry-level work force, the abuse of internships devalues work and creates a demand for unpaid workers at the expense of wage-paying jobs. He does, however, also look at successful internship and apprenticeship programs, as well as making suggestions for action in regards to the internship culture.

As someone who is still smarting over the $2000 tuition fee paid in order to get academic credit for 150 hours of unpaid work, this issue is very personal, and I think many other struggling young adults would agree. I am glad to see that this book was published, and I hope that others in the media and in education begin to realize that they are severely hampering young adults and their entry into the workforce with these internship programs. An excellent read for educators, students, and those who are considering internship programs either as intern or supervisor. ( )

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a student who is about to go away to college. It was a little late for me, but I gave it to my oldest grand-daughter upon graduating from college with the following note. May, 2012

Intern Nation is sort of a fun book – loved the sub-title. As noted by the author there was a time when only doctors served in internships. You may very well be aware of present internship opportunities, but some of these stories were new to me. The one story I found most intriguing was about colleges that create a required course that mandates an internship for a particular degree. the college happily provides one for the student in this way. The college works with a company that can use free labor. It encourages the company to create an internship position. Unbeknownst to the student the company kicks back a sum to the college for supplying the intern while the internship pays nothing to the student. The college therefore gets to collect tuition from the student and a fee from the company while the student is made to work for nothing. The company now has a supply of free labor and the school a new source of revenue. In most law classes that would constitute fraud, but then many things about internships always have been illegal as the author points out." ( )

Anyone who has ever undergone the dubious "privilege" of paying thousands of dollars to a university to rubber stamp the months of free (often menial) labor you've provided to an organization will know that in far too many cases the only people who don't benefit from internships are the interns themselves. Hopefully, Intern Nation will help light a fire under those people--public and private employers, academics, and government regulators--who currently turn a blind eye to this open secret. Perkin's book is a well-written, fast, and engaging read that gives a good overview of just how exploitative internship culture is by examining the ways in which it devalues paid work and removes the impetus from employers to provide meaningful training to interns, to say nothing of hiring actual employees. While I wished Perkins had devoted more time to examining the ways in which universities are all too happy to bilk their students out of money for which they need provide no services (be they facilities or the time of their instructors) and the ways in which the primacy of internship "experience" on resumes devalues the skills applicants might have gained in paid blue collar/service employment, these are small issues with an otherwise excellent expose.