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So what happens when it's your first unpaid internship and you've been struggling for a while to find an entry level job? Is it okay to work for free under these circumstances?

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Possibly. An internship can be a pretty good way to learn more about the kind of role you want with actual mentoring rather than a bunch of online tutorials. It certainly helped me when I was new to web development and was looking for a job in the industry.

Just be warned that there are some companies which like the unpaid part of an internship but not the 'actually offer a job at the end or offer any form of help or mentoring' part.

If others aren't having to do unpaid work to get an entry level job, then you need to figure out the difference between you and them. Is an unpaid internship going to fix that difference? Maybe, but unless you are sure, you could be wasting months of your life on something that could end up hurting you.

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