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Comment by oh | Hacker News Reader

Give me a break. How many big corporations have unpaid internships? Yes, it sucks that not everyone is in a position to accept unpaid internships. But pointing fingers at Sheryl Sandberg because her company is doing the same as an untold number of others is disingenuous.

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But those other big companies with unpaid internships didn't publish a book about how they believe in empowering individuals (albeit women individuals in this case). Some finger pointing seems warranted in that her company's actions do not match her words...

Empowering women and unpaid internships are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you could say that unpaid internships are extremely empowering, because it gives the prospective employee on the job training that they wouldn't get if they were unemployed.

Well, if Sandberg takes that position in her book then she shouldn't deserve finger pointing I suppose. But since she talks about leveling the playing field in the workforce and fixing the salary gender gap is part of that I'd say she believes that cash money is a key source of empowerment.

"you could say that unpaid internships are extremely empowering"

You can say lots of things. Doesn't make them true. If the prospective employee needs to eat this month, unpaid internships can be as empowering as they like, however the prospective employee will not be able to indulge themselves.

You could also say that unpaid internships at fancy employers empower only those with parents able to foot the bill for their "on the job training."

Those who need to work to pay the rent will never be empowered to get on that ladder. The government does not offer "unpaid internship loans."

People aren't just pointing fingers at Sheryl. People have been complaining about this at all levels for a very long time and it isn't disingenuous at all.

This really only became news however because Sheryl seems to have got used enough to her bubble that she forgot that the standard practice among many of the rich of filtering out the poor from entrance to organisations is considered to be fairly disgusting by many other people.

In the US, labor laws are pretty clear about when an internship can be unpaid. The position needs to be an experience similar to an academic class for the intern and can't displace a paid position for example. That Facebook post is asking for several specific skills as if it's a job posting, which is a red flag in itself.

I never see big corps have unpaid interns. It's always small, scummy orgs like this one.

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