I’m a social work master’s student in the US, and part of the required curriculum for all MSW students is to have a 9 month internship (or 2, depending on if you had a bachelor’s in social work already or not). My school has us apply to internships we are interested in and go through the whole interview process and we are only allowed to apply to internships they have pre-approved and are listed in a special internship database they maintain. Some internships are paid but most are not.
Okay so I applied to an internship that seemed cool, but had super intense requirements to just apply. Not only a resume and cover letter but also a variety of short essay questions had to be answered as well as THREE letters of recommendation. All of this had to be submitted before they’d interview me! So I do all this shit, it takes forever, I get the interview.
They sent me a 10 minute video to watch before the interview to answer some common questions about the internship. I was sent this video over a week ago but hadn’t watched it until today because the interview is tomorrow. Well turns out ONLY
IN THE VIDEO is it disclosed that they expect interns to be there for a year, not 9 months. So I would start the week after this semester ends and not in August like most other internships. It’s unpaid, and I wouldn’t have applied to it if I had known this time requirement because I’ll be out of town for a month this summer and also I don’t intend on working for free for any longer than I have to in order to get my degree.
I just feel so taken advantage of. What the hell?? Why wasn’t this disclosed in the internship database or anywhere that listed all of the bajillion required things I had to do to even apply for the internship in the first place?!
I hate that I’m required to do a likely unpaid internship at all but now I’ve wasted literally hours of my life applying to something I never would have applied for. And I wasted 3 other people’s time writing these damn letters of recommendation too! UGH