“Auto-exploitation syndrome” of Graduates?
Posted by: adonis49 on: July 17, 2020
“Auto-exploitation syndrome” of Graduates?
Note: Re-edit of “Auto-exploitation syndrome”? Graduates, are you still in Free training? June 17, 2011
How long have you graduated? Are you still in training?
There is this mentality of “auto-exploitation syndrome” that has been rampant in the last 15 years.
Worse, politicians, governments, universities, and the “trainees” have opted Not to make waves, for jobs well-done gratis: Is there a deadly conspiracy of “silence“. Why?
The trainees are apprehensive of “ruining their professional perspectives“; universities are happy to be paid for units obtained outside the university premises; and the best of all, talented trainees pay employees in companies to be able to work for free!
For examples, in order to work for free at Versace, in-training costs the trainees $5,000;.
To have a blogging right at the site of the Huffington Post, the trainee has to caught up $13,000.
One crazy mature trainee paid $42,000 for the privilege of working just two days at Vogue!
Do you know that Dream Careers (California-based) sells over two thousand training jobs around the world?
Trainees pay over $8,000 to work for free during an 8-week summer session.
And If you were selected to be “trained” in London, you pay $9,500!
It goes without saying that the pedagogic and training values of these summer stint are practically worthless, whether organized by Dream Careers or universities.
Ross Perlin estimated that capitalist enterprises in the US benefit $ two billion from these free training professional jobs.
Why pay an employee if hoards of young talented in-training graduates are willing to pay to work?
Actually, most of these internet start-ups have made it big on the shoulders of excited talented graduates who were “thankful” of contributing to challenging new technologies.
In the US, 50% of trainees don’t receive any compensation; a few get some social benefits, gas stipends, or health coverage…
Trainees at the White House or Westminster don’t count: Their folks lend them the Aston Martin to drive and horses to ride…
75% of trainees in the US have a second part-time paying job, just to enjoy the training privilege!
What of these graduates who hop from one training session to another, spanning more than two years, in order to land a steady job that is not within their field of study?
Thousands of graduates in developed States, like Sweden and Germany, spend years after graduation in training sessions; many decided to immigrate to Norway, working in odd jobs because the pay is good.
This idiotic capitalist system keeps reinventing means of exploiting talented brains for free.
Note 1: The heir of the Huffington Post internet site reaped $300 million and all these talented volunteers received Not a dime.
It is the case of all these big internet international companies, shareholders making billions, while the gratis volunteers are glad contributing in projects “bigger than life”.
Note 2: Don’t be fooled with the so-called “Non-profit organizations“. They just fill those stupid legal forms: The scores of directors and managers, with no practical job descriptions, receive hefty salaries at the expense of thousands of zealous volunteers.
Adonis Diaries 
July 17, 2020 at 3:32 pm
I got my degree last year (2019). Already had a hard time getting internships during my Master. After getting the degree, it’s been such a nightmare, I gave up at some point to concentrate on my writing. I also refuse to do another internship (the ones I completed were unpaid) and I refuse to be a volunteer. Even if the work would be interesting, even if I do get the experience, and even if it is in the sector I want, I would tire of it quickly, especially if I am published. Thanks for this piece.