A 2010 report from the Institute of Employment found that four years after getting their degrees, 23% of graduates in the creative sector were doing unpaid work. Since then, as somebody that regularly surfs job sites, it looks to me like full-time unpaid internships have boomed, not easing access to professions as much as replacing entry-level jobs in many companies.
I should warn all the students studying English, Politics and International Studies, that if you have “creative” or “worthy” career aspirations, you could be living with your parents for a decade. The way out? Put your entrepreneurial hat on, scrimp, save, apply for funding and don’t assume anything will be easy, but at the same time, try to make life easier for yourself. I don’t regret doing my History and Culture degree – I loved it. But I am worried that it’s not remotely paying dividends, making a nonsense of New Labour’s ‘education, education, education’ slogan that was parroted about when I was a child.
There are two factors blocking equal access in the creative industries:
1. The quantity (and quality) of Arts graduates
Universities are churning out arts and media graduates into a shrinking job market and in so many places, this means an over-supply of hopefuls. The clash between our dreams and the real world surely has wider implications and on the scale of the problem, I’ll draw an example from my own field as Fiona O’Cleirigh, from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), rapidly sums up it up: “The NUJ has around 30,000 members, and according to Skill-Set, in 2009, 9,970 people did a journalism degree. That’s nearly a third of the membership of the NUJ coming in again every year. It’s just not sustainable.”
2. The race for ‘experience’
The buzz-word at the moment is ‘experience’ and graduates compete for it. In industries where long stints of experience (internships) are unpaid, labour itself has inflated. In politics, graduates can intern for many months, or years, even, with no pay and no career break.
Why should you pay to work, on top the debt you’ve already accrued as a student? The prevailing rhetoric is that an internship is great for scaling a career ladder, but by the time you’re on it, said ladder might turn out to be a crumbling edifice. Martin Bright, political editor of the Jewish Chronicle and founder of creative job-creation charity New Deal of the Mind, encourages this view: “There’s an argument for saying that companies that run on free labour are unsustainable businesses,” he says. “A lot of think tanks, for example, are built on intern labour.”
Again my own field is rife with examples. Journalism has been on increasingly shaky foundations since the internet provided media for free. Newspapers are among the worst flouters of minimum wage employment law and O’Cleirigh thinks this is bad news for everybody in the business: “Using a lot of unpaid labour is going to bring down wages across the board,” she says. “A lot of interns don’t realise that. They think ‘this is my break, this is my break’. But they forget that once they do get a job there’s going to be a whole wave of fresh meat coming up behind them, bringing wages down.”
What path are we on?
For a glimpse of where this is headed look at America’s internship culture, which is much more entrenched. American writer Ross Perlin helped to spur a small storm of debate in London while promoting his book Intern Nation: “Increasingly, the rhetoric in America is that you have to invest in yourself because nobody is going to invest in you,” he says. “Your parents have to invest in you, and you should go deeper into debt. You have no other choice.”
“The bigger issues have to do with social mobility; the effect on a generation that has prolonged its adolescence drifting from one unpaid gig to another, seeking out that full-time regular steady stable job that can be a basis for building a family, or moving into your own flat, or beginning life as a stakeholder in society. It’s only going to get worse if Britain continues down this American path. I think the time to nip this culture in the bud is now.”
Where can an Arts graduate make a good investment?
Of course I’m only writing from my own negative perspective: I’ve worked unpaid in my time and it’s a trend I see accelerating among all graduates, in Art, Fashion, Culture, Media and Politics. Who is benefiting most from this culture: young people, or cash-strapped employers? If I had any money, it’d be on the latter.
Is there another way? Can you use your creativity to carve your own niche? Here are some suggestions of people and organisations that can help you. There may be others, too, and of course I’d love to hear your thoughts.
New Deal of the Mind was set up by Martin Bright to help graduates across the creative sector to find paid work: “Within the 8-9 months we’ve been operating we’ve created 800 jobs across the country within cultural institutions. Of those people who are on 6 month (paid) placements 70% of them have gone on to find full time work and 60% come from ethnic minority backgrounds.”
Hazel Blears is launching a paid internship scheme in Parliament. Young politicians, watch this space.
Intern Avenue: This is an online hub for paid internships: Former barrister Dupsy Abiola founded the website when she realised that her sister’s social group, graduates from top universities, were being encouraged to work unpaid in contracts that flout minimum wage law.
Future 100 is an organisation rewarding young entrepreneurship. Look at their list of award-winners for the best new companies to apply to. Consider applying for an award yourself if you are a young entrepreneur: they could help you to compose a business plan and secure funding.
Internocracy: Set up by former interns, this non-profit organisation accredits internships that obey minimum wage laws and provide good placements. I would strongly suggest you make them a part of your network as they should make it easier to know which internships to apply for, and which to avoid.
Cashback for Interns: I’ve flagged this one up before – it’s for journalists. Fiona O’Cleirigh is running an NUJ legal campaign whereby interns can (hopefully) reclaim the minimum wage that they were entitled to while working.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs: For everybody else, there’s HMRC, who (it would seem from a brief visit to Gorkana or the Graduate Talent Pool) have so far failed to enforce minimum wage legislation on employers as they say they do on their website. Perhaps that’s because too few people are going to them for help. If you feel you’re being exploited, perhaps you could talk to them. If nobody’s paid you yet, what incentive will they have to do so in the future? Here’s the HMRC page for minimum wage complaints and queries.
For FruGal’s take on humanity-based degrees and employment prospects, take a look at her post Arts degrees: an expensive waste of time?
{Photo: Nick Richards}
I don’t quite agree. You don’t have to be a “starving artist” – that is such a cliche. Lots of artists worked “real jobs” until their careers picked up and they were able to do work in the arts. Also if you don’t double major and you just major in an arts degree then you need to make sure you don’t take out a lot of loans while in college.
Minka Kelly worked as a surgical assistant, she went to college for a year to train for it and worked in the field until she made it as an actress. Emily Giffin was a lawyer before she was a best-selling writer.
The NY Times awhile back covered some college graduates who couldn’t find jobs so they started up their own websites, companies, etc.
In this bad economy a lot of people with “serious degrees” have had a hard time finding jobs too. I’m an accounting major in college but I don’t feel that I’m “safe” just because I’m an accounting major. A lot of desk jobs that people like can be outsourced.
Even lawyers which were prestigious at one time, are now being downgraded because cheaper software is now replacing them. The NY Times covered this awhile back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html
At this point the only thing that I can think of as “safe” is health care and maybe teaching? So my point is I don’t think there’s anything safe and we shouldn’t discourage people from arts degrees.
I don’t quite agree. You don’t have to be a “starving artist” – that is such a cliche. Lots of artists worked “real jobs” until their careers picked up and they were able to do work in the arts. Also if you don’t double major and you just major in an arts degree then you need to make sure you don’t take out a lot of loans while in college.
Minka Kelly worked as a surgical assistant, she went to college for a year to train for it and worked in the field until she made it as an actress. Emily Giffin was a lawyer before she was a best-selling writer.
The NY Times awhile back covered some college graduates who couldn’t find jobs so they started up their own websites, companies, etc.
In this bad economy a lot of people with “serious degrees” have had a hard time finding jobs too. I’m an accounting major in college but I don’t feel that I’m “safe” just because I’m an accounting major. A lot of desk jobs that people like can be outsourced.
Even lawyers which were prestigious at one time, are now being downgraded because cheaper software is now replacing them. The NY Times covered this awhile back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html
At this point the only thing that I can think of as “safe” is health care and maybe teaching? So my point is I don’t think there’s anything safe and we shouldn’t discourage people from arts degrees.
Good points Jaime. I don’t think that any careers are truly ‘safe’ now. I’d even say that health care and teaching, especially in the UK, are no longer ‘safe’ professions either, thanks to government cutbacks and austerity measures. That said I think that certain degrees put you on sturdier footing than others.
I did an arts degree (history), which I absolutely loved. Whilst I wouldn’t say it held me back (I’m a firm believer in transferable skills, not to mention the research, independent study skills that my degree taught me), I would say that my sister who is currently studying engineering might be better placed in the job market. This country churns out huge swathes of arts graduates for a relatively tiny pot of jobs. With the odds stacked against them, the arts-graduate job market has the upper hand.
On the flipside, this country produces relatively few science grads, despite the fact that there’s a greater economic need for them. With more job opportunities and relatively fewer applicants in competition for the roles, the science grads are bound to benefit.
I agree, it’s all looking a bit squeezed right now. In the UK, though, there’s a tendency for culture, politics and media to rest on unpaid internships, while internships in business and finance are well-paid. This means that the gap between creative graduates and the rest seems to be widening, and creative, media and non-profit industries are becoming more and more exclusive. It’s the gap in politics that worries me the most. The field that should be the most representative is getting more and more elitist.
A lot of start-ups are set up by people that previously worked in the City for a few years, it’s true. I don’t think you need to be a ‘starving artist’ (and I don’t really know where that stereotype comes from as historically most artists have, actually, come from privileged backgrounds) and I wouldn’t have done anything differently… I really did love my degree and thought it was right for me.
But I do think a lot of arts/humanities graduates are encouraged to be naive in their applications. They aren’t taught about their rights before they leave university – they’re just hurled out there. It’s hard to get your bearings and an awful lot of us, thinking that you have to pursue a *linear path* (e.g. thinking that an internship in theatre is the only path to a career in the arts) get exploited in the process, which isn’t good for the wider job market either.
I could probably have put all this a bit better. My suspicion is, though that ‘creative’ UK graduates are tending to be exploited. I think this is down to poor advice, naivety and because we’re encouraged to take the *linear, hothouse approach* to following our dreams. We think we have to take an unpaid internship to get ahead. And I don’t think that mindset should be allowed. As you rightly point out, there are other ways in – we’re not *duty-bound* to do this.
Hi Harri well I live in the U.S., and while we live in separate countries, I will say that the same thing is happening in the U.S. A lot of companies are cutting back, health care seems stable for now but who knows for how long?
I agree with a lot of points in this article. We have the choice what work to do and where to do it, therefore I believe the only person that can exploit me is me…by making slightly dodgy decisions.
If everyone decided collectively not to take these positions, they wouldn’t exist…but that of course isn’t how free markets work. These positions only exist for two reasons though. Either supply of talent vastly outstrips demand or the work performed doesn’t add enough value. Take animation for example - extremely talented people, very little demand. Not only that, but it’s labour intensive. I don’t know. Personally, I think if the economics of your profession don’t stack up, you should either find something else that you enjoy or quit your whining. I love what I do, but you wouldn’t catch me doing it for half the salary, let alone for free.
True. There are a lot of times when I wish I could turn round to my 16 year old self and make her look at the job market and the kinds of skills that are going to thrive in it (maths, maths, more maths and physics). My A level options and degree choice might have been very different.