Hi Marc, Yes, I can only speak from my experience and I have no doubt that today's newbies are too green to be of much use (although I'm not sure that setting up table tents should be a vital part of their curriculum). It sounds like the industry does more to promote educational organizations than I'd assumed also. Personally, I'm all for scrapping the educational system we have in place completely as I'm not convinced it's any better than nothing at all in many cases. One other thing you say in your reply gives me pause; "anyone on the lower level who has not yet gained the experience to justify being paid more than they are worth. Which, when that happens all balances out.". In my experience people are not paid what they are worth but rather whatever they are forced to accept. I don't think it necessarily balances out at all, those in the lower levels often languish or are starved out while others are able to command huge salaries based on dubious accomplishments, connections, or simply the funds to stick it out long enough to be promoted by default. Now maybe it isn't fair to paint all of business with that brush, but I can't help but taking an 'Emperor's New Clothes' view of employment in the 21st century.

Hi Giarc - I'd have to disagree with such a blanket statement. Big agencies I've worked with work close with organizations such as the AEF to create educational opportunities to create better employees for the industry as a whole. Many organizations donate time and resources to AEF and Young Guns to promote education within the industry. Some internship programs are actually built with the intention of building the future employees of the industry. Not all places are like this. But you could argue that juniors doing all the work and getting $25K a year are slave labor, or really anyone on the lower level who has not yet gained the experience to justify being paid more than they are worth. Which, when that happens all balances out. At my current company I would have to say I have spent more time teaching and mentoring than the amount of productivity I gained from it warrante. If I really wanted to get more done I could do without the intern and just do the friggin table tents for a party myself. I could have done in 15 minutes what took an intern a couple of days. Or weeks. Every step of the way there was some basic thing that they did not know. Which, I guess is another point: that if today's educational institutions did a better job at preparing students BEFORE they leave school, you could definitely be justified in saying that someone with the skillset to work full time should not be working for free. Which used to be the case. But really, with the exception of a few school, really not any more. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a beautiful portfolio and then soon after realized that each piece took them 3 weeks (or months) to make, not 3 hours (or minutes) like is needed in the real world.

i have only enjoyed super intern relationships. I guess I've been lucky on both sides of the desk. Jonathan over at bigapplehead is a reliable resource (imho) that you nmay wish to check out.

I'm trying to be circumspect in jumping in on this, as I maybe have not had the chance to run into an internship that was done right or a gift. Admittedly I never was on a track for a career in advertising exactly. It seems to me though, that there is gift giving and receiving on both sides of the internship see-saw. It's a bit of hyperbole and fun to say 'slave labor', because there isn't any slavery going on, but certainly there is 'uncompensated or unvalued labor'. Most businesses aren't particularly known for their good-hearted philanthropy, and we can assume that the gifting process of the internship is going to be a net gain for the agency on paper in the end. Agencies don't need to have interns, and they don't do gifts for the sake of being nice. It's good advice to see things from the other side, but mainly to support and inform your own side. Industries which are perceived as glamorous and lucrative create internships to exploit the oversupply of qualified candidates, and to give themselves the option to 'try before they buy' a full time employee. In my experience, internships are typically unfocused, undersupervised, and rather tedious experiences which amount to little more than putting up flyers, cold calling leads, driving people around, and other generally unskilled tasks. There is some learning going on, a bit, but nothing vital. In most cases the proliferation of internships and other sorts of disempowering, dues-paying hoops to jump through are exactly what they seem - an insiders game of keep away. What really, in a business world defined entirely in terms of money, can a business expect from free labor? With the name vs content issue - I still say it's all about how you feel when you are interviewing in person. Do you feel stimulated or even inspired and think the people working there seem smart and interesting? Because ultimately it's about you finding your own way and putting yourself in places where your skills and talents are nur

I think Marc hits on some important points for consideration. An internship is a gift, and yes, you can wax comical about the slave labor part, but wether that statement is fact, glib assesment, or a conviction of the industry is fairly mute when you consider the alternative. That being, no internship. And as Marc asseses, sometimes its not always easy for the firm or studio to manage and train said interns, cat herdering sometimes takes place. If I were you I'd be less focused on what name you can throw out there and more focused on what you will learn, what opportunities that knowledge can open up to you. The little boutiques have many advantages in terms of actually learning hands on. Whatever happens, you have your future in front of you, an enviable position for some - go out, kill it, and drag it home.

tiny boutique=happy corp biggie size= Carat have you checked out these two in NYC? resumes can be fun such as the roseyperez.com resume but all great resumes * (*=get you an interview) have several things in common. have you read Mariam Nafacy's occult killer get the job bible? peace out- art

I think you should rethink your attitude of internships being "slave labor." When done right, an internship is a gift the company is giving you in terms of experience that you could never gain in college in exchange for your time, which quite frankly, is not very valuable. Take a moment and think about what it's like on the other side. First of all, you need to interview scores of clueless, nosepicking recent grads who think the real world is just like it was back in college when you can blow off classes you don't think are important. You look at many incomplete books and hope that you'll find one intern who actually has some sort of skills you can use. Then, after finding one, every day you need to sit down and take time out of your busy day to not only figure out something worthwhile for the intern to do, something that won't lose you an account if the intern messes it up - but something that the intern can learn from and try to explain it in a way that even they will understand. After 4 hours, you realize that they spent 5 minutes on the project, 3 hours on Myspace and 55 minutes on AIM. Then you need to lecture them on things like work ethic and expectations. Then you start feeling less like an employer or a mentor and more like their dad. After weeks of them coming in late, screwing up assignments and not even showing up half the time, you give them a C. Which wasn't even deserved. Think about the time people who give internships take to let you learn about an industry that's pretty darn hard to learn and catch a break in. And think less about what you want (I want to be your slave labor!) and more about what you can offer (I'm a go-getter, I'm easy to train, etc.) Offering instead of asking will impress people and make you stand out from the crowd.

As far as big name versus small names, it's pretty simple. Big names open doors, small names are better learning experiences. If you go to BBDO, it will be a crapshoot, for example. You might fetch coffee.