Web 2.0 Internships spark Transatlantic Debate
Posted by Bernie Ritchie & CMI's @agathatheintern on Aug 19, 2009

Friday 14 August saw the debate about internships in a Web 2.0 age become a hot button topic across the online airwaves. Seth Godin kicked off the debate by posting his latest blog Free Work v Internships which argued for the value of a month of free hard work "to create a chunk of experience that's priceless" on a Gen Y resume.

Godin referenced 22 year-old Charlie Hoehn in his blog who had done a spot of recent internship for Godin but, more importantly, had written an extraordinary ebook ‘Recession-Proof Graduate'. Hoehn's ebook sets out his personal journey to finding work after graduation in today's recessionary era, and the radical conclusions he had come to. "The recession is not the obstacle. The obstacle is to abandon conventional job-hunting methods", Hoehn says. Page 12 of the book reveals the source of Godin's blog. We see Gen Y Charlie illustrate how he separates the value of Free Work from Internships and what steps he reckons the Gen Y tribe needs to take to create rich work opportunities. "Imagine the impact you can have if you do really high quality work, for absolutely free, on something more valuable that requires creative flair" Hoehn urges.

Across the Atlantic, Seth Godin's blog was also causing Gen Y stirrings of interest. Over at the Chartered Management Institute, @agathatheintern was getting into her stride. She had posted an immediate response on the Chartered Management Institute blog and was busy on Twitter tweeting with others who had tweeted about Godin's post (including Management Sushi!) and letting them know her thoughts. As a result, I asked Agatha to do a special Guest Post for the Management Sushi blog covering her take and thoughts on Godin's hot topic. Here it is!

The Value of Internships in a Web 2.0 World
by Chartered Management Institute's @agathatheintern

Donald Rumsfeld was lampooned in 2002 for his infamous press briefing on the Iraq war...

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

...but I can't help feeling that he had a point where Internships are concerned. It's no longer enough to know what you know; other people have to know what you know too. I read a survey earlier in the summer suggesting that 80% of companies will be using LinkedIn as their primary recruiting tool this year. Add in to this the ease with which companies can Google your name and it has seldom been easier to dig up the dirt on someone you're looking to employ.

Seth Godin wrote recently recommending that students and the unemployed should consider doing project work for free rather than consider taking up an internship, and I think it was the external visibility that he had in mind when he made this statement. If you do unpaid work, in whatever form, you need it to be such that you can put your achievements on your CV, or in this modern age, on to Google for all to see.

I'm lucky that working in the marketing and PR department of the Chartered Management Institute allows me to do that. I've been blogging and tweeting about the work I'm currently doing and leaving a digital footprint behind of my achievements that will hopefully be a big help in securing work at the end of my studies at UCL in 2010. We all know how difficult the job market is right now so all help is good help.

Hopefully by the end of my six weeks if someone Google's my name they will see visible evidence of what I've done rather than an unsubstantiated statement on my cv. Obviously I won't know how useful this strategy will prove until I venture out into the job market but I'm learning lots of new things at the moment so hopefully the future will bode well.

As Agatha says, and Hoehn will readily recognise this viewpoint, "leaving a digital footprint" behind any free work or internship to demonstrate and substantiate quality work achieved is vital for any savvy graduate job hunt in a Web 2.0 world.

Back in the States on that same fateful Friday 14th August. GenY personal branding expert, Dan Schawbel had an article - ‘Build a Marketing Platform like a Celebrity' - published in Business Week. As much as @agathatheintern, Charlie Hoehn and Seth Godin, Schwabel clearly understands the value for today's grads in clever use of social media in the digital jungle to create an extraordinary marketing platform. And, all of it, for free! As Schawbel says, recession-proof graduates should not "avoid the evolution in media" but "embrace it and leverage it for your own needs". And CMI's @agathatheintern is doing just that. Her digital footprint looks set to rock the online airwaves for some time to come!

Join the debate!
What's your view on Web 2.0 free work and internships for recession-proof graduates?

Posted by Brendan on Aug 19, 2009
It's a tough place to be a Gen Y jobseeker right now. But it's also certainly true that they have unmatched opportunities to do their own thing online and get that digital footprint. I graduated right in the middle of the early 90s recession, and wound up working first in Madrid as a TEFL teacher, then as a temp at United Utilities (then North West Water). I was restricted to - can you believe it - actually writing letters by hand, posting them with CV attached, then waiting. And waiting. In the end I got lucky - I landed a job as a technical author on the back of the Madrid work. So, no digital footprints existed back then. Gen Y will be the first 'digital natives' so they can make this work for them - as you say, for free. In the meantime, any work you can do will have transferable skills, digital work especially. The dilemma is, of course, how long you can continue to do this for free. Perhaps loss-leaders are going to be par for the course in Job Market 2.0? Maybe this will made Gen Y not only the first digital natives, but the first really business-savvy generation?

Posted by Bruce on Aug 20, 2009
There are some fantastic opportunities out there in this industry, but as with everything, with opportunity comes risk. Just as future employers can Google your good works they can also Google your bad stuff. So it's not just a case of letting an intern lose on the world to do as they please, they still need good instruction to make sure they make the most of the opportunity presented to them.

Posted by Bernie on Aug 20, 2009
Thanks for your comment Bruce ... I agree with you totally about the fact that future employers can just as easily Google the bad stuff as much as Googling an intern's good works. As you say, it's not enough just to set about developing a digital footprint .. interns need to be both mindful and savvy in all their online communications to ensure a powerful digital legacy that can trigger opportunities. There's no point having a great digital footprint but losing out on opportunity creation on account of a few mad moments online!

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