No. I wont work for free.

On Monday, I ventured out from my mothers house to go to an interview for what I thought was a hot shot Search Engine Optimization company. I figure it was some sort of place where all the cool kid social media folks hung out, and well, I wanted to be one of them. I showed up at the unmarked building, using the non existent directions and found the office marked with the name of a different company. In the interview it became clear that this uber cool sounding social media intern non paid position was really more of a free standing, you do grunt work for me for a month, with no hope of a future position or upward mobility kind of position.

I worked in that interview, making notes about social media things and using words like .." buzz, SEO, PPC, target audience, tweets..." The list was endless. We took a personality test and I showed up basically equal on all facets of my personality, with no dominant strain. After the interviewers conferred in the hall, they informed us that instead of selecting one candidate, they were going to accept all three. Far from being excited about this, I felt like I had been duped. By selecting one unpaid grunt and putting them through an organized program taught by social media media whiz kids-- at least I would have felt like my time was valued. I expected to learn specific skills, get close to a social media job opportunity, network... Instead it sounded like we were going to be left all on our own, essentially to construct and implement a social media plan. For no money. With no real program or direct passing on of knowledge or supervision.

I did want to be one of the cool kids, but I would rather get paid for my time. Any other social media whiz kids want to pay me minimally, teach me skills and then have me work my butt off trying them out? I'm game. I have just had to realize that my time is valuable. Its one thing to volunteer your time for something you are passionate about, but quite another to do grunt work for a supposed up and coming company, who should have enough cash to hire someone to do a job instead of getting 3 eager twenty somethings to work for nothing.