What are interns? I've been an intern, but never an unpaid one, although I could imagine circumstances that would make taking such a position seem reasonable. The justification for an internship being unpaid is that the position is an educational experience for the intern; the transfer of goods is from the organization to the intern. While both a paid internship and a traditional job also serve as learning experiences for the employee, an unpaid internship ought to differ from these other situations in that the help provided by the intern to the organization is negligible. Which is what makes this ad so odd. How could an unpaid intern be "needed ASAP"? Here's a clue: "Duties include filing, setting up new filing system, creating and editing org charts, updating 401Ks and other files, assist Human Resources Director in all duties, etc." In other words, a job, a rather dull-sounding one at that, but with the special quality of not paying anything at all. 

This is just wrong. more ›

Every Sunday Gothamist publishes theater reviews by our contributor Mallory Jensen. The opinions below belong entirely to the author. more ›