Covid lockdown made almost everyone work from home as it has become easier to interact with the corporate world via digital mediums. Most of the students studying in the college or who have passed out often seek internships to build their portfolio and improve their CV/Resume. However, many SCAM, SHADY, UNPAID work in the name of internships are popping up these days on several job platforms.
I started hunting for internships and applied for some through Facebook, LinkedIn, Internshala and other platforms. The most annoying thing was most of the internships were of 9 to 5, unpaid, demanding high skills and just had perks like ” E-certificate.” Anyways I played along and applied in most of them as a single application could be sent to multiple companies.
The first internship call I received was from an NGO, and the role was of digital marketing and fundraising. The ridiculous part was that the NGO just had a Facebook page and wasn’t registered anywhere, didn’t had any website or linked in profile or short had had no physical identity. I reverse checked the images posted on their Facebook page and found that those pics got picked from Pinterest (Online platform for downloading free Pics without getting copyright violation). On further communication, they told me the minimum amount for fundraising to be collected should be 3000 in a month to successfully get the e-certificate. I questioned them about their NGO registration details and other specific questions on which they got left speechless, and I never heard back fro them again.
The second internship call I received was from a digital marketing company as it matched my skillsets. Again the ridiculous job roles were to work 8 hours a day for six days a week for three months without getting a penny. The perks for this internship were just an e-certificate and PPO opportunity. I researched about this digital marketing firm and again found it shady. It had a decent website; however, no Private limited registration, LinkedIn details showed eight employees working in it, and their social media portals had followers less than 100.
The third internship I received was from an education startup in which the job role was to call the customers via call, mail and sell at least 15 products in a month to get the certificate. The internship was thankfully again an unpaid one and expected the persons to sell their products in which they are earning huge profits and can’t spare a few pennies for the interns. Anyways I ignored their calls, emails whether I am still interested in joining or not (I know it’s unprofessional but yet *smirks*).
I received few more internship calls from scam or shady firms asking for a small number of registration fees, Internships with no physical existence and scams in the name of NGO’s asking for fundraisers, contribution amounts etc. The problem persists when these unpaid shady Internships are still active on job portals even after complaining about them. No strict measures and less awareness about corporate world among young students makes people exploit them easily. Unprofessional emails, search results don’t add up, unpaid internships are some common signs of shady internships who’s certification (can be easily generated online by anyone from thousands of templates) don’t hold any value.
