Wouldn’t you want to spend 300 unpaid hours with these guys?
Dr Mumbo’s exploitation alarm was tripped when he saw this ‘job ad’ for an unpaid PR intern posted on LinkedIn.
It starts off promisingly, asking if “you’re passionate about PR” and whether you “want to be involved in one of the coolest marketing campaigns of the year”?
Then it explains what the campaign will be:
Very soon we will be launching a series of HILARIOUS videos as part of our ‘Deadpan Guy’ campaign. These videos feature a guy doing ridiculous things with a perfectly straight face. Bungee jumping, sky diving, rally car driving, jet packing. It’s crazy funny!”
Mongrels. Last time I checked unpaid internships that don’t count for course credit are borderline illegal. At least the potential applicants are smart enough to see a sham for what it is. If you are producing work that profits your employer, you are an employee and should get paid.
This is happening everywhere. One example of one company doing something that hundreds of others do and this constitutes news?
Tell us something we don’t know.
Wow. Fair go guys. We actually thought our internship was a lot more laid back than the ones on offer elsewhere. The ad you’re referring to was intended as a callout to gauge interest, and hopefully find someone who it appealed to, but we are very flexible and easy going. Anyone that wanted to come along for the ride could come and go as they please, no obligations. We are a startup company, just the two of us. We thought it would be a good opportunity for some young students looking for experience. Nevertheless, we’ve looked into it and you may have a point, so we’ll take it on the chin.
The ad you mentioned expired without any takers. Perhaps it was poorly worded as your article suggests. We take responsibility for that.
What about all the big companies, including our competitors and businesses in almost every other industry? 40hr per week summer internships are commonplace, and I guarantee they aren’t as laid back, flexible or (likely) beneficial to the intern as us. I guess they have lawyers that write their ads for them?
Also, there’s nothing suspicious about our drink. It contains about the same caffeine as a cup of tea, it’s sugar free, and a lot cheaper than other ones on offer.
Anyway, we’ve learnt something from this and we have taken down the ads… except the ones on LinkedIn, which we didn’t post and don’t seem to have control over.
“The ad you mentioned expired without any takers. Perhaps it was poorly worded as your article suggests. We take responsibility for that.”
Hilarious – these guys are real comms pros.
Hope the view’s good from your high horse.
These guys have responded exactly the way we so often advise our clients to when they’ve f**ked up – open, honest and to the point, with a seemingly genuine interest in learning from their mistake.
Gotta love an industry that throws the words ‘behave like a startup’ around at every chance, then throws someone under the bus at the first misstep.
“What about all the big companies, including our competitors and businesses in almost every other industry?”
Well they likely offer credits. Not to mention brand currency on a resume. I sincerely wish you luck with the business, but you are likely to get someone with inadequate skills, forcing you more work when you least expect it.
Thanks Darryl. We will look into what is involved in offering course credits. Brand currency is a fair point, although having experience with internships in large corporates they are generally assigned menial tasks, whereas with a startup they could have got involved in a range of interesting tasks, different each day. We’ve had a couple of interns in the past. Some have had great skills, but for various reasons been struggling to get a foot in the door. We’ve gone out of our way to help them get jobs, and have been happy when they were successful. But since this article has gone for the jugular, we will look more closely at the government guidance to see where we have gone wrong compared to the thousands of other internships on offer, including many on the Mumbrella job boards.
It’s not easy being a start up, however it’s even more difficult because you become an easy target. My partner is a Graphic Designer and I work in Media (operations not creative) and we hear stories all too often about businesses over promise and under deliver when it comes to internships or some vac positions. A lot of businesses in these industries don’t offer paid internships and as the team at REIZE mention basically spend their time doing errands, getting coffees and not engaging much in any real work. I think the flaw here could be the time commitment expectations considering there aren’t any credits awarded however if they can sort out the credit situation and are true to their word in what they promise then it could be a very exciting opportunity for someone who want’s to delve into some real hands on work. It’s not easy being a start up in Australia and it’s definitely not as easy as sitting on the computer taking pot shots at small businesses, most of you people commenting probably have never and will never attempt something so you wouldn’t know the difficulties experienced.
Sure these guys might not have got the job ad wrong, so deserve some schtick. Although on the tone towards their videos, at least they are having a go – most of the advertising content that comes out of this country is bland, safe side, product-centric garbage.
Both the job ad and the (WAY too many) promo videos are what I’d define as ‘right idea, wrong execution’. In saying that, a good chunk of agencies would easily trot out something way more cringeworthy if given the leeway. Chin up, fellas!
Truth beknown, they probably weren’t getting paid also.