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Subject:Re: Will work for free From:Linnea Dodson <tscribe -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 5 Feb 1999 05:57:50 PST
I dispute the assumption that doing classwork without a salary is
actually "working for free."
It is working for other benefits than a salary, which is not the same as
working for free just for the fun of it. There is an understood
contract that the company is getting work done in return for the student
gaining experience and portfolio pieces.
Lisa Comeau points to specific, quantifiable benefits her students
received from their "volunteer" school projects:
>As a result of these work terms, many of my students got experience
(and job
>offers) from the companies they worked for. Their end-of-semester
grades
>were (in a large part) made up of the review their employers gave them.
It's not $20 an hour with benefits, but it is measurable, and it is
presumably better than what the non-volunteering students got.
Ben Kovitz said
>...working for free has a way of setting a precedent...
There are quite a few student pieces in my portfolio, since most of my
professional work is proprietary. Never has a company representative
told me "if you did that for them for free, we want you to do it for us
for free too." If salary comes up, I say something along the lines of
"that was a school project and therefore unpaid; however since I have
this experience in addition to my other skills, I would like a salary
of..." and name the going rate for someone with my experience.
My $.02 on the subject.
Nea Dodson
as usual, speaking for myself and not my company... or my school
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