The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

Words by: Jon Collins

Image by: Hitchster

In this job market, everyone seems to be looking for the cheapest way to run their companies.  For most, this means taking advantage of us Lemon Lifers who may not have a lot of job experience but are looking to get some.  The way most companies do this is through the cunning use of internships.  Whether they are paid or unpaid, an internship is a great way for a company to get a lot of work out of an individual for little or no money.  This is a great solution for the company, but if you get stuck being the intern, it’s very hard to get unstuck.  Once people see an internship on your resumé, no matter how impressive it may be, it is an automatic signal that you are still young and just entering the job market.

In my experience, there are two approaches you can take to get unstuck, however neither of them is very appealing.  The first approach is fairly obvious: just keep riding those internships until something comes along that pays you actual money.  Internship experience on a resumé makes you a great candidate for more internships, but it may take a long time to land that first real job. This approach depends pretty heavily on luck and good timing.  If you are the intern who happens to be around when a job opens up, you obviously get an inside track on getting it, but be careful.  Job hunting, sadly, is not first come first serve.  The company may still choose a “more qualified” candidate. For those of you living on your own, the need for money may start to outweigh the need for job experience and you may have to end the ride and move on to the second approach.

This next approach requires a pretty hefty set of cojones.  If you are in a desperate place financially, you could always ask your boss for some form of compensation.  If the company really wants to keep you on the team, they will probably give you something. If not, then you’re putting yourself in a risky position.  If you are in a position where you really can’t continue working for a discounted or nonexistent rate, you don’t really have much of a choice.  You are going to have to bite the bullet and wait out the storm until you can find a real, paying job.  It takes a lot of will power and determination but if you can work the contacts you have made and keep your eyes on the job boards, you will be able to find something.  Just remember that if you can’t find the job you’re looking for, keep your options open.  You never know when you may find that great job that you had never even thought of.

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