If something feels too good to be true, chances are it might be.
As an arts and humanities student, employability can be an exciting but mostly daunting prospect. Students in the medical school are told the date they will become a doctor on their first day, and other degrees in areas such as engineering, teaching, or law are more tailored to lead you down a certain career path. In the arts and humanities, although the skills gained are essential and there are multiple directions to take your degree, there is no ‘obvious’ route.
This is why work experience is so important, it gives an indication to what route might be best for you. As for me, I am still trying to navigate my own route. During this process of navigation, I recently encountered an interesting ‘opportunity’, which was not all it seemed.
There are loads of opportunities for students to enhance their CVs, one of which is doing a summer internship. After a bit of digging on the internet, I found a company that promises to ‘make your resume stand out with one of our international internships’.
These internships are offered in multiple countries across the globe and according to their website, 3000+ organisations have hosted interns including:
FIFA, Santander, UK Parliament, CNN, Forbes, TIME, ITV, The Wall Street Journal and more.
Clearly, they have a lot of connections and are very attractive to any student looking to ‘make your resume shine’.
What follows is a very convincing and professional scam. When I retold this story to my career’s advisor, he said it really ‘boiled his goose’, which is a phrase I have since adopted.
Initially, all they ask of you is your name, email address and a CV. After going through this, if you are successful, you’ll get an ‘admissions interview’. The employer states that ‘Our programs are highly competitive and the number of interview slots are limited.’ My own interview was 15 minutes late, as they are so busy with interviews (either this is a part of the scam, or an unfortunately high number of students fell for their pricey promises too).
I was asked:
Why do you want to join the employer and what do you hope to gain?
What previous work experience do you have and how will this help you?
When you have faced an issue in the past, how did you overcome it?
What makes you unique?
If there is a silver lining, it was a fairly professional interview with relevant questions. Additionally, if I am asked in an interview if I’ve had issues with recruitment in the past, this experience will be going to the top of my list.
A few days later, I received an email stating that the ‘Admissions team has identified me as a highly talented individual with the promise to thrive’. I had been accepted to the ‘award winning’ London Internship programme.
It was reassuring to know that my ramblings about my strengths and weaknesses paid off, but it wasn’t that simple. The next paragraph read:
‘It will be a pleasure to have you with us for your 12-week program, beginning in June 2023. Now that you have been accepted, the next step is to make a tuition deposit of £800 within the next 7 days. The deposit formally confirms your enrollment in our program. It is deducted from the total program fee of £4,500.’
In the interest of honesty, I will admit that I don’t have 4.5k lying about. Volunteering at a local charity would have been a better deal, as they don’t demand thousands of pounds to work for them for free. However, it’s not all bad news as I was an impressive candidate, I was offered a £300 discount to get me on board…
At this point, the rose-coloured glasses had come off and I finally saw this ‘opportunity’ for what it is, exploitative.
Please be reassured to know that I did not send any money to the employer, what I did send was an overly polite email to withdraw my application.
I was informed by the employer that ‘we encourage host organisations to offer remuneration to interns. However, this is a decision that lies with each company; taking into consideration other parameters such as visa restrictions means it cannot be guaranteed.’
In summary, the employer charges you thousands of pounds to get an interview with these big companies, to see if you get an internship there. If they are unsuccessful in getting you a placement, you are refunded. As I didn’t pay to move forward in the process, I am speculating when I presume that the refund would not include the deposit, and other complementary costs.
The employer stated in an email to me that:
‘Our goal is to find the best possible internship placements that provide our participants with the responsibilities, experiences, and skills needed for a successful future. For this reason, TIME magazine reports that 88% of our program participants gain graduate-level, full-time employment within 3 months of completing their internship and 95% of our interns expressed that the skills they learned during their internship greatly affected their career advancement.’
This statistic has no original source. The scheme itself is a scam based on desperation and anxiety that students feel about post-grad employment. In conclusion, you shouldn’t have to pay to then work for free. Go with university or other verified advertised opportunities. Save yourself £4,500 and remember, if it looks too good to be true, it just might be.
If in doubt, I would recommend going to talk to the Careers Service or if you’re looking for a reliable (and paid) internship, head over to the Careers Hub for loads of verified and rewarding schemes.
As for me, I know my value. I know my strengths, and I know that I can and will make a difference. I just need to find the right opportunity.