Poor poor interns

The BBC has finally acknowledged that interns – or should I say, interns who are not receiving any form of payment/compensation for their work – are actually “exploited” and I couldn’t agree more.

The article states:

“We understand that some graduates may not be able to afford to take an unpaid internship which is why graduates receiving Job Seekers Allowance for six months will be able to do an unpaid internship for up to 13 weeks alongside claiming a training allowance,” a department spokesman said.

“It is the responsibility of the employer to conform to the national minimum wage and it is unacceptable to exploit people who are entitled to it.

“We take very seriously any suggestions of exploitation and have worked throughout with the TUC to give clear messages to employers about their responsibilities for internships and the national minimum wage.”Sounds quite good. A step in the right direction if you will.
But wait a minute, don’t the BBC provide work placements? Do they pay minimum wage for their enthusiastic volunteers, who, for most of the work placements at the Beeb, have been waiting months for such an opportunity?

No.

They don’t.

Bunch of hypocrits.

I am so very grateful that I am now employed, because scrounging around for work placements that I couldn’t afford to do, was a very depressing time.
And there are still thousands of graduates really trying to learn, to get their foot in the door, but not earning a penny, and digging deeper into their student debts to fund this learning curve.

Is minimum wage really too much to ask for?

Angry journalists

It’s really sad to hear that Angry Journalist has now been shut down. What a great idea it was & often a great source of amusement.

However, I must agree with their reasoning:

“As for why I’ve decided to shut the site down, technical issues are a small part of the reason, however, the larger reason is that I’ve lost interest. At this point, I believe I proved my hypothesis quite conclusively on whether journalists largely share the same viewpoints of frustration and despair my friends and myself (once, before I left journalism) felt about the industry.

It’s good to know you are not alone. And I hope that’s one positive realization each visitor here thought after reading through the responses.”

Visit the archives if you haven’t seen the site before…
http://angryjournalist.com/

An Apple a day…

I finally crossed over to the darkside today. My mates think I’ve been brainwashed, but I think they’re just jealous. After selling my brick of a phone, the glorious N95, for a lovely little sum, I am now awaiting my spanking new iPhone 3G S.
Although at first I thought the ‘S’ stood for Sold-Out because there were buggar all to be found in the stores, a bit of patience bagged me the goods. Win.
Let’s face it, the choice was between the iPhone and a Blackberry, and I simply went for the one I felt was prettiest *shallow moment* And who said girls don’t know anything about technology?

On the plus side, I have  also just read that WordPress for iPhone 2 has arrived in the App store, so with a bit of luck, this blog will get a bit more attention again, whilst I’m trying to look cool on the poverty wagon bus in the mornings.

Hooray for technology & hooray for me rubbing my cool new phone in the face of my mates. I’m lame I know.

Nobody likes you when you’re 23

Well, today I turned 23.
Although Blink 182 reckons no-one likes you anymore at my old age, I reckon I can prove them wrong (even if employers are certainly leaning more towards their argument)
But fuck ‘em. This is my day. I’m gonna take the day off from job-hunting, eat a whopping lobster for dinner, and actually take the time to chill with my family for a change.
*big fat smiley wrinkly face* After I get back from work of course…

Oh well, should be a fun year if the conspiracies are anything to go by…

Back to business

It is amazing how depressing travelling can make your normal life appear.
I’ve been home a week now, straight back to work – (they requested me back in a mere few hours after landing. Can you say, jet lag?) and I feel as if I never really went.

If I had any advice to give anyone after finishing university and are worried about not finding a job, I’d day…. leave the country.

Whether it’s a long weekend away or travelling for a year which seems to be growing in popularity, either way, time away from this country has certainly done me the world of good. Time to do nothing. Time to de-stress. Time to get things into perspective.

I miss it already

Hello Comedy. Hello America. Hello fun

Working a full 7 days this week, not only has it already been mad busy in the Karenanita household, but I’m suprised I’ve had anytime to write about it! But quite frankly, it’s been a blast and needs a mention…
Going to see Tim Minchin on Wednesday more than lived up to the expectation I had in my head with what I can only describe as a flawless comedy performance. Sitting on the second row possibly made it more enjoyable since I think he’s a fox, but regardless, it certainly put me on a high for the week. Up for more shits and giggles, I headed to the Comedy Store at Deansgate on Friday night, (you’d think I was a comedy addict but I just couldn’t resist seeing Michael Smiley in the flesh again – Tyres from Spaced for those with great taste in TV shows) and then to the Gay Village in Manchester for drinks on Saturday night to see my beloved friend Izzy before she left for the Glasgow School of Art.

But apart from all that, I’ve mostly been on the countdown for Tuesday, when I fly out to the states.
I’m so giddy about it, I could puke right here on the keyboard with excitment. Hopefully I can control myself though.

8 flight tickets. Check.
Life savings. Check.
New credit card. Check.
My ginger ninja sister. Check.
This holiday is just what I need. Bring it on.

Elitist offices crave interns with maltesers

With only a week to go before I jet off to the states for my hella overdue holiday, I decided to sift through my recycling. Oh yes, I am a friend of the earth ;] Before chucking my wad of old papers, I had a sneaky gander at the past few weeks of Media Guardian and felt  not only my usual burst of frustration but also, a bit relieved.

In an article regarding work placements, another journalism grauduate had written in whining:
“The biggest problem with internships is that they only enable those with alternative sources of funding to access them. They are therefore frustratingly elitist. The expectation is that interns are in a position not to have to pay rent/bills/etc which must surely assume that either you have the luxury of living indefinately with parents or that they will fund you living away from home. How on earth can a young person access an internship otherwise?”

Thank god someone else said it! I felt like I was the only person that felt that way.
Now that I’m working full time in a book store, after being on my feet all day, the last thing I want to do after a 9 hour shift is apply for jobs/internships. Not only that, but I don’t even have the days off to even take part in a work placement even if I got one! I do feel for the companies who can’t afford to compensate their interns, and it really is a shit economy that we are in, but, as it also said in the article, when most interns are merely a glorified brew maker, what’s the point in even trying? I was irritated to an even greater extent when I did a generic search for intern and found this glorious piece of patronisation.

I just love that “Bring snacks” is one of the ways in which to be a good intern. God I can’t wait for my holiday. Thank you to whoever you are that wrote into the Guardian and complained about internships, so I didn’t have to (but felt the need to do so on my blog nonetheless).

5 reasons why I hate the UK this week

1. My and my boyfriend were due to have a nice relaxing weekend together for our anniversary at one of the Ramada hotels. After overbooking us, and we are left twiddling our thumbs on the last possible days we can book off from work for the next 6 months, they say “Yup, there’s nothing we can do. Toodleoo“
No apology. No offer to compensate us for our inconvenience. No manners. Wankers.

2. Following our destroyed anniversary weekend, my boyfriend is taken to court by a woman who lives near him regarding a car accident dispute. The judge decides that the lady was “completely in the wrong” for reversing on a roundabout to get into her driveway, that she was not abiding by the highway code, and that there is no excuse for it being difficult.
HOWEVER, the judge then decides that my boyfriend must be punished because he is YOUNG and should “know better” than to “be in the way“.
Ok, so let me get this straight, the woman was in the wrong, she wrote off my boyfriends car, had no damage to her own car , and yet my boyfriend must pay for the court costs, pay for a new car, and lose all of his no claims because he is YOUNG. Oh yeah, I can see how that is justice. Complete and utter selfish wanker.

3. This week, most people I know get the last lot of their Ones to Watch scholarship from university simply because they showed up to their lessons. Oh yeah, that’s right, I went to all of my lessons and yet I don’t get that because my parents make too much money and are paying for all the doleys at the minute. Yeah you’re right, I don’t deserve cash as well. Stingy wankers.

4. This week, another person from my class got a good job. Not just a job, a career job. And I would say graduating class, but hey presto, they didn’n't even graduate. And the funny thing is, I went for the same job! So I graduated, I work hard for a living, I did multiple work placements to better my CV and slogged my metaphorical bollocks off as the Editor of my student magazine in my final year at university. And yet, I’m still struggling to find a career. Absolute undeserving wanker.

5. I am so so angry that I had to taint my blog with this and I have just read that “your online self-representation should demonstrate that you are a serious, ethical journalist” and quite frankly, the fact that I have said wankers 4 times in this blog post, probably goes against that. But today, I am just an angry Brit, who hates her country, who nows understands why “youths” stand around drinking and doing nothing, because sometimes, this country is a big fat wanker, who gives you nothing to believe in.

Exposed: Your day job

Well, it’s been a fortnight now at my new job in a bookstore & I must say, I’m really enjoying it.
Although it may not be wholly relevant to what I want to do in the long run, I sure am enjoying being surrounded by books and quirky people every day. I certainly appreciate the hours and the pay, whenever payday might be, and I don’t half appreciate my days off more working full time.

& even with all this bursting optimism out of character for me, I couldn’t help but chuckle at this in the Guardian:

Perhaps all those recent graduates feeling as deflated as me won’t feel so uber depressed when they’re breaking news in a decade ha!

Print graduates…you are not alone!

Sad but true

If anyone else is feeling a bit deflated about the lack of opportunities for graduates, this article is definately worth a read to make you feel less alone.

I studied print journalism: now what? is a crackin’ take on the crap that is gonna through the minds of most of us rad grads in the next few months in the struggle to find a “proper” job. And hey, if we’re all thinking it anyway, we might as well get a giggle out of it. Great read. Here’s a taste below, but the full thing is just spot on.

“I spent the last four and a half years studying print journalism in college and watching vacantly as the newspaper/magazine industry crumbled before my eyes. Now, six months after graduating, my parents still pay my cellphone bill and I am working full-time making ice cream.”