Hey Reddit,
First some context: I'm a German university student and my university course requires me to do a 20 week internship at a company. Specific requirements need to be fulfilled to count towards my study (e.g it has to be 18-20 weeks full time, I need a mentor, it has to correspond with my course of study…).
Since I enjoy travel and exploring different cultures I figured I want to have this internship in Japan to experience the culture and everyday life for a longer duration before settling into a company after uni. Because it is very specific I couldn't find any internships myself but then decided to do it with an agency recommended by my uni. I had to agree that they can't guarantee the internship to be paid as it is up to the company itself if they want to pay the interns (or compensate in other ways like accommodation, transport, food…). I was okay with this because I don't mind compensation in other forms and also thought it was more of a phrase since it is also not legally required in Germany to be a paid internship (since the company also has to put in resources to teach me something).
I got accepted by a company and offered an internship but when I got the contract I noticed the company didn't offer any stipend at all, which I was a little surprised by. The contract states I have to work 40 hours per week "with occasional overtime deemed by the business" and there will be no stipend provided. So I contacted the company and asked if there would be any other sort of compensation, since non was stated in the contract. The reply I got was a rather rude: "this is an unpaid internship program, which was already made clear by the agency" and they advised me to double check with the agency's TOS. So I double checked and nowhere is it stated to be an "unpaid internship program" they just state that they can't guarantee pay and that I can't refuse a suitable internship because of that reason.
The reason I was expecting some sort of compensation is because for me it's a form of respect to the employee. Even though it is not mandatory in Germany it is common to get paid for the internship. I also (personally) expect compensation as long as I bring value to the company (which is expected within 5 months of full time employment).
The reason why I'm a bit upset is that it's quite expensive to cover all the expenses by myself and I was hoping I could finance (at least a part of) my trip with the internship. I even turned down an offer from the company I was working part time at for the last 2 years. I refused because I wanted to collect overseas work experience before finishing uni. The internship with them would've compensated me with 15€/hr (accumulating to 12.000€ pre-tax for the 5 month internship). I saved up enough money to still do the unpaid internship in Japan but I have to cut some corners now in terms of living standard and traveling through japan, that I was looking forward to…
Maybe someone who was in a similar situation or has some experience can answer me some of these questions and I would also be thankful for any advice you can give.
- Is it common (or can I expect) to receive some sort of compensation after my internship or after some training time if I perform well?
- For an unpaid internship will this be relaxing work or do they still have high standards for my work and expect me to work unpaid overtime? (I don't know what "with occasional overtime deemed by the business" means exactly)
- For me no compensation conveys that my work and the effort I have to do, in order to work for them (flight, accommodation, culture integration, language…) are not valued. I didn't expect much but I feel a bit disrespected by gaining nothing since I would have the same expenses if I did holidays for 5 months instead of working full time. Am I misinterpreting this because Japan has different values and work ethics than Germany?
- Is there any way I can save money some advice you can give me for my situation (I'm per contract not allowed to work for any other company during the internship without their consent)?
- My friends said they wouldn't do the internship and refuse it despite the 2000€ I had to pay the agency to get it in the first place. But since a lot of planing already went into it and I'm really looking forward to it I'm considering just swallowing my pride and do it anyway. Is it still worth the experience despite it being unpaid?
by ReudigerPenner