Hi there,
“It’s a long post, sorry, please share your thoughts”

I have been part of various communities over the past three years, hoping to network, learn the language, or find job opportunities. Initially, I was excited, thinking these experiences would lead me to my dream job. However, as I moved from session to session, meeting to meeting, hackathon to hackathon, and workshop to workshop, I realized that I possess better skills than many of the recruiters and headhunters who were meant to guide me in writing my CV and navigating the interview process.

It became clear that the underlying theme is often just "knowledge of the language" in Finland. These events sometimes feel like traps designed to fill content and ensure funding continues to flow. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to come off as arrogant, nor do I see myself as above others. I’ve witnessed brilliant projects at hackathons that received little more than praise and a free VR shopping bag, followed by comments like, "Hope you find the job you’re looking for." I’m never better and more skilled and smarter than these people. It’s frustrating to see that some people thrive while others struggle, often based on plans made for job seekers who rarely find meaningful employment.

I managed to secure a general part-time job and am actively working on my language skills to improve my prospects. Getting this job was not a result of these “guidance” at all, I was only “lucky” to be in the right time and place. However, today I received something that stirred up a lot of frustration in me, and I felt compelled to share.

I understand the importance of gaining experience, but at the same time I find it concerning that these uncompensated fixed part time opportunity add value to professional workers but frustration and feelings of exploitation. I understand the importance of internships but I don’t categorise this in internships. I am also aware that people are receiving unemployment benefits and other allowances but considering that, this is still very bothering.

by External-Designer-91

17 comments

  1. I wish I was paid for my Internship… think all I got was free food 🙃
    I think here it’s often university level studies where you might get paid during internship, and yeah it sucks…

  2. If it looks like shit and smells like shit then it’s probably shit.

  3. Yeah, that’s just fucking wrong. “Work for us free, it is a great opportunity!”. The fuck it is.

    That pisses me of, seriously.

  4. Tbh unpaid internships are generally frowned upon, but there’s some exceptions and things to consider:

    – do you get credits for this?
    – does your degree require an internship episode?
    – is erasmus involved and are you eligible for erasmus funds?
    – will this give you an advantage in real life?

  5. Bs. This project is most likely bigger hassle then they tell it is

  6. To my knowledge working in Finland without pay is illegal (excluding TET)

    (I’m not 100% sure tho)

    “No money. No honey”

  7. I think this specific internship is directed to foreign students in Metropolia, so they can get at least some experience and graduate.

    Getting paid in internships during studies seems to be very field-of-study-specific, for example in engineering it’s common to get paid, and I think in healthcare studies you won’t get paid at all.

  8. It’s shit. Skipping the fact that I don’t even understand the language requirements to then do interviews in English, this is too short for an internship. And if only performing interviews, it also falls short of learning objectives. Internships exist mostly in UAS and are part of the curriculum. It’s learning by doing instead of having classes. In that sense they’re part of the studies and it’s arguable there isn’t a need for an additional payment. But this offering is too short for that and not interesting. Therefore the students don’t get value from it and it looks more like a task that should be paid.

    Although other universities can also have short work related experiences so maybe this is enough for those?

  9. Seems a completely useless internship where you learn nothing.

    Internships are excellent but only if you learn a skill that you will get hired for afterwards.

    So bad, very bad.

  10. I don’t know how to add more info to post: this didn’t come through university towards student. This ad came from a program aimed at job seeker immigrants. I understand unpaid internships during studies could be compensated by credits or visibility or so. But this is aiming at graduated skilled immigrant job seeker.

  11. 3 month unpaid intership to conduct marketing surveys= Your going to cold call people, piss them off and make no money. Collecting cans pays better and you get exercise.

  12. I got paid for my internship back in the day and I think work is work and should be compensated, even by little. I mean I got paid very little, but I got paid.

    I was in business admin field and I got paid for internship, when I did engineering degree, I got paid, but I was already working by then.

    But the phrase “we would like to pay you, we really would, but…” is way too common.
    I mean what is stopping you? Pay up bitch.

    “Oh it is valuable experience, ponnahduslauta ja näköalapaikka.” I mean in previous work place we made our interns do stuff we did not have time or interest to do. Filling long due spreadsheets or excel monkey work, let intern do it. I bet this is no different.

  14. I understand that in some cases doing unpaid internship can be justifiable. Some experience is worth it to increase your chances of getting hired in the future.

    That said, I dont know if experience of doing marketing surveys helps with your future employment, unless the job you are applying to requires doing them.

  15. The unpaid definitely screams exploitation to me. I had an unpaid internship, but I got all the tools to learn and grow (even then I think it’s more than fair to pay someone for their time and dedication). I don’t see any of that growing and learning stuff in here. How are you going to grow and learn if they can’t even understand the language you’re expected to speak?

  16. Internships are usually unpaid. I had to do many, school and courses, and got not paid a cent for working weeks and weeks on

  17. You had me at (Unpaid). Fuck this shit and it angers me they get away with it

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