Last month, Condé Nast announced it was ending its internship program following a lawsuit filed in June 2012 by former interns. Starting next year, students will no longer be able to intern at The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, with the possibility of a few other publications joining that list.
Today, the New York Post reported on the experiences of former and current interns at all sorts of publications, who voiced their distate and/or support for the decision.
One former Vogue intern has said her time at the women's magazine was "belittling" and was "one of the worst internships" she'd ever had. Lisa Denmark, who interned at the mag last summer, told the New York Post that she cried herself to sleep "at least three nights a week", adding that she doesn't think Condé and Vogue "should really be on someone's list anyway." Denmark, obviously, is pleased the internship program ended. "It wasn't very heartbreaking to me," she told the Post.
Denmark said her 10-plus hour days at Vogue were usually just spent running errands for editors. She also recalled getting in trouble for "not putting the tape on the mood boards correctly." Yeah.
"Vogue was the only one I had my heart [set] on," Denmark said. "It was such a coveted role. The top of the top. The No. 1 thing you could possibly get. And I didn't really learn anything on the editorial side. I didn't take anything out of it."
Internships can be rewarding and lead to potential job offers, but as we've heard numerous times, and as Denmark expressed, there are "horror stories" out there.
The article goes on to share a few other nightmare experiences as told to them by former interns. The general reaction to the news seems split, as some people question the legality and morality of the unpaid internship practice, while others have said this is a traditional way to "pay one's dues."
Read the piece in its entirety here.
[via New York Post]
