So let me tell you a little something that got me all hot and bothered tonight.
And no, this is not a rant about how the UN in particular and major Human Rights organisations in general exploit their interns by literally making them pay in order to work and gain some much needed experience that they can then ad to their CV in the hope of one day making it to a job that actually pays the rent. The internet is crammed with those, written in a variety of ways way more creative than this.
But let me tell you about this friend of mine. Let's call him Jose. He's applying for a position with a major Human Rights organisation that does stuff that sounds fancy with refugees and displaced persons over in America Latina. So far so good. It's an unpaid internship, you know, one of those that require 2 or 3 perfectly spoken languages, hell, you might as well have been born in 3 places at once in order to have 3 mother tongues (how is this still not a trend really?), a master's degree in a related field or higher, being a good team player and the usual bla bla. Oh, and please note in the extra remarks that you're responsible for your own plane tickets, accommodation, health insurance, living expenses, obtaining visas and whatever else money-related issues that arise from the luxury of working your ass off for us for free. Please excuse me while I go down the street and murder the first stranger I meet.
I can see the lot of you rolling your eyes thinking, "What got up HER ass?! This is a perfectly well-known fact, one that has existed for a long time and one that is not going to change in the near future." And the internet is full of these rants, too.
I too have applied for such positions. I too have been desperate to get a job in my field, so desperate in fact that I might even consider working for free.
But when it's about a friend, it's personal, bitches.
You see, Jose is my closest friend. Jose is one of the most amazing guys I've ever met, and what makes him more amazing still is that we'd stuck to friendship and stopped there so we didn't have to get all disillusioned about each other and all that shit. A stupid CV can never ever begin to explain how amazing this guy is, and why having him on a team of Human Rights activists would be a highlight to any team and to any job. Jose sometimes acts before he thinks, but he is always aware of his environment and he never lets down the people who depend on him. He is smart and funny and dedicated to what he believes in in a way that might have made him the new Che Guevara, if times had been different. He's prepared to fight and to die for what and who he believes in. Too bad he's only allowed to write impersonal cover letters crammed with the Human Rights' world phrases that let others know you're in, you're one of them. So unfortunate for those guys who would consider whether to "hire" Jose or not (where "hire" means "generously allow him to work for us for free") based solely on a paper or two, where he is his most formal self and where they don't even begin to get a glimpse of the awesome personality that lies within. So unfortunate for both sides, in fact.
I wish you luck, my friend. I hope you get there with all my heart. But please remember to remember that they're all douchebags for wanting this in the first place. And they don't deserve you one bit.
And no, this is not a rant about how the UN in particular and major Human Rights organisations in general exploit their interns by literally making them pay in order to work and gain some much needed experience that they can then ad to their CV in the hope of one day making it to a job that actually pays the rent. The internet is crammed with those, written in a variety of ways way more creative than this.
But let me tell you about this friend of mine. Let's call him Jose. He's applying for a position with a major Human Rights organisation that does stuff that sounds fancy with refugees and displaced persons over in America Latina. So far so good. It's an unpaid internship, you know, one of those that require 2 or 3 perfectly spoken languages, hell, you might as well have been born in 3 places at once in order to have 3 mother tongues (how is this still not a trend really?), a master's degree in a related field or higher, being a good team player and the usual bla bla. Oh, and please note in the extra remarks that you're responsible for your own plane tickets, accommodation, health insurance, living expenses, obtaining visas and whatever else money-related issues that arise from the luxury of working your ass off for us for free. Please excuse me while I go down the street and murder the first stranger I meet.
I can see the lot of you rolling your eyes thinking, "What got up HER ass?! This is a perfectly well-known fact, one that has existed for a long time and one that is not going to change in the near future." And the internet is full of these rants, too.
I too have applied for such positions. I too have been desperate to get a job in my field, so desperate in fact that I might even consider working for free.
But when it's about a friend, it's personal, bitches.
You see, Jose is my closest friend. Jose is one of the most amazing guys I've ever met, and what makes him more amazing still is that we'd stuck to friendship and stopped there so we didn't have to get all disillusioned about each other and all that shit. A stupid CV can never ever begin to explain how amazing this guy is, and why having him on a team of Human Rights activists would be a highlight to any team and to any job. Jose sometimes acts before he thinks, but he is always aware of his environment and he never lets down the people who depend on him. He is smart and funny and dedicated to what he believes in in a way that might have made him the new Che Guevara, if times had been different. He's prepared to fight and to die for what and who he believes in. Too bad he's only allowed to write impersonal cover letters crammed with the Human Rights' world phrases that let others know you're in, you're one of them. So unfortunate for those guys who would consider whether to "hire" Jose or not (where "hire" means "generously allow him to work for us for free") based solely on a paper or two, where he is his most formal self and where they don't even begin to get a glimpse of the awesome personality that lies within. So unfortunate for both sides, in fact.
I wish you luck, my friend. I hope you get there with all my heart. But please remember to remember that they're all douchebags for wanting this in the first place. And they don't deserve you one bit.