Denver SID offices - Are you kidding me?

CoSIDA Job Center posting. I didn't post this on the Jobs page because it isn't a job... it's a full-time, year long SID "internship", and they want people for every single sport. And they will pay you nothing. This looks like a complete sham, and honestly shouldn't be legal.

See for yourself. They want applicants to have a Bachelor's degree and 1-2 years of experience for this.

http://www.cosida.com/jobs.aspx?jobid=1763

Is the whole department run by college kids?

 

It's illegal, plain and simple. Most unpaid internships are. Too bad there are cowards in the industry who go along with it.

 

Unpaid internships are nothing new. I did one back in the 1980s. In reality, it's not much different than any volunteer gig. Bottom line, if it ain't for you, don't apply.

 

Unpaid internships are illegal in many states, not sure about Colorado.

Volunteers can't be required to show up daily for certain mandated hours. That kind of accountability warrants a paycheck.

Given these jobs are at a university, it could be worse. Some student could be getting college credit for the experience, aka paying to work.

 

I've been in the business a long time - I have never seen a posting like this.

I made $15,000 as an SID intern, living in a large city. I was able to make it. Couldn't do that now, but young and out of college, it was great fun, a great experience, and launched a solid and stable career. But I would never do this internship - that's a joke.

Currently, Denver's athletic website lists a six-person staff - I assume they're all paid positions. Wonder if they're cutting the paid staff loose, but I haven't heard.

In college athletics, it's common to have volunteer assistant coaches - those coaches work for no salary, but get fringe benefits like clothing, meals, etc. from the school. They work the hours, but get to make at least some revenue through school-sponsored camps (basically a commission for running camps under the head coaches' name - I have a friend who was a volunteer assistant coach that pulled better than 50K in a year on camps alone at a major college.) Plus, they also have freedom within reason to draw income outside of the program - some at my current school are professional athletes while they coach.

It's unreasonable to think that unpaid, full-time, 10-month SID interns will get the same experience, opportunities or benefits (they won't, unless they travel and get per diem). I drew income as an intern working part-time for an NFL team, but those opportunities are rare. It's unconscionable to me to ask someone to work for the salaries that many sports journalists work for, but for free in the business of college sports with long days, nights and weekends is criminal.

Plus at Denver, imagine being the unpaid full-time PR person for sports like men's basketball, hockey or lacrosse. What could you possibly be getting from someone who agrees to work for free?

Problem is, I'm sure they won't be hurting for candidates. People want to work in sports. I hope no one takes this job.

 

We all know what you need in a job.

 

Just be thankful the Job Creators have created a job -- even if it pays nothing.

 

That would be illegal under federal law:

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm

An internship is also supposed to provide an educational aspect to it, instead of just work. These openings don't appear to be like that.

I've been looking for a website to contact the Dept. of Labor over this. Haven't found any websites for whistleblowers yet.

 

That's disgraceful. Whether legal or not, it's a complete embarrassment to the University of Denver and its athletic department.

 

That cracked me up.

 

I did an unpaid internship, but I was in school, it was only during the summer and I did get a full-course credit for it toward graduation.

This is doing a full-time job for a year. And they want applicants to already have experience. Unless you're really desperate to get a job and almost know for certain this will get you one when you are done, in addition to having someone who can support you (spouse, parents, sibling, whatever), I can't see how you'd even consider applying.

They want free labor to the extreme on this. Aren't there students at DU who could do this while at least earning credit or something?

 

Report it here.

http://webapps.dol.gov/contactus/contactus.asp?agency=WHD