Denver SID offices - Are you kidding me?

Same goes for such volunteer positions as ball kids and ushers and drivers at tennis tournaments. You sign a form saying how many shifts you will work, and you are pretty much expected to be there. Your "pay" is all the tennis you want to watch (while you're not working) and a few dollars in food coupons.

 

Sure, you sign up to volunteer, you are making a commitment. But if you volunteer to man the Red Cross blood drive Tuesday and Friday afternoon, no one is going to say you also need to work Wednesday and Sunday night or you're fired.

This posting describes a full-time job and includes the phrase "and other duties as assigned."

I uses freelancers that I actually pay. And I do not demand that they take on every assignment or be fired. They are free to take an assignment or not.

So I would think the bar would be lower for someone doing the work for free.

 

Our bar is not lower whatsoever. Heck, I do better work than some of the people here who are on salary. My own bar is WAY high.

As a Red Cross volunteer, my job was to be in the office from X to Y and do certain tasks. If I wasn't going to be in that day, I was expected to call and/or find a replacement. There was no "oh, she's a volunteer so it's OK if she doesn't show." Or if, as a member of the disaster relief team, I just didn't show up to a house fire because I didn't feel like it.

I don't mean to condone this Denver thing. I was only quibbling with the wording of "requiring" something of an unpaid intern. I believe you can, because that is in the agreement when you sign on. You do as agreed, even if there's no salary/compensation present.

That said, I hope no one signs on for these positions, because they're insane.

Oh, for the record: Best volunteer gig around: beer girl at a charity golf tournament.

 

I guess my biggest problem with this is how they require a degree and experience but offer no pay. I wouldn't even call it volunteering. It's actual employment. With really, really terrible pay. It's getting free labor for a full-time job. They are getting away with it by calling it an internship.

How many companies out there even offer internships for people with that much experience? I know most offer them to current students and some to people right out of college. But with one or two years of experience? That's someone who needs a job, not more experience with an internship. I once worked closely with an SID department that offered more or less a one year graduate assistant position. It was more or less their second full-time SID assistant, but the position flipped every school year. Good experience for the kids who got the gig and they almost always got a good job somewhere else afterward. Almost seems what Denver is doing here, except it was paid.

I get that volunteers have to abide by a schedule and you should take pride in what you do, etc., but I would think if the working environment went south or the people who took these positions started losing interest there's just nothing to keep them there or keep them toeing the line. Then Denver would be short staffed. Not that it wouldn't be deserved.

 

Good for you for volunteering. I am just pointing out that in addition to requiring certain tasks that you sign on for, in Denver you are also on the hook for "other duties as assigned."

I don't know how anyone in good conscience can ask what they are asking -- or might ask -- of folks, especially with the strict requirements they have to begin with.

Maybe they have donuts every morning, so it's all worth it.

 

Other than the "Bachelor's degree in journalism, communications or a related field; 1-2 years of sports information experience;" this sounds like pretty much any sports information internship anywhere. You're getting hands-on experience assisting with a sport.

"other duties as assigned" is a boilerplate line that appears in pretty much any job description you're going to see and it's probably required by the school's HR department. I'd blame them for that before I'd jump the DU SID office.

That said, they've got enough full-time staff that these positions shouldn't be the sole contacts for whatever sports they're working with.

 

DU students can afford it

 

I don't work in the SID field, but I have worked with SIDs for a long time and I've never seen this type of arrangement before.

I've seen undergraduate student assistants, many of whom work long hours for little or no pay. I've seen graduate assistants, who earn a modest stipend while working toward their Master's degree. But, boilerplate or not, I've never seen an unpaid "job" created for post-graduate professionals in the way that is described by UD.

 

It's just like working for the Red Cross, except that whole humanitarian exception thing that doesn't look to include SID duties

 

The ad doesn't read like you'd be assisting with those sports. Reads like you are the primary person. If you are just a second banana on minor sports, why the strict qualifications?

 

There's another ad, and this time, the unpaid intern gets to supervise undergrads.

http://www.cosida.com/jobs.aspx?jobid=1764

It's sad when a D-III school with a listing on CoSIDA is paying its intern.

 

Their in-house photog internship is also unpaid:

http://www.cosida.com/jobs.aspx?jobid=1765

"The intern will serve as the primary on-site photographer for DU athletic contests as well as special athletic department events."

Surprising that they didn't ask to provide their own gear. Maybe you find that out on the interview.