Seeking to Serve Students and Stop SPEC

If you follow this blog at all then you have no doubt read one of my articles speaking out against the evils of speculative work. In addition to my hatred for spec, I have also used this blog to provide advice to design students. The result of these combined efforts is CreativeInternships.com. Spec work finds the majority of its victims from those who are inexperienced and lack the knowledge to see past the false claims being made. Designs students are typically a large part of this group of victims because they are desperately seeking experience to break into what is a very competitive field. Creative Internships hopes to avoid this by making access to Internship positions more available.

THE NEED FOR A RESOURCE

You may be thinking that the design schools already offer similar services, which is very true. This is however not the case with all schools. The amount of resources given to students to find internships varies greatly and students are often left scouring the web for positions hidden within other job boards. Additionally the schools who do offer placement programs also tend to have more students than positions which makes finding listings outside the schools resources mandatory.

Benefits for Creative Firms

Creative firms benefit through the creation of such a resource as well. By creating a an established resource for internship positions creative firms can reach a larger pool of talent with minimal time invested. Additionally this service is being offered completely FREE in an effort to reach as many employers as is possible. Job boards charge a large amount to post listings which is not feasible for the high turnover that comes with interns. Being a free service will also make finding interns more financially feasible.

BUT HOW WILL THIS FIGHT SPEC?

Unlike similar free/low-cost options like Craigslist, I will be personally moderating all of the submissions to make sure that all listings are non speculative. This ensures that listings are of the highest quality and eliminates the need to scour through a large number of listings.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Helping is easy, if you are looking to fill an internship position some time in the future why not list it? It’s free and only takes a couple of minutes. You can also help spread the word by posting a link on your blog or sharing it via your social network of choice.

I sincerely believe that the entire design community has something to gain from creating an established internship listing site. Students need the experience, and firms need the help. Let’s help the students avoid SPEC and gain the right type of experience!

I also wanted to apologize to the faithful readers for my lack of posts over the past week. I was focused on making Creative Internships see the light of day and I hope you can see why!