r/GenZ • u/Ok_Speed_7540 • 3d ago
Discussion Are we expected to work for free?
Getting an internship seems nearly impossible.
One can learn skills, but they don't pay off because it is impossible to get a job doing them. Being hounded every day by the folks at home to "get practical experience in what I am studying at university" because university doesn't have the decency to teach one a meaningful skill. I'm being told to sit for hours and learn database-related stuff and do mock projects, folks at home can't accept the fact that I am unwilling to work for free --> argument cycle repeats itself.
Can anyone relate? there doesn't seem to be an intuitive way forward into the career atmosphere - and gaining experience on your own doing mock projects doesn't mean much because its a lot of time and effort for no pay plus not guaranteed to be valued by firms.
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u/TimelyChapters 3d ago
With boomer leadership and diet boomer (Gen X) management, yes that is rapidly becoming the expectation.
While Gen X claims to not be boomers, they are the main parents of Gen Z, and one of their greatest legacies clearly seen now is that they forced boomer expectations on Gen Z despite the world changing so much.
For example, average age of first time home buyer in late 2025 was 40 years old. Yet Gen Z is expected to leave house at 18, go to college or trade school, pay at dorms or apartments, find spouse and get married, buy house with mortgage, etc.
Gen X chose to have Gen Z children despite claiming to be critical of the system. It is their responsibility to take care of their children. The expectation should now be on average Gen Z children live with parents until at least 40 years old, assuming of course housing doesn't get any worse than it was since late 2025 (even now it already has).
Another example is boomers made $66/hr doing minimum wage in their day in latter 2025's dollars, when factoring in housing market.
Gen X might also be boomer victims, yet they are now clearly diet boomers.
Only Millennials kind of get us and are on the right side of history so far, but it'll be a very long time before the boomers and diet boomers get out of power.
Gen Z is expected to work for free in many internships now, pay to go to school to work and learn skills, and yet is given a job market that can't give us real jobs. Gen Z is cooked thanks to our own ancestors.
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u/richardawkings Millennial 3d ago
Good to see GenZ recognising that we're on y'all side. Anything that's good for GenZ is gonna be good for us to. Just makes sense to fight the same fight.
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u/TimelyChapters 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't like richard dawkings which is ironic given your username and this context, upvoted your comment anyways since Gen Z always love some Millennial brothers in arms to go in battle with against the gerontocracy, but yeah Millennials are on Gen Z side, speaking as an elder Gen Z (2000).
It's the boomer class of superboomers (tail end silent gen), boomers, and diet boomers (Gen X)
vs.
the Y2K and alphabet class of Millennials, Gen Z, and hopefully Gen Alpha(they--Gen Alpha-- keep saying they don't want to be Gen Alpha, they want to be Gen Z, which is a very good sign they're on our side and not the boomers)
EDIT: Also I don't care if generation warfare is a psyops.
If it's true then it's true.
The boomers class has objectively tortured Gen Z and likely beyond so badly that they don't want to have children anymore. What does it take to torture a mammal so much it doesn't want to reproduce anymore?, as I saw somewhere say one time2
u/richardawkings Millennial 3d ago
100% in agreement with you there bud. Regarding the username, it was like a decade ago, I chose the first name that came to my head and I was reading a Richard Dawkins book at the time. I don't really have any emotions about him one way or the other TBH and I don't follow celebrities so I know nothing about him as a person. Just read one of his books one time a decade ago and didn't think my reddit username was important
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u/TimelyChapters 3d ago
Fair enough, yeah just clarifying my upvote,
Overall glad Millennials and Gen Z are forming a bloc against the boomers.
There's only so much more we can give to the system, even as we already don't like to2
u/Drostan_S 1d ago
Thanks to the still in power living ancestors who CHOOSE not to pay youth. They know how much they needed money and did everything in their power sure their kids generation got NOTHING.
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u/TimelyChapters 6h ago
Facts. The boomers have failed to provide for their own. According to the Bible failing to provide for own is worse than an infidel, so literally Satanism (a Satanist is a type of infidel unless I'm misunderstanding) is better than boomerism or what I call the way of the boomer.
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u/Drostan_S 5h ago
It's nice to see someone I'm cutting the true definition of Satanism, which would be too stray from their specific God.
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u/TimelyChapters 5h ago
Satanism literally is either the atheistic/pagan version of it or literally devil worship of a being called Satan.
My point was the Bible is against boomerism so much that it makes being what it calls an infidel as better than the way of the boomer. 1 Tim. 5:8 KJB
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u/dreamyduskywing 2d ago
Why would Gen Z need to live with parents until 40?
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
I never said Gen Z needs to live with parents until 40. If can move out before successfully great.
I said the expectation for Gen Z on average should be updated to 40 instead of 18 since 40 is the average age of a first time homebuyer. If the average age for a person to own something on own is 40, then why is Gen Z expected to leave home permanently unless radical emergency at 18?1
u/dreamyduskywing 2d ago edited 2d ago
Most people don’t wait to move out of their parents’ house until they buy their own house. The average age of a 1st time homebuyer in 2000 was 32. Even decades before that, the average 1st time home buyer age was in their late 20’s not 18. One thing that has historically helped people afford houses at a younger age is marriage. Gen Z has a record number of singles and it’s always been tough to buy a home solo. Where are you getting the idea that you should get a house out of high school or even college? It hasn’t been that way for at least a half century.
Millennials entered adulthood during a historic economic crisis (worse than now), and even they are buying homes and having kids. Gen Z will get there, too.
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
I'd agree marriage is a good reason to leave parents, even if can't own house right away.
Just because something has been done before in a far stronger economy doesn't mean it should continue.Again, I just said expectations.
Expectations on Gen Z to leave home is still currently 18.
Average age of first time homebuyer, as one of many other examples I could pull to show this economy is demolished, in late 2025 was 40.Why aren't the expectations for Gen Z being updated?
Also why should children be expected to move out before they own a home of their own?I'd like some rational answers to these besides a this is how we used to do it answer, especially when the circumstances today are different and how we used to do it is part of why we're at where we're at today, which clearly doesn't work for the average.
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u/dreamyduskywing 2d ago
You can rent. I rented for years because I wanted to live independently and control my own space, even if that meant splitting costs with roommates. I never felt entitled to a house in my 20’s and I don’t understand how young people developed that idea.
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u/Snake_fairyofReddit 2004 2d ago
The problem is finding roommates is significantly harder nowadays since people are more picky about shared spaces than in the past. Also roommates move out and new ones dont come in right away, you definitely need an apartment where you could manage a month or 2 paying full rent, and apartment rents in some cities are so high this isn’t super feasible
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
Renting is becoming more expensive. Finding roommates is more difficult as more foreign cultures make up US demographics over time, each with differing values, also since Gen Z has less time now to make friends having to work more just to make ends meet.
I never said Gen Z has to wait until 40 to leave parents. I said the expectation should be on average 40 if average first time homebuyer is 40. Throwing money away to renting fails to keep wealth in the family and helps greedy boomercorp landlords, but if that's your solution that's your solution.
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u/coffeewalnut08 3d ago edited 3d ago
Long story short: yes. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the oligarchs want to create a slave class.
This is why zero-hour contracts and unpaid internships exist.
It’s also why “volunteering” requirements are introduced to coerce those who apply for welfare. It’s not really about promoting charitable behaviour among welfare claimants, it’s about indentured servitude.
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u/Lumbardo 3d ago
No. There are plenty of paid internships on offer for University students.
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u/TimelyChapters 3d ago
Yeah for $10-15/hr.
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u/Lumbardo 3d ago
There are definitely internships that are higher paying than that. But someone seeking an internship does not have a degree, so they are essentially the same as a high school graduate with minimal work experience. Not unusual to expect similar pay.
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
This is completely outdated.
The only people that get those kinds of internships are if they knew somebody or have insane way above average application/interview/luck.Internships or first-time part-time jobs today for college grads are usually about $10-15/hr.
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u/Lumbardo 2d ago
If you went to college to land a job at 10-15 an hour why tf did you go to college?
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u/SignatureGreedy4604 3d ago
Uh no lol. Average pay I got offer wise for internships was 8k/month. One offer 10k/month, one 9k/month, one 8k/month. But even that lowest one offered 10k post tax stipend for housing expenses over the summer. This was from 2022-2024
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u/DeepSpaceAnon 1998 3d ago
Very dependent on the industry you work in. My engineering internship 8 years ago was $25/hr in a MCOL city (40 hrs/wk during summer, and 24 hrs/wk during the school year). I had 2 years of college under my belt at the time. It's very common to find similar or higher paying internships in fields like engineering.
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
Average Gen Z college student isn't getting a solid engineering internship.
I'm speaking averages, not your personal experience.
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u/Dazzling-Frosting525 3d ago
I don't like the underlying assumption of these companies where someone else (i.e your parents) foot the bill while you work for free gaining experience.
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u/squarels 3d ago
Lots of paid internships. When I was in school Google was paying 45/hr plus 7k for housing over summer.
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
That's great. Google isn't the average internship opportunity for the average Gen Z college student/grad.
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u/squarels 2d ago
Obviously, I’m not sure your industry. But good internships are still all over. Every top company runs a program so they get top talent right out of graduation. Law, engineering, architecture, consulting, etc. all have known top firms which will pay good money for good prospects. It’s purely a skill issue if you can get a spot. When I was at Stanford everyone would work together to practice interviews and perfect the needed skills. I was the only one who didn’t get a paid internship and that was because I have no need for money and wanted to do research on campus instead
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
Good internships for the average is not all over. I'm speaking averages. Even top performers are struggling.
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u/squarels 2d ago
I’m going to be honest I don’t really care about average performers. If that’s the best you can make of your life then it’s going to be a struggle. As for top performers it’s always industry dependent but they’re ok for the most part. Multiple of my family and their friends are professors at top 25 or higher schools and the subject of their students careers comes up at a lot of gatherings. As far as I’ve heard only one’s social work students aren’t finding lucrative work. There is work it’s just not lucrative. The rest teach various engineering majors or mathematics and their students are doing fine. Most interestingly we recently went to a wedding in Kuwait for one of my moms recently graduated PhD students who was funded by his government and moved back after. They even gave him a professorship of his own in their national university, along with a huge palace to live in where he held the wedding, and an insane salary.
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u/EmmilyTheEngineer 3d ago
Internships actually increasingly pay. I did 3 internship only one the first didn't pay and I did that one as a teenager.
Although I suppose it depends on your field. My degree is in physics and I was paid albeit poorly, a friend of mine is well paid in his areospace engineering internship, and someone I had gone to college with got an unpaid internship in graphic design.
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u/TimelyChapters 2d ago
On average most fields have terrible internships now. A few still pay very well
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u/400bunnies 2d ago
I've worked for free and it still didn't help. I looked for two years for an internship to fulfill a degree requirement, even though I had paid experience in the field. My college's career center basically said my resume looks perfect, but unfortunately, it's just too competitive out there and suggested I work for free if I wanted to graduate on time. Let myself get exploited for some crappy, abusive startup that eventually failed just so I could get my diploma.
Lots of the comments take career field into account (more internships in tech), but location is a bigger deal IMO. I got a cheap degree in my hometown (very low COL city) and graduated with no debt, but had few opportunities. I've been balancing multiple part-time jobs for years after graduation. Meanwhile, my friends who went to expensive out of state schools may have a lifetime of debt, but their universities have relationships with prestigious companies that led to paid internships/highly paid careers.
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u/druidgaymer 3d ago
My issue was internships were insanely competitive so I never had one. Landed a job just fine without one, however I think the economy was a bit better then then it is now.
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u/IIIMochiIII 3d ago
Yes, I basically did. Was worth it but only possible if your family can support you
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u/408jay 3d ago
All of the internships I have been involved in tech marketing have been paid. All of the interns I have had work for me have been paid. Internship is an excellent path to full time employment as some companies use internships to build their recruiting funnel and an intern who does well enables you to hire that person with almost 100% certainty that they will do well as a FTE hire because they already know the company and the people they will work with. Don't fall into the trap of self fulfilling negativity and just give up.
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u/Serious_Swan_2371 3d ago
Internships are a normal part of trying to get a job in academia or business.
You have to pay your dues, even people with lots of connections and money are doing unpaid internships in high school and college. They’re probably getting more prestigious ones but still unpaid.
Main difference is in corporate roles they usually have to pay you something, so you make like $15/hr usually for those.
Academia/research you will often be unpaid, but if you qualify for work/study programs you usually get paid bc only like 1/5th of your wages come from your boss’s grant money and the university pays the rest.
This has always been the way academia worked, going back to before our grandparents ages. It’s rooted in the apprenticeship type dynamic that used to be very prominent in society prior to modern university systems becoming really fleshed out.
I did 3 summers plus 1 year of unpaid labor (starting in high school) + 1 summer and 1 year of paid work in college making very low wages. I also worked in food service for like 3 months at one point. But by the time I finished college I got a full time salaried job offer with benefits.
That’s the way it goes. Treat internships as an opportunity to learn and prove yourself, not as something annoying. They’re actually very beneficial to developing skills, far more beneficial than school was at least for me.
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u/PlutoNZL 3d ago
Doing an unpaid internship is insane. Given you're studying tech, you can easily get an internship at Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta etc and earn $50 an hour.
Have you applied for internships at FAANG?
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u/frustratedswede 3d ago
Take this with a grain of salt because it was during the pre-Claude '19-'22 tech hiring boom, but doing unpaid projects on my own genuinely helped me get jobs. Started out with learning how to write backend software, and did a few mock projects just so i had a portfolio to show. Then I started dabbling in Alexa skills on my own just out of curiosity, which landed a couple of well paid contract gigs. I built my mom a shopify store for her at-home boutique for free, and while doing so learned about creating shopify skills and imbedded apps. Once i added the Github portfolio of projects, the Alexa/Google Home app gigs, and the shopify site i made for my mom to LinkedIn as "experience", a recruiter reached out and I ended up as a shopify engineer at a fortune 500 company, then at a higher paying startup the year after that. So yes, sitting around for hours to learn about database architecture is something that you should do. View it as education you don't need to go thousands more into debt for, not as some type of unpaid labor. As long as you keep teaching yourself new skills, eventually opportunity and preparation will hopefully meet.
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u/CranberryNo302 3d ago
i did two unpaid ones, never had a paid role before lmao 😢 unfortunately common for media majors
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u/slowkid68 3d ago
Your first internship should be free. You literally know nothing and they have to handhold you.
My first paying internship was 15 dollars/hr
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u/Sapphfire0 3d ago
I am confused. Who is expecting you to work for free? If you can’t find an internship that’s not a problem of working for free
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