Unpaid Interns

President Obama and his administration are concerned that unpaid internships are a violation of the minimum wage laws. I can understand their argument, but let me be frank and personal about this and leave my libertarian views on the sidelines. In today's economy, I will gladly take an unpaid internship! I am in an unfortunate position where I am about to graduate as a civil engineer and I have never done any real world work in civil engineering. I was not able to get an internship or co-op in my four years at this school so my experience is essentially zero. So that makes me a less valuable candidate for every job I am applying for. Furthermore since firms have been letting people go there is a new supply of more experienced smarter civies out there. Increased supply and decreased demand is putting a downward drive on the price of our services.

I figure why not offer my services for free? It would look great on my resume, and it would be hugely cost effective. However the employer would run the risk, and I would readily admit I would be up front about this, that I am going to leave the instant I got a paying offer. The employer would have to hedge his or her bets that I would be there for a long enough period of time to justify bringing me in free of charge to do some work.

So for all you civil engineering firms out there, one free intern right here at your own risk.

Why Do Women Leave?

In the Freakonomics blog yesterday was a post about a paper by Jennifer Hunt about why women are leaving the science and engineering fields. Her conclusion is that women have either family issues or are dissatisfied with promotional opportunities. I am not going to disagree with her point since I am neither in the field or a woman, but I am a civil engineer and I would like to point out something that I have noticed at an engineering school.

There are not that many women in the field to begin with. In Reinforced Concrete Design there were about 5 women in a class of 80, and in Senior Design (The Lake Champlain Bridge one) there is 6 women to about 70 students. I do not want to speculate as to why there are not as many women in the engineering field, and I will admit that my observations might be skewed because of my major. However this is has been an issue for a long time; people for years have been complaining that my school, "Has no chicks!" Since the inception of the business school in the early 90s the school has reversed that trend, and people keep telling me that the incoming freshman class is 50/50. I am skeptical though that we are obtaining more female engineers which is unfortunate.