Internship hunting for this summer is in full effect, folks.

As always, there’s the heavily debated question of how ethical unpaid internships are and whether all internships should be paid. While it might seem like a cut-and-dry situation, it’s actually a bit more complicated than what you might expect.

Susan Knell, director of the College of the Liberal Arts’ Career Enrichment Network, said that it’s not that simple to determine what constitutes the “pros and cons” of paid versus unpaid internships.

“It’s really more a question of what the student is interested in and what they hope to gain from the experience,” Knell said. “For example, in some fields, unpaid internships are the norm. So if a student wants to gain experience in that field or industry and start building a network of professional connections, they will have to complete an unpaid internship in order to do so.”

“If a student is interested in social or human services and working in non-profits, for example, it’s important for them to understand the budgetary landscape, and that likely means the organization is not going to be able to offer a paid experience,” she continued. “In both paid and unpaid internships, students have the chance to gain experience in a career field of interest, develop and/or refine specific skills, and build a network of professional contacts.”

Of course, the ethical nature of unpaid internships is always questioned by college students. For students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds, an unpaid internship might not be the most viable option.

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which provides guidelines for when internships should be paid, the “FLSA requires ‘for-profit’ employers to pay employees for their work. Interns and students, however, may not be ’employees’ under the FLSA—in which case the FLSA does not require compensation for their work.”

With this comes a “primary beneficiary test” that determines whether an intern or student is considered an employee or not. This determines whether an intern or student would be paid for their work or not.

The seven determining factors are: whether there’s a promise of compensation, how similar the training is to an educational environment, how the internship is tied to one’s coursework, how the internship accommodates an intern’s academic commitments during the school year, the time length of the internship, how the internship’s work is similar to a regular employee’s job, and how well both the intern and employer understand that the intern isn’t entitled to compensation at the end of the internship.

However, no single one of these factors defines whether someone is considered an intern or not. Rather, it depends on the unique circumstances of each case determined by courts.

Some companies and organizations don’t have the money in their budgets to pay interns for their time. However, they can offer career advice and experience.

Although a paid internship is what most college students want, Knell said companies simply don’t need to host internships if they can’t afford to pay them, which would make students miss out on the opportunity to gain experience.

“In those cases, they are offering their time and expertise to coach and guide the students,” Knell said. “A non-profit could just as easily say they don’t want to host a student intern because they can’t offer pay, which would then also deprive the student of that opportunity for learning and networking.”

It seems very easy to view unpaid internships as inherently bad, but there are a few benefits to them. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a 2016 study found that unpaid internships aid in college students determining their career interests, maintaining career goals, networking, and quality of supervision.

While unpaid internships aren’t accessible to everyone, the College of the Liberal Arts offers partial support to students through enrichment funds through alumni donations.

“We cannot fully fund any one student’s experience,” Knell said. “But we want to provide additional support to those who need it to make an internship experience a viable consideration.”

Unpaid internships definitely aren’t perfect, especially during a pandemic. But now more than ever, Knell said it’s important to gain some experience instead of no experience at all.

“I believe that gaining career-related experience through internships, volunteer experience, student organizations, [and] research, is more important than ever,” Knell said. “Organizations are seeking motivated, adaptable employees, and students being able to show their skills through a variety of experiences will make them stronger candidates. I also believe that networking is more important than ever, so students need to think about ways to develop broad professional networks in a remote environment.”

Aside from internships, Penn State students can use sources like LionLink, LinkedIn, Nittany Lion Careers, or Career Services to connect with career coaches or other Penn State alumni to grow their network.