….  what a  deal  for the   owner….  im  suprised  by this whole intern idea…

.maybe i  should  try  for interns  instead of   employees!! lol….  they would learn a lot…

@rich-brooks & @annfurnivallI used to runa computer lab for the American University in Paris. I had student workers that made minimum wage like pay, then we had interns who go class credit for when they did. Personally, I like the class credit. 
 One intern told me that he went to make coffee and the person that brought him in refused to let him. His company did not want the “intern who makes coffee” type jokes.
 Today, I am an IT Project Manager and manage the helpdesk team. we are based in Miami, Dallas, 3 sites in VA and Belgium. Would I be a bad person to bring in unpaid interns so that I can train young people up? Get them real jobs on their resume? My team is 15 guys, I can bring in 14 interns and attach them to an expert in the field and the intern would learn A LOT.
 Should I do that during summer vacation? Or am I a horrid person that wants to take advantage of the underemployed.
 And then the big question, how did you learn your job? I was in the Marine Corps for 8 years. I learned everything I needed to know to be a manager. While in the Corps I was assigned tasks, and that is where I learned project management. I once, in 24 hours, moved an anti-aircraft missile battalion 500 miles. Years later I moved a data center – following the things I learned in the Corps.
 And recently I had a client agree to pay me to teach him. An Intern that pays me. How cool is that!

i can  hear the  good  sides…especially   with   low  pay at least…..and if its  serious  on  both sides…. ….it  does  seem  like  a great  deal  for the companies…..hopefully  the   companies arent looking at it  just as  free help……  i would have a lot to teach about  running a store and marketing…but never thought of   getting help i  didnt pay  for….its  not  normal in my  world i guess…. 

i learned on the  job….and learned a whole lot   from our  first  business that  went under…. .

I’m on the board of a professional organization in the design industry and our chapter is offering unpaid internships to seniors and new grads in design fields. I’m even going to take on an intern or two myself.

I think it may depend on the industry. We have students who are lining up for these opportunities.

Well, one perspective is “The Fair Labor Standards Act defines an intern can only legally be unpaid if the intern is not doing necessary work for the company.” So there’s that. 
@dawnmooney For $10/hour I might label it something else “Junior” instead of intern. Surprised you are not getting candidates. 

For the folks looking to get free work out of youngsters I would encourage you to either have them learn truly meaningful things in opportunities they would not have otherwise or just make it a cool job.

From personal experience (I had cool internships in college):

• Leading hip-hop magazine — this was simply fantastic. Free shows and clothes, meeting famous people, gangsters, groupies, etc… Fantastic way to spend a summer. 
• Top record label — so-so. Some good shows, but role mainly consisted of making copies and running errands. 
• B2B magazine — Boring, but learned a lot. The only one where I felt like an adult. 

 @annfurnivall I am totally with @gkrakus on this. yeah sometimes interns can cost more, because of the time spent to train, and then they leave looking for a better paying job and use your experience instead of wanting to move up through the ranks in your company. 

Sometimes the amount of time needed to train and check the work in many cases costs more man power than you save. @rich-brooks is right, It takes a very organized plan and management team to successfully bring interns, or Outsource, employees on board. 

@dawnmooney interestingly $10 is a very difficult number because the people looking for work think it is not enough, and yet the interns do not apply, but will respond to a position that does not pay? I don’t get it.  

Did you see the forum thread about http://www.ziprecruiter.com? I believe there is a free 4 day trial.  @richardmclaughlin

@jorgemiranda I’ll reach out to him tonight.