Unpaid Internship or Level 1 IT Support?

Lacko on 10/05/2017 - 19:08
Last edited 11/05/2017 - 23:40

Hey people I'm looking for some sagely Ozbargain advice,

I've recently finished my degree last year with a degree in Commerce major in Business Information Systems. Im now stuck in a situation (as in today), where I can either take a job offer of 40k for a level 1 IT support position or take an unpaid 3 month internship at another company (transport paid).

The problem is that the internship is really geared to what I want to achieve in my professional career, namely down the IT/Business path of a Business Analyst but since there's no promise of job employment (they said they would if I performed well, but you can't trust that).

While the pay for the IT support job kinda puts me off, but it's also a pathway to get my foot in the door and learn some technical skills that may help me in the future.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Cheers.

Edit: Would it be unwise for a third option, to not take any of them and continue finding a paying job more applicable for me (more in line of my desired career path), I only say this as the full-time position company is quite small and I would most likely aim to only reach a year before moving.

Education & Work

Comments

  • KitchenSink on 10/05/2017 - 19:43
    +5

    Nothing great about being level 1 IT support (in my experience), but it is a foot through the door. But if you can support yourself somehow without money for 3 months (like living with parents or whatever), go for the internship and if you don't get a permanent job thereafter, you can always look elsewhere, but at least this time you have experience in what you want to do in the future. It may be a waste of time, but you gain valuable experience in the right field you want to play in. There's always level 1 IT support jobs everywhere anyway.

  • [Deactivated] on 10/05/2017 - 19:45
    +3

    a job offer of 40k for a level 1 IT support position

    take that

  • mskeggs on 10/05/2017 - 19:45
    +7

    Is the internship via your uni?
    If not, they should be paying you if you are working.

    • brokeunistudent on 10/05/2017 - 21:40

      Yeah OP, take them to court if they don't

  • eagleoftheeast on 10/05/2017 - 20:01
    +4

    A job is a job, sad to say this but most employers think unpaid internships means you still have no work experience.

  • kywst on 10/05/2017 - 20:21
    +2

    here

  • Randxyz123 on 10/05/2017 - 20:28
    +3

    Take the job with money…

    I wouldn't take a internship. You've done your degree.

    3 Months with no guarantee of a job…? No way

  • xoom on 10/05/2017 - 20:49

    a paid foot in the door is still better. take that option.

  • plmko on 10/05/2017 - 20:57

    You're put off by a job that pays you $40k straight out of Uni?

    Wow

    • airal3rt on 10/05/2017 - 22:05
      +1

      That's basically minimum wage?

      • Lacko on 10/05/2017 - 23:40

        I know i shouldn't but comparing myself to some classmates its a bit low.

  • PVA on 10/05/2017 - 21:07
    +2

    Check if the unpaid intern is legal. Read the link that's posted above.

  • scrimshaw on 10/05/2017 - 21:08
    +1

    I would take the desktop analyst $40k position. At the very least, it's a permanent job, and while it does not pay that well, it gives you the chance to work upwards within the company.

    The unpaid internship role will not guarantee you anything — if you're really talented they might consider giving you a position but that's only if the planets align and they happen to have a job vacancy available in 3 months time. If they don't, you're out of a job and you will have no money..

    If the unpaid internship was with a Fortune 500 company (for example, Samsung or Microsoft or Google) I would immediately jump and take it, but if just a small biz, there's nothing much they can give you.

    • Lacko on 10/05/2017 - 23:53

      They're a medium sized company. They have offices in other countries and worked with some larger organisations like Nike & Canon. Thanks for the input anyway.

  • Peace Maker on 10/05/2017 - 21:29

    There is a famous saying, 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'.

  • c9 on 10/05/2017 - 22:35

    Take the 40k role. Intern is for people studying at uni, not finished uni.

    • Lacko on 10/05/2017 - 23:33

      It's labelled as a 'Graduate Program'.

      • Banana on 11/05/2017 - 09:11

        I am starting a vac program and getting paid for it. Don't do anything for free,especially if you're good at it.

  • lakes_8 on 10/05/2017 - 23:26

    Just don't get stuck in the 40k role..

    • Lacko on 10/05/2017 - 23:41
      +1

      If i do choose it, it's for the experience and technical skills.

  • Lacko on 10/05/2017 - 23:56

    Thanks everyone for commenting and sharing your opinions.

    In the meantime i've sent an email to the internship company in order to clarify the role (day to day tasks etc, is there any current employees who were interns) as well as my situation.

    I'll be sleeping on this and hopefully make up my mind tomorrow.

    • scrimshaw on 11/05/2017 - 02:14
      +3

      many companies take advantage of unpaid internships to exploit students so they can get a bit of free labour. Do your research well and probably even try to get in touch with ex-interns, and see where their 3 month tenure took them. Did they have nice things to say about the company? If not, avoid.

      Make a linkedIn account and try to network as much as possible. Talk to everyone and be nice.
      Networking gets you very, very far. I even got a Level 1 tech job without even holding any diplomas or degrees in computing. All it took was knowing the right guy and being persuasive. although….

      Level 1 is a dead end job though if you do not have the neccessary skills to move up, so I didn't stay long.

      • Lacko on 12/05/2017 - 00:18

        Yeah I have no desire to focus completely on the technical side of IT, in regards to your earlier comment the 40k company is smaller so growth from what I can take is going to level 2 and 3. Networking is something I should definitely start working towards though, thanks for taking your time to impart some wisdom haha.

  • RiseAndRuin on 11/05/2017 - 00:08

    40k isn't bad considering you have no experience. a real job/salary gives you some security, but more importantly it's a stepping stone and it gives you leverage to negotiate better conditions when you apply for the next job, with the same employer or elsewhere. best of luck.

  • Tcm9669 on 11/05/2017 - 08:47

    40k job, use your spare time to get industry qualifications white earning money (cisco, microsoft or whatever your line is). After 12 months, move on on up in the company.

  • Inzo on 11/05/2017 - 08:54
    +1

    You mentioned the unpaid internship is labelled as a 'Graduate Program'

    My organisation has a graduate program, where you work for 2 years, at 60k a year, whilst you decide if that's the position you want to head.

    It's not free labour like this place is asking you….

    • Lacko on 12/05/2017 - 00:11

      That sounds like a dream scenario, I've emailed the company regarding me having to decide between a paying job and the program, hopefully some justification can be made.

  • azonki on 11/05/2017 - 11:11

    It is illegal not to pay you for your work, no matter what it is called. Think twice and hard about working for a company that would stoop to this level.

  • tsunamisurfer on 11/05/2017 - 11:25

    I was in a similar position to the OP.

    I would take the $40k job because :

    1) You are getting paid.
    2) You are gaining working environment experience and learning ITIL could be a good stepping stone as a junior BA.
    3) As a Level 1 Support you can still demonstrate that you have BA type skills, eg :
    - Attention to detail.
    - Ability to communicate clearly to your clientele including the valued skill of listening to what they want.
    - Ability to solve problems OR articulate them so Level 2 and above people can solve them.

    When people are looking for a Junior BA, they don't have much to go on so a CV with those attributes would demonstrate a good fit for their organisation.

    I don't think I know anyone who just jumped straight to being a BA. Those I know have proven themselves within the business units as having knowledge and being able to communicate on several levels or have come up from the IT ranks like from support teams or testers.

    Best of luck.

    • Lacko on 12/05/2017 - 00:09

      Thanks for the advice mate, I fully understand that a BA role is something that progresses naturally from experience and building upon of skills, I've been unsure of the skills that a Level 1 IT support can really provide me to succeed. Do you have any opinions regarding moving on from Level 1 from a small company like in my case.

      • KitchenSink on 12/05/2017 - 00:22

        Well there will be the odd use case for example where you would have to fix a repeat issue by identifying the root cause and coming up with a solution while documenting it for future references. There are times when businesses will build/install new systems and will ask for input from stakeholders of the system/business or even you and you can outline a reoccurring issue that has come up.

        Or if there's a known issue that hasn't been fixed/can't be fixed within the current system you can outline it for when they are building a new system or about to build a new system. Example older servers/hardware not compatible with newer OS or driver support for holder hardware. Seen this a lot. Lots of small businesses don't like spending on hardware and would like to keep everything (my experience).

        A BA's main job is to identify the problem and define a solution that can help the business. A small issue identified in a level 1 support case can be big issue in the larger scale.

        You will learn this from being in support - weird problems/issues will gob-smack you and it can be interesting in finding the solution at tech support level. Hence you're already doing some BA work there in a way.

        Hope that helps.

        • Lacko on 12/05/2017 - 00:36
          +1

          Thanks for taking the time to write that KitchenSink.

          The comments so far, especially yours and tsunamisurfer have really given me an insight to how a L1 Support Job can provide the necessary experiences to grow as a professional in a direction I want to have.

          I guess I've been bogged down by my university education, with such a focus on producing documentation (UML, project plans, etc), which is why the internship struck a cord with me as I was required to send examples of my work, and had to do a test which required an example of a user story. I guess I felt that I've been wanting some evidence that my degree has provided me with skills and not a useless piece of paper, and upon reflection a double major should've been done.

          Thanks and it did help.

        • KitchenSink on 12/05/2017 - 08:40

          @Lacko: Just a little insight at level 1, you will most likely solve small cases like

          Forgotten/reset password
          emails bouncing back - user types wrong email address or their mailbox is full
          internet is slow - I pull my hair out at this, this could be interpreted as anything
          computer is slow - user most likely running unnecessary crapware or malware, too many tabs opened etc
          Malware infections - cryptolocker and its variants are gaining popularity now
          the "how do I do this" questions
          some form of data recovery

          All mostly user fault related problems. You would have to translate a technical solution in plain english…like a BA who talks between the business and IT because they won't understand error ID10t.

        • Clear on 12/05/2017 - 09:30

          @KitchenSink096:

          internet is slow - I pull my hair out at this, this could be interpreted as anything
          computer is slow - user most likely running unnecessary crapware or malware, too many tabs opened etc

          When these two go together it's worse. "My new computer is shit it's so slow" …. says the people on Satellite.

  • bradsmrbetty on 11/05/2017 - 11:56
    +2

    I think you already know the answer in yourself of which one you want.
    It maybe dishonest but I would take both and set the start date for the level one position for 2 weeks after the intership. You will know by then if all you're doing is grunt work or photocoping.
    Either way you're running the risk of satisfaction/long term vs income/ technical experience.
    If you can afford to turn down a first level support position then do you want to do, I take being a uni student you have survived on low money before?
    best of luck

  • Clear on 11/05/2017 - 20:57

    Take the paid job.

    Years back I was in a similar situation to you. At the time my background was primarily programming and I was offered a paid internship at a software development company for a couple of months. The company emphasised that there was high probability of a job with good prospects. I later found out that this company took advantage of interns by promising them a job, using them for cheap labour and dumping them at the end.

    I was later offered a low paying T1 support role at an IT MSP with good job security. This gave me the important skills needed to progress further in the industry and helped build relationships with the right people. Now I'm in a T3 role and work with a wide variety of companies including Fortune500/Global500.

    Certainly doesn't help when nearly every second kid out of high school likes gaming and wants to work in IT.

    • Lacko on 12/05/2017 - 00:02

      While I do not want a IT support career, It is disheartening to read about the exploitation of students and recent graduates. Thanks for the advice.

      • Clear on 12/05/2017 - 00:17

        A lot of people start off in IT support and branch out into other fields. It's a good starting point in the industry.

        Yeah it happens quite a lot. Many businesses will keep employing people on traineeships and letting them go at the end or taking advantage of work experience people. Just be careful with unpaid internships as they're not always legal.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/05/2017 - 21:24
    +1

    Just take the paid job you lucky bastard.
    I've been rejected from dozens of unpaid/volunteer positions, and that's after giving up searching for graduate/entry positions after 100+ applications.
    What I'd give to have that 40k position…

    • Lacko on 12/05/2017 - 00:05
      +2

      As my dad said, he thinks I'm in a lucky situation. I wish you all the best in your job search, I'm rooting for you!

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