[skilowg]

I've had both paid and non-paid internships and I've been fortunate enough to have the non-paid internship turn into a contract position and then a full-time position. However, what scared me about each position is that I was never told upfront if there was real possibility for a full-time position. I'm still against non-paid internships, but at a minimum, if you must have an unpaid intern, at least let them know whether or not that internship can realistically turn into a full time position or not and what benefits there will be as an unpaid intern. Set those expectations, that way at least the potential intern can weight the pros and cons for themselves whether or not the unpaid position is really worth their time.