[mikecane]

Knew a guy in his his forties who wanted to work for an ad agency. Convinced them to use him for free for a while as a test and they wound up hiring him. YMMV.

[jpelker]

Cool! Slave labor and/or illegal minimum wage violations. Sounds like a great company.

Only an asshole company would do this to a future employee. And only an asshole would allow themselves to be exploited like this.

Guys: work on contract. Get paid. Your lack of self-esteem affects everyone else in the workforce trying to earn a living. Don’t sell yourself--or your peers--short.

[crazy5sheep]

Anyone wants to get paid, but not everyone has the chance at the very beginning.

[patmcc]

If a company isn't even willing to pay you minimum wage (which is really not much in most places), it is one or more of:

1) They can't afford to, so probably aren't a very successful business.

2) They want to keep out the people who literally could not afford to live under this arrangement. (Disproportionately non-white, female, etc.).

3) You'll be of even less value to them than the minimum wage (so probably wouldn't be doing anything worthwhile/educational).

Don't take an unpaid internship, even if you can afford it. It perpetuates a terrible idea.