When it comes to being a contractor and starting out a lot of people are often desperate to land any kind of work even if it pays less or is not the ideal type of client they would want. That’s normal starting out and at the same time there are those who are constantly looking for people to do things for free in which it is advised to never do so if you are a professional. But I was reading how for one organization it was essentially their cost cutting strategy to find people who would work for free.
They took advantage on how there is always a pool of talent who wasn’t working with the lure that if they do a great job it may lead to paying work. They also advertised to students who simply needed experience and those groups of people wouldn’t usually argue back. It’s just so surprising to me at how long the company has been able to do this. Granted they are a smaller business and this will likely never be doable if you are say a McDonalds restaurant trying to get people to work for free voluntarily. But it’s still so surprising how one can essentially slip by the radar this way.
I do know if one company that essentially has a “fake it till you make it” mentality as they continuously recruit people under the label of an “intern” to act as essentially free telemarketers of sort. They don’t even get the experience they are looking for in their desired field. I suppose one way to protect yourself nowadays is to try and read public reviews on companies where former workers can share experiences. When you see one company with a long range of “interns” or contractors expressing displeasure as an example then that is a good sign that the company is just trying to save money versus offering people beneficial experience while potentially finding new talent for the future.