Thinking About Working: Issue #5
Written by Noah Leavitt, Director of the Career and Community Engagement Center
Determining What Work is Right for You
Like many topics we discuss at Whitman, “work” is complex. Of the myriad professional roles and ways to be employed there are few straightforward answers to the question “Should I take (or keep) this job?” Choosing how to invest one’s time, labor, and expertise varies by individual. Today I want to explore an example of how decisions about working can be different for different people.
Should I take work projects that are paid “per project”?
As you may have read in yesterday’s weekly Career and Community Engagement Center (CCEC) newsletter, Whitman students now have access to micro-internships, shorter-term projects that employers around the country need help with and are willing to pay students to learn from and complete. These projects will be completed by students on their own time (on the employer’s timeline, of course) and will be managed remotely through a platform hosted by a company called Parker Dewey. This platform opens a direct relationship between students and employers, while Parker Dewey manages the Human Resource details.
One way to think about these micro-internships is that they are an excellent opportunity to gain professional experience, get paid, and work on your own schedule.
A different way, though, is to see them as creating a way to reduce the number of staff needed at an organization or company by outsourcing work to people that aren’t looking for the benefits or commitment that come with being a full-time employee. Are they taking opportunities away from people who need full-time work? There is a lot of conversation about whether the gig economy, of which micro-internships could be considered one part, is problematic (Oxford University has a helpful overview of this landscape).
Students may reach different decisions about participating based on how they view the situation.
After much discussion, we in the CCEC decided to offer this realm of work to students as a way to gain professional experience. From an ethical standpoint, we believe that this is an additional option instead of internships that are unpaid and where a student is not supported through the Whitman Internship Grant program. (Our colleagues at the National Association of Colleges and Employers have done amazing work leading the charge to get employers to create more paid internships because of access and equity concerns, with recent findings pointing to particular challenges for LGBTQ+ students)
In this situation, different students may reach different conclusions based on factors such as individual financial needs, their ethical frameworks, professional goals, obligations or commitments to others, and a variety of other contextual factors.
When it comes to work and working, students will have to decide for themselves what is acceptable to them. Do they move away from what might be an important opportunity because the situation seems unfair or disagreeable or do they move toward it, trying to benefit as much as they can from the opportunity and also potentially gain the ability and influence to make changes “from the inside”?
Whitties: my colleagues and I in the CCEC welcome the opportunity to unpack the complexity of the world of work with you. This is just one of many scenarios that are far from straightforward that you are likely to encounter once you finish college. Gaining comfort and practice with thinking about working while you are at Whitman will let you know how to identify and options that will be satisfying for you in the decades ahead.