It’s Web 101 for this experienced intern – Los Angeles Times.
The LA Times reports that a 55 year old former magazine editor at the LA Times is now working as an unpaid intern at a website targeting accomplished woman over 40. The sad story of a professional woman over 50 struggling with internet skills seems particuarly skewed and a bit mean-spirited. Considering that the 30 year evaporation of jobs from corporate America has left us with fewer and fewer people who can realistically expect to finance a house, much less keep the one they have been paying for, are internships for 55 year olds really a good idea? Have we so little respect for the pre-internet generation that their inability to cut and paste leaves no alternative but ask them to work for free, even as we create websites that cater to them?
Yet we never seem to learn from our mistakes, do we? What goes around comes around, and every generation seems to think that it has the inside track on technology, only to have their skill set surpassed by today’s toddlers. Ultimately we are all in this together, and finding answers for how to create and keep well-paying jobs in creative fields is something we all need to think about.