Typical career advice to someone breaking into international development is to start with an internship. Internships are great for building experience and connections and sometimes can lead to a job down the line. And if you are lucky, you sometimes also get paid.
But is getting paid for an internship a good thing? Of course, you may say. Who wouldn’t want to get paid? And frankly, not many people are in the financial position to work for free.
But the issue of paid vs. unpaid internships can be a bit more complicated than that.