Internship Opportunity, London, Oct/Nov 2011. Processing, Arduino, PureData, Wea

We are seeking a motivated & enthusiastic tech intern to work on a show at the Riverside Studios, London, UK in October (rehearsals) & November (the run is 16th - 26th, though not every night).

The candidate must be available for all or most dates - some full days but mostly evenings. We are integrating open- and closed-source sensor and music-production technologies, including Ableton/PureData/Programming/Arduino, to create wearable wireless media controllers, and are looking for someone who can become the 'go-to' person in case of technical issues. This would involve learning the show so they can set it and test each night and becoming familiar with the programming we have used so that it can be tweaked and/or 'repaired' if necessary. The successful candidate doesn't need to have direct experience of everything we've used but must understand the field well enough to be able to come up to speed quickly.

The position may also involve helping to run the sound desk and/or lighting. The company is a lot of fun to work with, and there is scope for collaboration and suggesting creative ideas of your own. Most of us are involved in other companies and the right person could end up with further work but we must stress we are a professional company and this is a prestigious run for us, so we someone prepared to put in the time and who understands a lot of tech rehearsing is sitting around waiting. The position is unpaid but we will be able to cover some expenses.

If interested, please contact darrell AT darrell-berry.com

the right person could end up with further work

The position is unpaid

Wow!

The problem is that I am old fashioned and believe that you should expect to pay for what you get. I strongly disagree with free slave labor but it looks like an other curse from the Americas is coming over here.

It's been here for quite some time.

Ever heard of 'internship generation'. It's a crude translation from German and probably not quite right (language wise). My country is plagues by this.

I particularly like it when someone is looking for an "unpaid intern" to actually implement a commercial product that actually hasn't been designed or built yet... in other words, not just free labor, but free design and research.

But hey, when someone comes up with a great technology idea like "If I can get someone else to invent something for me, do all the work, but I can collect the profits and claim I did it..."

Those of us who have been around the block a few times recognize this kind of thing pretty fast. The advice I'll give ... you are going to get what you pay for...

we are a professional company and this is a prestigious run for us

The position is unpaid

Not prestigious or professional enough to actually pay someone to do what could wind up being a very stressful job (imagine a technical failure just before the show starts or even during it).

To be honest, unless you luck out and find someone with nothing else to do and who also happens to just love what you're doing I doubt you'll get any takers.


Rob

Contrary to the opinions of the foregoing replies, I think that Internships in London are a fabulous idea: don't forget that its the well trodden route for non-English European Nationals to get on-the-job exposure this way in London whilst they practice their English speaking skills, I for one was thinking of actually taking time off for this from my regular day job (full time Software Engineer in the City), just for a little fun!

Also, it should not be overlooked that having interns actually costs companies quite a lot ... we recently considered the idea but chose not to because of how many hours it would detract from the core team just to cross-train them ... the bracket on this is either {intern for at least three months for free or 400 a day contractor for at least three months} ... and the bottom line is that even Interns just become cost effective if you take them on for at least three months ~ even if you don't pay them.

Conclusion: Companies actually incur a real cost overhead by having interns who are paid only their travelling expenses.

Best wishes to the Arduino guys who made the original post!

I feel that if people do the same work as a 'full time' employee, they should be payed the same. Not paying at all or paying well below minimum wage forces the government to compensate. Effectively such a company gains a economical advantage, which is payed for by tax money. This is condemnable and every single cent of profit gained in such a way should be taxed at 100%.

I agree with madworm, also:-

Companies actually incur a real cost overhead by having interns who are paid only their travelling expenses.

We are not saying they don't but what do they actually gain? If it is less than the overheads plus a minimum wage then they should not be doing such activity. That is simple economics.

They are only sponging of everybody else for their own gain. So I assume you are against level playing fields and approve of the dog eats dog and the devil takes the hindmost attitude of capitalism that seems to have got the world into the mess it finds itself in at the moment.