SEPTEMBER 2006 :: CAREERS

Jobs for Sale
Internships Sometimes Go to the Highest Bidder at Auctions. Is That Fair?

By Ellen Gamerman
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Landing an internship at Nuveen Investments in Chicago is a competitive process, requiring an in-depth application and multiple interviews. Students who make the grade get a foot in the door at a big investment firm.

But this year, there was a shortcut--at least for kids at North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Ill. There, parents had the opportunity to buy a Nuveen internship for their child. One was sold this spring in the school's annual charity auction.

In the competitive world of summer internships, a new route to plum spots is emerging: buying them at auctions, often at elite private schools. This spring, internships at Morgan Stanley, NBC, Miramax, WebMD, Electronic Arts and a host of other companies have been put out to bid at auctions across the country. Bids often reach $2,000 to $5,000. Some internships are unpaid; in other cases, the winners' kids receive a salary.

Schools say internships have strong appeal at charity auctions with parents who see them as resume builders for college applicants. Companies view these internships as charitable contributions with a unique return: mentoring young talent.

Brian O'Neill, CEO of O'Neill Properties Group, says he was confident he would get strong interns when he donated two slots to the Episcopal Academy in Merion Station, Pa., which his son attended. He says he was relying on the school's high standards to deliver suitable internsÑregardless of who won the auction. "The vetting process to get into Episcopal is so rigorous," he says. The internships pay $400 a week.

Two Trends

The auctioning of internships reflects the convergence of two trends: ever-expanding fund-raising efforts at private schools, and parents' obsession with getting their kids into the right schools and eventually the right jobs. In some cases, it also stems from competition among parents to donate attention-grabbing auction items.

But critics say the practice raises questions. Connections have long played a role in getting internships. But putting them up for sale can mean discounting the merit of a potential intern altogether, and excluding kids whose parents can't afford the items. At public companies, shareholders may not consider supplying internships to school auctions an appropriate use of company resources, says Thomas Donaldson, a business-ethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Companies "have an obligation to hire the best people they canÑnot the highest bidder," he says.

Companies' rules about donating internships vary. Some say requests to donate must go through human resources and are reviewed individually. At Nuveen, the company says the auctioned position is one of 12 paid summer internships and was arranged through a senior executive at the firm. "The other positions are competitive, and we take a lot of care in making sure that everyone has ample opportunity to compete for these positions," says spokesman Chris Allen.

Tad Smith, CEO of Reed Business Information, says he erred in donating a six-week stint at one of the company's publications to a PTA-sponsored auction benefiting the Bronxville School in Bronxville, N.Y. The internship pays roughly $2,400 and fetched $2,500 at the school's fundraising auction, he says.

Mr. Smith says he initially donated the item in a charitable spirit to help the school, where his son is a first-grader. Soon after, though, he had second thoughts. He says he considers donating an internship to a charity acceptable if it advances the business interests of his companyÑfor example, an entertainment-related charity that would tie in with the audience of Variety magazine, one of Reed's publications.

"Is the Bronxville School reasonably related to Reed Business activity? In retrospect, I would say no, and that I made a mistake," he says.

Deutsch, an advertising agency, says donating internships to auctions lets the company reach kids who might not have thought of pursuing a career in the field. The company says it also has a minority recruiting program to ensure a diverse group of interns. Deutsch says it donated three of this year's internships to auctions at two charities that Chairman Donny Deutsch is affiliated with.

Deutsch says it won't disclose to its pool of 19 interns that three of them won the opportunity through auctions. But 19-year-old auction winner Marissa Hayat says she doesn't see a stigma and has told her fellow interns how she got it. "I'm not ashamed of it," says the Penn State student. "I told them I will work just as hard as all of them."

'The Perfect Prize'

Colleges don't routinely ask how applicants obtained the internships listed on admissions applications. But some admissions officials say an auctioned internship wouldn't add luster to a student's resume. "Our assumption is that an internship normally is the result of some sort of initiative that the student has taken on his or her own behalf," says James Miller, dean of admissions at Brown University.

Still, schools and charities pitch their donated internships as valuable additions to resumes and applications. An internship this summer at InStyle magazine "is the perfect prize for someone interested in advertising sales, marketing or the magazine industry," says the auction catalog for the Cosmetic Executive Women Foundation's December fund-raiser. At Cincinnati Country Day School, the auction described a two-week internship at luxury-goods maker Louis Vuitton as "a great opportunity to make contacts."

The internship, courtesy of a recent Country Day graduate who works there, sold for $950 to parent Susan Brainer, who bought it for her daughter as a graduation gift.

For Gary Lucas, an internship at Electronic Arts was a chance for his son Scott to get a taste of life in the working world and beef up his resume. Mr. Lucas and his wife paid $4,000 at the Urban School's auction in San Francisco to win the spot, which was donated by a co-founder of the company. "Maybe this is just, like, my big pre-job," says Scott, 15, whose hobbies include computer programming.

Is it fair to sell internships at auction? Write to letters.classroom@wsj.com.