I was in the job market for the past few months and stumbled across postings where even certain well-known tech companies (startups can be considered as exceptions) were looking for unpaid interns. You could see smell their BS from a mile.
Irrespective of the down-votes, I do see another user expressing something similar. "I'm suspicious it is somehow related to the oil overlords. Big money, big risks."
While recently interviewing for a similar position (Program Manager) at Microsoft, I told the interviewer that it's also important to get a feel of your competition 1 month/1year from the present by following the angel and VC investments. He got so turned off that I felt I just bombed the entire interview.
Thanks a lot, jacquesm. Well said. I agree with you that given the current economic situation, it would be wise to accept whoever offers first than play cat-n-mouse games.
I (an Intl. student) usually try to buy meals of my friends (mostly Americans i.e.) but hardly get anything in return (I really don't expect anything in return any way) i.e. they act cheaply sometimes even though they have the $$ and live affluently - this is the trend I've noticed since my undergrad years (some of my other Intl. friends have echoed similarly) Yes, I was born in a different culture, where guests mean a lot to us, but it's more than that - a sense of gesture and common-sense (may be?).