Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese arranged PwC internship for his son

*shrug* It's just hard to care about 2 weeks of work exp, no matter what other issues PwC have.

It may be hard to care for you, but being cheated out of that opportunity and told no after a gruesome application process for some nepo baby, is beyond the pale and demoralising.

Not being funny, but is it really beyond the pale? I'd feel different if we were talking about a job or supposedly elected position or something, but I just can't get excited over 2 weeks unpaid work exp, what gruesome application process are other people going through for this opportunity?

Steven Barclay is the UK Health Secretary - off the top of my head I see that as a far more pressing issue of cronyism.

I’m not asking you or anyone to care, but highlighting the reality of what hardworking students have to face asides from healthy competition, they also have to compete with queue jumpers - and it’s attitudes like yours that keep such practices going. You have the nerves to complain about Stephen Barclay: it’s the same running principle of corruption (cronyism or nepotism) small or big, politics or internship, paid or unpaid, big scandal or small scandal!!!!!!

Isn’t this the same principle as affirmative action in relation to the erosion of meritocracy?

I’m not asking you or anyone to care, but highlighting the reality of what hardworking students have to face asides from healthy competition, they also have to compete with queue jumpers - and it’s attitudes like yours that keep such practices going. You have the nerves to complain about Stephen Barclay: it’s the same running principle of corruption (cronyism or nepotism) small or big, politics or internship, paid or unpaid, big scandal or small scandal!!!!!!

It may be hard to care for you, but being cheated out of that opportunity and told no after a gruesome application process for some nepo baby, is beyond the pale and demoralising.

OK - it's the other side of the world so in the one sense it doesn't matter, but...

For various city careers these sorts of unpaid internships are massively advantageous for future graduate job applications. In my area (law), the competition for unpaid internships/vac schemes is often *as competitive* as getting the actual job itself and when you're applying for careers post uni having a selection of internships & work experience on the CV is advantageous as an absolute minimum, and many firms require it. Although they're unpaid, time and resource reasons means that only a limited number of these opportunities are available each year.

So - when well connected wealthy people can arrange these for their children on an informal basis, when everyone else has to spend hundreds of hours making applications in the *hope* of obtaining one. This gives the former a serious competitive advantage in securing well paid future grad careers.