“Some days I’d leave the office at five, get on the tube after a full day of work, and think  about how I was doing it all for free.”  

For six whole months, Ahmed* worked without pay.  

For even a physics graduate of one of the world’s top UK universities, finding placements proved no easy task.  

He had already spent two years applying to more than 50 internships, and after much effort,  last year’s cycle bore fruit. He secured a full-time, unpaid internship at an AI startup in  England.  

“I took it because there weren’t enough open positions in the job market,” he said. “Unpaid roles often have a higher chance of selection. You need to take unpaid opportunities to create more internships for yourself.”  

Ahmed’s experience may have taken place in London, but it reflects a broader, global reality. In fact, it is one that Pakistani graduates are all too familiar with as they search for work in a country where internship protections are even weaker.  

In Pakistan, more than 60% of internships in fields such as IT, media, marketing, and finance are either unpaid or offer negligible compensation, according to the Pakistan Institute of  Development Economics (PIDE).  

Internships have simultaneously become part of academics. The Higher Education Commission (HEC), which regulates higher education institutions across the country, has made it mandatory for students to complete at least one internship in their respective fields in order to graduate. This obligation–without any requirement that companies pay their interns–may be seen as the government doing more for the corporate sector than for students. Increasingly, employers treat experience as a prerequisite for paid work. Obtaining that experience, however, often means working for free.  

It is also important to note that for middle or lower-class students, choosing to do an unpaid internship is a harsh dilemma. With neither reimbursement for commuting expenses nor a stipend to support living costs, they often have to forgo opportunities that would both serve as valuable experiences and enrich their resumes. This financial barrier prevents long-term growth and only works to deepen the class divide.  

*Ahmed is a pseudonym; the student wished to remain anonymous. 

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