“I was hired as an intern to work in the fashion closet at an independent fashion/entertainment magazine. This was when the recession had just hit and all magazines were cutting their budgets. On my first day working the fashion closet I was introduced to my boss who ran the complete fashion closet, working weekends and often into the night. Except…he was an unpaid intern. He had been there for six months, and would even miss school to work in the closet. In addition to this guy, there were, I’d say, around 20 interns whose sole job it was was to organize the closet and act as messenger service for the magazine and they usually worked until 9am to 9pm every day. Again, unpaid. We found out later that the magazine had to cut their messenger service budget and instead decided to hire a huge roster of interns. My whole time there, I think I interacted with about one person who was actually an employee. After I quit, I saw job listings that they were hiring interns to work their mailroom as well and selling it as a ‘way to learn about the magazine business.’ I swear they probably hired interns to work as janitors as well.”