Unpaid internship in Geneva (how much will I need to survive)?

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21
ah and with this 400 CHF accomodation, my monthly spending is about 1200-1300 CHF, travelling included (i go commute to prague and back every two weeks). but I don't do gym--so it really depends on your lifestyle

22
I think I will search for a foyer. I've been told that its possible to survive on 1500 CH a month including a 500 CH foyer. Is this realistic? I want to save as much as possible so I can visit France, Spain, Italy and other Swiss cities.

23
Do you want it with a roof?

24
You can try the foyer route but please be aware that there are often long waiting lists for these as well. For that type of budget, 500-700 per month, you may find a person renting one room of a family apt. or similar, but expect it to be very basic with bathroom privileges and possibly kitchen privileges. Look at ghi.ch, local housing newspaper, with e-version. Your overall monthly budget will likely need to increased. What about mandatory swiss health insurance?, etc.

25
you're going to be working as an intern for a GE-NGO " and " think you will have time to travel?

26
If you haven't done so already, you may want to join the UN Intern Network in Geneva facebook group

You should be able to find more answers to your questions from past/current interns - and possibly accommodation options as well.

27
I don't know if this can help, but I put it in my bookmarks

http://www.cagi.ch/en

It's The Geneva Welcome Centre (CAGI)

28
I have health insurance already.

I dont see why I wont be able to travel on weekends, holidays, etc. Plus they will be giving me monthly vacation time as well.

29
Because you probably wont be able to afford it. Good luck anw

30
Why are we rippin' on somebody when we have no idea what his savings are?

Good luck, OP, hope you can have your dream time here. You don't have to travel expensively here, either. People get snarky, the only reason is, it really is very expensive here. And GE is probably actually the worst. We just got back from Bern yesterday, and I was surprised to find out GE is unbeatable. Ugh. I loooooooove Bern, btw.

31
ok... maybe you've found a nice humane NGO... but to most orgs. here Intern = Slave.

no wait, as I think about that slaves were usually given housing.

32
Well, I tend to disagree. First of all, slaves have entered into bondage and kept therein involuntarily, while no one is forced to be an intern. Even if internships are unpaid, it is far from exploitation -- unless of course you end up working with an unethical person who will exploit your good will and make unreasonable demands, in which case I would say that this can arise in any working environment and I would not think it is a systemic problem.

The bottom line is that interns are interns because they need and want specific experience and they hope to land a paid job by way of the internship. Or they become disenchanted with the cruel NGO/UN/whatever environment and the internship helps them decide that they want to have a career elsewhere.

I personally appreciate interns. They are often very smart, very enthusiastic and eager to please and if they want to turn their internship into a job I would advise them to stay that way. There is plenty of time for cyncism later.

33
Yes looking for a foyer/bed space/flat sharing is your only option but this would still be a very tight budget, 3000 CHF would be ideal if you want to do some tourism.

34
Well this is only a step away for offering "cleaning lady" internships.

Several organization/companies rely solely on the free workforce of young people. Interns come and go, and as long as they are willing to work for free the business keeps on running. The unemployment among young graduates is currently at historical highest. Why do you think that is?

They are enthusiastic and eager to work mostly because they are yet to be put back on the ground. Once in a while, somebody wins the rat race, but everybody else who did a fair amount of work for the profit of his employer is simply left out cheated.

35
I am not sure any serious organisation would survive very long if it was indeed relying on interns to do the job. Many interns simply lack any experience to run anything. Those that show that they can learn and do the work well after a while have a fair chance to get a real job, especially if they have the right attitude. On what planet do you think things are done differently or more fairly?

You make it sound as if internships are some huge scams where innocent young people are cheated by unscrupulous employers, which is simply not based on reality.

36
Each end every job consists of easier, repetitive and time consuming bits, and the more complicated ones. I'd say often the easy things consume 70-90% of typical working time.

True, if somebody proves worthy for the complicated tasks, they get the job. But why doesn't everybody else deserve to be paid for what they do, even if it's just filling out documents, licking stamps or watering the plants?

Being employed and doing things is a real job.

In the honest part of the planet, this is called a trial period. You get paid less (adequately to what you do) and if you are good, you get hired and get paid more.

In a world of exploitation, you work your ass off, not getting paid, competing with 30 other people for a single position. One gets a reward, 30 others get screwed. Is this fair?

That's the real word. The stronger one profits, and it's always the employer.

37
An internship is not an employment contract. An unethical thing to do would be to promise someone a paid job and then, only when they have licked 100,000 stamps, tell them that it is actually an unpaid internship.

And what is fair is also relative. Those 30 people are lucky to have an opportunity to come to Geneva and be interns here. Compared with thousands of other, perhaps equally qualified, people who can not even dream about it because living on bread and water, and paying 700 for a room in someone's flat is out of their reach.

What you are describing is what they taught me back in school would be an ideal situation: a communist society where everybody would get a fair share of everything and no one would reach for more than they need. The reality, whether you like it or not, is different: there are obviously sufficient incentives on both sides to create and sustain the internship market.

38
It is also unethical to take advantage of one's work, without compensation.

The form of contract is not that important in this case.

What privilege? The internship is unpaid. They could as well come here as tourists since they can afford it.

This is exactly the reason why it is unfair. To have 2500CHF available per month is unimaginable to the majority of earths population.

It's already limited to wealthy individuals, or young locals living with they parents.

Not at all. What I'm describing is entirely capitalist. Work=(adequate)pay.

Such as there are incentives to sustain existence of sects. This argument doesn't even touch the surface of whether the system is ethical or not.

39
I just want to clarify that I dont plan on living off of 1500 CH AND traveling with that same budget.

My plan is to put aside 1500-2000 CH each month for living expenses in addition to the money I'll be spending for travel purposes. The idea is not to blow all my money in Geneva because I want to be able to explore other places.

I know that 1500 a month for living expenses and travel is unrealistic.

40
As others have said. You'll need 2000 CHF a month to survive. This includes minimal (most likely shared) accommodation, food and transport. Gym, cellphone, going out - these are extras. You probably need less money for traveling around Europe than for living in Geneva/Switzerland. It is really expensive here.