Looking good on paper can have a price…a negative balance in the bank account. Is it always either have a “zero” in the slot for debt or have nada in work experience? In the most recent CNN edition of Anne Fisher’s “Ask Annie” column, a college junior wrote in with a question that I believe will plague almost every college student hoping to go into a professional career (at some point or another). Get an unpaid internship or wait tables?

Now, looking at the two options as variables, the later might change, be it baby sitting or working at a clothing store. However, the idea is that due to the current economic status more and more companies are only able to offer minimal to unpaid internships to prospective interns. And this is where the tough decision comes in.

Everyone knows college is expensive: books, tuition, travel, room and board, it’s as if the costs are endless, and only getting higher. North Parkers, have all of that plus the private school price on the tab, so what do we do? Well, we work. I think it is fair to assume, however, that the vast majority of college students are in school to do something more than flip burgers or manage a store in The Mall of America. Ironically we’re always told that those are the kind of jobs that won’t get us anywhere…but as they say, those are the jobs that “pay the rent”, or the tuition in this case.

The assumption, of course, is that the internship will lead to a real job offer, or at least get your name out there to those people that have the power to at least recommend you to others in the field. Annie did give two wise stipulations, the first being that it’s smart to make sure that the gig entails more than just getting coffee or picking up the dry cleaning. Second, one should look into whether or not your prospective “employer” ever hires past a summer internship, and if so how often it’s done. It may seem like, to the most practical or logical of students, that taking the money and running is the best idea. However, if reasons one or two (or both) apply, they should be taken with a grain of salt.

Two points on this case: First, college students need to really grasp the facts that internships are rare; having such a choice is a blessing in itself. This exact topic came up in a recent MSNBC article which concluded that not only are companies taking on less interns, but as a result of the current unemployment downturn there are large numbers of seasoned workers with multiple degrees biding for these same internships. So, it’s not so easy for the bright-eyed college students entering the workforce.

The second point, however, is a little more reassuring. For this we’ll look to the business practices of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Holly Paul, head of recruiting at PwC explained that the main purpose of an internship is to give companies the chance to see potential employees in action with the intent of screening who would benefit them as a full-time worker and who would not. Paul continued, saying, “We’ve worked hard over the past two years to create a program that gives interns a wide variety of experiences so we can clearly see how they will perform – and to show them enough of what we do so that they can decide whether we’re the right place for them, too.”

This year the firm will bring in 2,000 interns. While still high, this number is down 5% from 2009; The most the promising part of interning with a company like PricewaterhouseCoopers is their statistics on jobs offered to post-graduates. Around 70% of all new full-time employees at PwC start out as interns.

Realistically, though, not everyone will receive offers from a corporation like PricewaterhouseCoopers, Morgan Stanly, or other Fortune 500 companies, as internships there are considered to be in the top 10% of all programs. However, Holly Paul highlighted the most important part of the internship process in the later half of her quote when she noted that they wanted to make sure the company or career is the “right place for them too.” So, unless the internship offers you no opportunity to learn a skill or make it into a career path, money really should not be the primary factor in deciding on an internship or not. Remember, an internship should be looked at as a practical approach to potential decades of happiness in a job your passionate about, and that, in itself, is priceless.

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