I spent this morning talking with a class of publishing students at Centennial College. Naturally, we ended up talking about the BNC internship and I always find myself saying something along the lines of "and we'll pay you. Like, a salary." Then eyes widen, a slight gasp is heard throughout the room, and hands go up.

The publishing industry is infamous for abusing people who are overqualified, yet eager to get their foot in the door. This is a problem. It's also a problem if your business can only run with free labour. In my opinion, that's a sign that you need to reevaluate what you're doing as a business.

Luckily, this handy flowchart (from www.shouldiworkforfree.com via FlowingData) showed up in my Google Reader today:

Here's my "should I work for free in publishing?" check list:

• Do I know nothing about this and want to learn?
• Am I excited about this and/or think this is somehow for the greater good of the industry?
• Do I need school credit?
• Is it for a charity?
• Do I owe this person a favour?
• Will I be compensated in some way that isn't money but still has value to me?
• Is the time commitment 5 hours or less?