Yeah, you might be able to get something out of working for free, but you shouldn’t have to. Unpaid internships have become a prerequisite for success in our society and it only perpetuates inequality. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to forgo a salary in order to learn a new skill.

If you graduate from college with zero debt and you can live with your parents for a while, then maybe working for free to get some experience is a good move. But the vast majority of people, myself included, aren’t that fortunate.

At the same time, there are enough people willing to work for free that it drives down the value of that labor for everyone else, which is how you end up with freelancing companies like Fiverr or Upwork that are just a total race to the bottom. Then there are skilled creatives who have put thousands of hours into honing their craft being asked to work for “exposure.”