This article will be about work. But not the kind of work that pays, the kind that gives you the opportunity to earn money someday.

I’m 24 years old. As many other young graduates with no extensive working experience, I decided that my entrance into the industry lies through a traineeship. Not long ago, I received such an offer from a media company I genuinely admire. The editorial team, the topics, the atmosphere — everything seemed perfect. As is often the case, the catch was in the fine print. I was offered a full-time position with a salary well below the minimum living wage for the first year of the traineeship that typically lasts 1.5 to 2 years.

I had to turn down the offer because I don’t have anyone who could support me financially for an entire year.

The more I looked into it, the more I realized that this isn’t just a case of one bad employer. It’s a deeply rooted system of cheap labor, sustained by mutual consent. This article is about that kind of labor: underpaid traineeships, unpaid internships, and exploitative test assignments.

But also it’s about the people behind them: those who have to agree to such terms. I spoke to several people who’ve faced similar situations. They agreed to share their stories about what “cheap labor” looks like from the inside.

Ann is an architecture student. Motivated to learn from the experts, she applied for different internships. The one that was unpaid suggested a full-time position for three months. Ann shares, at the beginning of the internship, I had high hopes that I would gain knowledge that the university curriculum often overlooks, but those hopes vanished during the very first week. I was assigned to be supervised by another intern, just like me, who was finishing her final week of the internship. Part of her responsibilities was to mentor me and hand over her tasks.

Ann describes that once her tutor left after one week, all of the work responsibilities fell entirely on her. Since this industry is driven more by meeting deadlines than by keeping just working hours, it inevitably leads to overwork. Ann often found herself staying late to finish tasks because 8 hours a day was not enough. She remembers thinking that if she proved herself during the internship, she might join the company’s staff with an official working contract. However, this didn’t happen.

Toward the end of my internship, I, by myself, was put in charge of supervising a new intern. That’s when I realized the company’s scheme was built around a constant rotation of unpaid interns with the purpose of avoiding paying for real employees.

Unfortunately, many employers rely on replacing actual workers with unpaid or underpaid interns, who handle real responsibilities with little to no recognition and mentorship. In the end, it’s not just about learning anymore; it’s about keeping the system running on cheap labor.

Unpaid labor also shows up in the increasingly popular practice of test assignments. What was once a brief task to assess a candidate's skills has turned into full-scale projects.

Sofia is a data analyst. She has been job hunting for about three months, dedicating the past month specifically to looking for a remote job. “I applied for a position focused on analyzing trends in the gaming industry. Even before the interview, I was sent a test assignment consisting of three tasks, with a two-week deadline to complete them,” Sofia says.

The company where Sofia applied asked all applicants to come up with at least three original game ideas, suggest promotional strategies for each, and attach relevant TikTok videos as examples. She continues, “I see it as a complete disregard for me and my time. If you need that kind of work done, why not hire me for a paid trial period?”

She is convinced that companies like this aren’t actually looking for a real employee: “These vacancies often receive over a hundred applications, which means the company ends up with around a hundred ready-made game concepts.”

It’s not about assessing skills, but about getting actual work done for free under the guise of a hiring process.

Of course, the chances of being invited to an interview, and even more so of being hired, are very low. Gradually, the modern labor market is increasingly falling into the trap of exploitative, slave-like working conditions. Companies don’t even need to hire anyone anymore because the whole work is done already.

A few days after our conversation, Sofia sent me another message saying that she had received new test assignments, which are sent to everyone before the interview stage. She openly admits that she can’t bring herself to complete them because she isn’t confident it will lead to anything. She clarifies her inner struggle: “I feel like I’m cutting myself off from the chance to get the job, but I’m running out of patience for doing unpaid work.”

So, why do employers take advantage of this? Because they can and because it’s become a norm. Companies exploit gaps in labor laws and regulations to legally justify these practices. When oversight is weak and enforcement is lax, it creates a perfect environment for unpaid work and exploitation to thrive unchecked.

This normalization creates a bunch of problems, such as erosion of labor rights or devaluation of skills. But the biggest problem is inequality at the starting line. Only those who already have a safety net—parental support, personal savings, or citizenship that grants benefits—can afford to work for “the opportunity”. Everyone else simply can’t enter some professions.

If you are a young professional and feel trapped, remember, this is not an individual problem anymore. It’s systemic. If you have stories about test tasks, internships, or traineeships, share them. These stories need to be gathered because otherwise, it feels like you’re alone. But there are many of us.