So I was contacted by a recruiter on behalf of a recruitment agency, and the client was a famous Fortune 500 company. I was super excited to learn more and I shared my qualifications over the phone with the person, but the recruiter kept inquiring about why I was “not having paid internships” in my resume, despite having experience in those internships that would match very well with the client’s needs. I also had recent roles where they were not internships but actual part-time and one full-time role, both of which were essential to the job description.

I had unpaid roles during my undergraduate career but I don’t see why “not being paid for those roles” in those years mattered so much to the recruiter and the manager? After they said they would get back to me post-conversation, the recruiter informed me via social media that the client said “no” because I never had payment-driven opportunities until the last five years more recently. I was only started to receive pay for my positions I applied to maybe less than a decade ago.

Does it really not matter anymore to have unpaid internships? Should I just omit those positions from my resume because of all this?