It seems like a long time since any company pulled the old ‘real work dressed up as an internship’ scam. In days gone by they were two a penny, but nowadays employers seem largely to have realised that that old con won’t wash with young people today, who rightly expect to be paid in full if they add value to a company.

But hold on, what’s this? An advert on Linkedin asking for an unpaid Video Editing Intern for 3 months, the only reward being an “Internship certificate” and “UK based real time projects experience”.

The job spec lists what it expects of the successful candidate - that they will “edit raw video footage into polished, engaging final products for various platforms, collaborate to develop video concepts and scripts, incorporate graphics, sound effects, and music to enhance video quality and ensure all video content meets brand guidelines and quality standards”.

An internship - expecting all that? Unpaid???

In case there was any doubt about what level of person this company (Bright Horizons Services) wants, it also lays out the background it expects the candidate to have: “experience in Adobe Premier pro, Adobe after effects, Davinci, proficiency in industry-standard editing software and that hiring will be ‘based on your performance’ ”.

The posting of the advert inevitably caused some kerfuffle on social media and a backlash soon followed, at which point the individual who had posted it, Priya Dharshini, claimed that the posting had all been some terrible error (no doubt by some phantom “office junior”). Further questions abouit the position were left unanswered however, including to the owner of the company, Abhay Hindocha.

Bright Horizon Services claims to be “a trusted name in the industry, known for our commitment to excellence”, albeit one which has no evidence of any previous clients on its website. A company to watch then, but not in a good way.

Bright Horizon Services Ltd: Freelancers Beware!