When to ask company about internship salary and working hours?

[PamplemousseRouge]

Hi everyone.

I'm looking into applying for an internship in Europe with a fairly small publishing company. The company has details about the internship application process on its website, but has not included details such as working hours and salary, although it does say that the internship is paid.

A cover letter has to be submitted as part of the application, and I've just contacted the company to ask who to address the cover letter to, as this is not made clear on their website.

Would I be unreasonable to ask them at some point for more information on salary and working hours when I'm still applying for the job? These are both of course very important to know before applying - the only thing that I'm questioning is when to ask the company about the salary, as I don't want to ask too soon and potentially create a bad impression if you see what I mean.

Thanks, everyone :)

Bumping :)

When you have a contact name, contact them and ask if you could talk to them about the role. This will look keen and give you a chance to impress pre-application. Leave your questions about salary to the end (they may tell you anyway, as part of general information about the internship). Thank them for their time. Good luck.

For most interns the working hours and salary aren't very important. It's the experience they're after which is why these details aren't advertised. If they are very important to you - to the extent it wouldn't be worth your time applying if they don't meet your expectations - there's no harm in asking, in my opinion.

In my experience of publishing, working hours will be 9-5 or thereabouts and the salary will be low depending on the specific country and whether you've graduated yet or not. If it's Germany it'll probably be a bit higher than others. Good luck.

Thanks Scrap and Acorn :)

I thought internships often don't pay at all - it's just the experience.

It'll depend on the company. Can you try calling someone to clarify? In Investment Banking interns will work 48 hours per week in the office and be expected to be available at home on Sundays so usually clock up 60 + hours. But it's only a 3 month scheme and it's worthwhile doing the hours because it's often a guaranteed in into a 40k grad scheme.

I always thought internships were unpaid. So if it says paid is assume a very minimum wage/training bursary of a small token amount.

As for hours as there for experience id expect it to be lots! So long hours, be able to work weekends, very flexible to do whatever asked to do, whenever. It's only a short period of time so to be at their mercy!

Personally I wouldn't ask and anything would be a bonus. But if you get to the point of thinking you are in with a good chance of getting it I might raise it as an 'oh by the way' type question.

Not all internships are unpaid. Those in IB tend to be paid to encourage kids from all backgrounds to apply