After he met with 10 banks and had over 25 individual interviews, SMU junior Trenton Patterson gave a sigh of relief when he received two summer internship offers.

Patterson, who will intern this summer as an analyst for Citigroup’s Oil & Gas Investment Banking division in Houston, believes internships are a necessary element to launching a career.

“In the past, employers might have viewed a college degree efficient enough to give you a job,” Patterson said, “but today with so many students graduating, an internship is one of the few ways that can help set you apart from the competition.”

Patterson recognizes the importance and changing nature of internships-a topic discussed by Ross Perlin in his 2011 book, “Intern Nation.” Perlin documents and analyzes his four years of research regarding the rise of internships in the modern workplace.

“Internships have become a rite of passage, a virtual requirement for entering the white-collar world over the last few decades,” Perlin said in a recent interview.

Like Patterson, many SMU students join Perlin’s “Intern Nation” as they align internships. While the hours worked can provide an intern with experience and other intangible benefits, it does not always provide pay-a topic that remains a gray area. Yet, in such a competitive job market, internships have become the norm, regardless of the field of work in pursuit.

“People now intern repeatedly, for long periods, at all ages, and at all times of the year, and I think this is the most disturbing trend of all,” Perlin said.

SMU student Sydney Merriman, has spent her junior year both in school, and as an unpaid intern in Dallas at IMG Worldwide, a global sports, fashion and media business.

“Second semester I started interning in the office from about 9-4 each week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Merriman said. “I have done lots of sponsorship research and multiple other projects throughout the semester.”

The internship has also allowed her to work at the Red River Rivalry game and the UIL football state championships during the fall.

Merriman will also intern this summer at IMG Academy. She believes that internships are a crucial these days, especially to get into sports management.

“I think employers want to make sure you’re up for the job before hiring you. And these days, it’s all about who you know, not what you know” she said.

Like Merriman, senior Jeremy Gray, a fall 2013 red shirt for the SMU football team, hopes to work in sports management in the future and believes that an internship will only make it a “more tangible” goal.

Beginning in late May, Gray will join America’s “Intern Nation,” with the Tennessee Titans where he will have the opportunity to work alongside the general manager/director of personnel.

He will handle player transactions/acquisitions and everyday football operations tasks.

Although the internship does not pay, he feels compensated in other ways for the 250-hour internship.

“My expectations mainly are just to gain valuable knowledge from this particular sector of the athletic field,” Gray said. “Just being able to see, in detail, what goes into administration, and the depth of professional football is compensation enough because the industry is very competitive.”

Perlin said that the changing nature of internships, like the ability to receive course credit, has introduced “a whole set of questions about access and fairness and unpaid or low-paid labor.”

In his book, Intern Nation, Perlin reports that 77 percent of unpaid interns are women.

Campus career centers outrage him because he feels they drive students into unpaid internships that give them course-credit-and, as with any class, the students must pay the bill.

“There are many well-paid internships out there, in certain fields, and a small number of unpaid positions that are genuine training programs, but we need to look hard at the other situations out there-the ones that are suppose to be ‘win-win,’ but in fact, break the law and violate one of the basic ethics of our society,” Perlin said.

This basic ethic is a fair wage for a hard day’s work. By law, the Fair Labor Standards Act guarantees a minimum wage for all U.S. workers.

SMU junior Peyton Hall recognizes the importance of pay in his pursuit of an internship.

“It matters because there are so many internships that are paid,” Hall said. “If I am going to work, I am going to choose one that is paid.”

Caroline Wright, who received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Cox School of Business in December 2012, interned for Lilly Pulitzer last summer – a paid internship.

Wright published stories for Lilly’s blog, marketed in social media and organized multiple contests/sweepstakes that created social media weekly analytical reports that were distributed to the entire company.

While experience and pay can be drivers of an internship, Wright said she had hoped to receive a job offer from Lilly.

“I would say my internship was aimed to get a job from the company,” Wright said.

The possibility and hope for a job offer is a common denominator among students who seek internships. However, Perlin’s research shows that most internships do not lead to a job opportunity.

“My year, Lilly had about 14 summer interns throughout the company and I think four got offers at the end of it,” she said.

Wright accepted a full-time offer at the end of her internship, and continues to work for Lilly as the head of the Sorority Rep Program.

“My internship experience was probably a rare one,” Wright said, “but in the end, internships are an amazing opportunity to show a company what you are capable of and you can gain so much knowledge about the industry.”