Do interns get the credit they deserve?

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One of Paul Bellezza’s first tasks after he joined video game developer Riot Games as an intern in 2006 was to give feedback on what was wrong with its flagship title, League of Legends.

After he and other interns informed the company it did not meet their “basic expectations as gamers”, they were asked to help turn it into something they actually wanted to play. League of Legends went on to become one of the world’s most played games.

That Riot Games openly credits the work of “founding interns” in the game’s later success shows these most junior employees can offer more to a company than making cups of tea.

But making a real contribution can be fraught. Not many interns get their ideas seen and heard. And when they do, they do not always receive credit. How people at the beginning of their career are properly recognised and rewarded is up to employers — and can reflect on them, too.

Take the case of Spotify Wrapped, the music platform’s annual personalised round-up of users’ favourite tracks. In 2020, Jewel Ham said in a tweet that she had invented aspects of the feature during a 2019 internship at Spotify. While not claiming credit for the concept, she shared screenshots suggesting she “retooled” it with interactive features, statistics and hashtags.

The subsequent social media furore demonstrated the repercussions of staff feeling improperly credited. Spotify said Wrapped was introduced in 2015, adding that the company runs a “very successful” intern programme, including opportunities “to work on major projects, get paid and gain experience”. Ham, now a successful visual artist, declined to comment. She told website Refinery29 in 2020 that she took issue, not with Spotify specifically, but poorly paid interns legally retaining no stake in lucrative ideas.

Edward Arnold, employment lawyer at CMS, says staff have little recourse when their intellectual property is adopted. “If you are doing this on behalf of your employer, then the IP will vest in them and that’s not going to change,” he adds. “If you’re coming up with ideas in your employment, then the employer will expect to own [them] and you are somewhat at the mercy of your employer as to how they reward you.”

But while employers technically hold all the cards regarding intern contributions, that does not mean they don’t have ethical obligations. Stefan Stern, visiting management professor at Bayes Business School, argues it is in companies’ interest to properly credit junior staff.

“You’d be quite well advised to treat genuinely good ideas with some respect and show some gratitude to avoid any sense of exploitation,” he says. “Care must be taken and if someone has a real zinger of an idea, it’s time to get quite serious and careful about it, and make sure it’s handled properly and formally — I’m talking future revenue streams”.

More informal recognition can also go a long way. Interns value continued involvement in developing their ideas; handing control to more experienced colleagues can create disengagement and ultimately lose employers talented staff.

One junior employee of a large communications agency, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was “shocked” when he pitched a winning concept for a celebrity-backed charity campaign, only for the project to be handed to a senior colleague. He ultimately left the organisation for another job.

Others have had more success. As a young trainee at law firm Cleary Gottlieb in 2015, Eloise Skinner, now 32, penned the Junior Lawyers’ Handbook, a career guide for new lawyers. It was later published by the industry organisation for solicitors.

“I was really lucky that I had a supervisor who was very encouraging and told me to take it seriously,” Skinner says. She went on to secure book deals, then retrained as a psychotherapist.

Meanwhile Bellezza is now the executive producer for League of Legends at Riot Games, the same company he joined as an intern nearly 20 years ago. “The fact that it took off and became a global phenomenon [is] just a dream,” he says.