Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, explains that while growing up, he was exposed to a “myth of work” that involved spending one’s entire career in a single industry and working 9am to 5pm in office parks or factories. But in recent decades, he says, the idea of standard employment has “come apart at the seams,” and now as much of a third of the labor force in developed countries—including the United States—consists of precarious workers such as freelancers, independent contractors, seasonal part-time workers and interns.

—Erin Schikowski