Social media reacted negatively to Squarespace CMO Kinjil Mathur’s promotion for unpaid employment in today’s job economy. Kinjil Mathur, Squarespace’s chief marketing officer, earned her first job by cold phoning organizations and offering to work for free. This was two decades ago, when Mathur, equipped with a finance degree, scoured the yellow pages.
“I went to the business listings and I just started calling up companies and asking them if they had internships available and that I would be willing to work for free,” she told Fortune in an interview.
The technique worked for Mathur, a New York resident, who secured her first internship at Travelocity while attending the University of Texas. She then rose through the ranks of Conde Nast, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Foursquare before becoming Squarespace’s chief marketing officer.
“Any hours, any pay, any type of job”
Kinjil Mathur displayed a rare kind of tenacity when she cold called businesses offering to work for free. She expects the same from the gen Z jobseekers today. The world, however, has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and freshers today frown upon unpaid labour.
Mathur told Fortune. “I just wanted to get experience. She insists that early on in their career, “you’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes.”
“I was willing to work for free, I was willing to work any hours they needed—even on evenings and weekends. I was not focused on travelling,” Mathur said. “You really have to just be willing to do anything, any hours, any pay, any type of job—just really remain open.”
Her remarks did not go down well on social media. One post criticising her has reached 8.6 million views on X. Some X users accused her of attempting to abuse unpaid labor rather than leveraging her position of power to effect positive change.
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