Squarespace’s chief marketing officer, Kinjil Mathur, landed her first job by cold calling companies expressing her willingness to work for free. This was two decades ago, when, armed with a finance degree, Mathur worked her way through 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 strategy worked for New York-based Mathur – she landed her first internship at the travel firm Travelocity while studying at the University of Texas. She then worked her way through the ranks of Conde Nast, Saks Fifth Avenue and Foursquare until she reached Squarespace as its 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.
“Every single summer I was trying to find some internship,” 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 trying to exploit unpaid labour instead of using her position of power to bring about positive change.
Others even declared they would boycott Squarespace over the comments.
“No one should ever work for free. I’ve always insisted, for example, that interns should be paid at least the living wage where many companies not only pay them nothing but charge them for the ‘privilege’ of being an intern at their company,” entrepreneur Gary Clueit opined.