A British study has shown that graduates who take unpaid internships can expect that "opportunity" to cost them big bucks when they finally find a paying job. 

The Guardian reports that the study, conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, reveals that nearly "every graduate taking an unpaid internship can expect to be worse off three years later than if they had gone straight into work." 

This disheartening news comes from the "first survey of its kind of the career trajectories of tens of thousands of students over a six-year period" that finds that, three-and-a-half years after graduating, former interns make approximately £3,500 ($4,617.68) less than those who went straight into paid work, and £1,500 less than those who went into further study. 

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