Sadly it’s par for the course in the creative fields. I did not do jobs for free, but very cheap when I was starting out. I did tell people people who said “do it for the experience” to bugger off. There were businesses whose model was to to take advantage of young artists, one particular Manhattan animation studio hot in the 80’s & 90’s comes to mind. They stopped hiring me when I stood up to their bullshit. I had a friend lose his photographers assistant job to a trust fund type who would work for free.
