When Alex Footman graduated from Wesleyan University in 2009 with a degree in film studies, he saw taking a 6-month unpaid internship on the New York production of the film "Black Swan" as a way to get his foot in the door and learn firsthand about film productions. 

Instead, like many many interns before him, he served as an errand runner, making coffee and picking up lunch for staffers.

Footman is now one of two former unpaid interns suing the film's producer Fox Searchlight Pictures alleging that the company broke the law. 

Federal labor law says that unpaid internships are only legal when they serve as an educational training program and the company receives no financial benefit. Footman's suit alleges that Fox Searchlight broke the law by having unpaid interns conduct menial work that replaces the duties of entry-level hires.

Fox Searchlight has responded, claiming that Darren Aronofsky's production company should be held liable, not Fox Searchlight which only distributed the film.

We spoke with Footman, who is now a freelance documentary filmmaker based in Washington D.C.,to learn more about his experience as an unpaid intern and why he decided to go to court.

On why he decided to sue 

"It’s a terrible practice, and its actually empowering that there is any kind of recourse because I felt so soured by the whole experience. I felt used up by Fox Searchlight and it really gave me a pretty negative attitude toward the entire film industry. So I’m really glad that there is an opportunity to make this complaint public and hopefully change the practice and change people’s perceptions of these internships."

On why he accepted an unpaid internship in the first place

"It seemed liked the perfect next rung on the ladder. I'd studied film in college, and I wanted to work somewhere in the film industry. I didn’t know enough as a college student to know exactly what kind of job I'd be looking at... The head of my film dept. was always stressing that we had to pay our dues and respect film industry professionals. I had a notion that I would be tested emotionally and that I wouldn’t be financially rewarded. It was kind of like the initiation rite for joining an elite circle."

On what it was like 

"We were never given any formal introductions. We were just thrown in there and given tasks as they come up. But I stuck with it for six months. I could have walked away and quit whenever I wanted to. But quitting would have been a dead-end. There were a lot of pressures on me to stay."

On how he afforded living in New York City for six months without pay

"I was lucky that my family helped me pay rent and groceries and everything. I had a part-time job while I was working on the internship and that helped. But most of the costs were covered by my family."

On the end of the internship

"I wish I could say they said thank you. It was really abrupt and there was absolutely no process or whatever. We had our last day of work and after that we were invited to the wrap party which was out at a club in the Meatpacking District in New York and that was it. I tried contacting everyone who I'd thought would know me or recognize my name, everyone I'd spoken with on the production. Not a single person spoke to me afterwards. Yes, it's unfortunate that none of those individuals helped me out. But it's not each persons responsibility. It was just so in keeping with the way the whole thing was run."

His reaction to the recent lawsuit filed by a former unpaid intern against the Hearst Corporation

"I am very happy to see other interns taking action. Because I know that there is a fear among interns and former interns of being blacklisted in your industry for suing your employer."

On what he hopes to get out of the suit

"If this policy changes and there are less unpaid internships or paid internships that would open up these industries to a whole bunch of people who cant afford an unpaid internship. We’re not the lady from McDonald's who spilled coffee on her lap. We’re suing for back wages. It’s pretty nominal. It’s really about having them admit that they were wrong."

Now read about 12 ways to turn a Wall Street internship into a job offer >

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So far, the only inside response to Greg Smith's damning NYT op-ed on Goldman Sachs has been from the company's PR department. They simply said they didn't agree with Smith, no color, no context to why he would write this piece.

But a former intern who worked under Smith gave Business Insider a look into who Smith was at Goldman. Avneesh Singh Saluja, a fellow Stanford alum, was willing to speak out for the guy most Goldmanites are probably fuming at:

"I worked for GS both as an intern in 06 and as a full time analyst from July 07 to March 09. I was in the NY office until March 08 and then I was in HK for a year. I interacted with Greg mainly during my 06 summer and from 07 to March 08, when I was physically in the NY office. Greg was the Stanford "Equities Captain", i.e., he was a mentor for the incoming Stanford grads in the Equities department of the Sales & Trading (Securities) division of the firm. I hold him in very high regard - he took care of us junior guys, gave us great pieces of advice, and in general came across as one of the more personable, friendly, and genuine guys on the floor."

Still want to work for Goldman? Then check out these 12 Wall Street Interview Tips Straight From Goldman Sachs>>

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The weather is getting warm and that means your Wall Street summer internship is going to be here before you know it.

First off, our congratulations on scoring the position.  But now it's time make sure you impress your peers and superiors with an appropriate internship wardrobe. 

Don't worry. We're here to help, summer interns!

Our thanks go out to The Fine Young Gentleman, one of our very favorite men's fashion bloggers, whom we consulted for tips and suggestions.

"As an intern the whole idea is to not rock the boat. With many of the internships the whole idea is to kick ass, take names, get a job and not rock the boat. Key phrase being ‘not rock the boat,’" says the Fine Young Gentleman, "It is not that you want to blend in with all of the others, it is just that you don’t want to stick out like a three legged dog."

"I think it is pretty simple, err on the conservative side of things and realize there may be more do’s than don’ts at your company. You need to look and act professional and you need to act in a manner consistent with the firm which you are interning at." 

Know your audience.

"As an intern you are dressing for your peers, superiors and clients more than for yourself," says The Fine Young Gentleman, adding, "They want to see that you are capable of looking professional at all times."

According to The Fine Young Gentleman, the rules -- both spoken and unspoken -- may vary from firm to firm. 

"And even within firms different desks may have different rules, opinions and expectations. Whereas others may have minimal restrictions. It is important to learn these early on so as to not make errors."

Source: The Fine Young Gentleman

Stick to the basics.

"For suits go with solid navy and gray, perhaps a pinstripe or two, but keep it conservative. Some firms may have unspoken rules on pinstripes so observe those above you and figure out what is acceptable," says The FYG.

"So what if solids are boring, they go with any pattern shirt or tie and are simple and indiscreet enough that you can wear the same solid navy or gray suit twice a week; three if you want to push it."

The Fine Young Gentleman advises that interns avoid plaids because they will likely be "too loud for an intern."

What's more is he says to make sure your suit fits really, really well.

"Use the fit to distinguish yourself from your peers."

Source: The Fine Young Gentleman

Remember not all offices require suits.

"If you are working in a business casual office the need for suits is obviously minimal, but make sure you have at least a suit and a blazer on stand-by in case you need them for an event or client meeting," according to The Fine Young Gentleman.

Source: The Fine Young Gentleman

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We have an excellent paid opportunity for the right candidate to work in the business development department of Business Insider for the summer. This person will work on Business Insider's content partnerships, email products, paid products, analytics, and more to keep the audience and revenue growing at a lightning-quick pace. This is no "make coffee and copies" kind of internship. 

Candidates should be extremely organized and detail-oriented. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are a must.   A penchant for numbers (we're results-oriented!) and light HTML skills a plus. Ping pong skills are a bonus.

You'll love it here if you are a person who thrives in a startup environment, is self-driven, a quick-learner, and plays well with others. The position is located in our offices in Manhattan's Flatiron District, aka Silicon Alley.

If interested, email your resume to bizdev@businessinsider.com. Thanks in advance.

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When Justin Blau, a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, was interning at Credit Suisse's New York offices last summer, his life was a lot different. 

Different in the sense these days the 21-year-old is being followed by Paris Hilton on Twitter, he's scheduled to do shows with T-Pain and Passion Pit and electro pop group LMFAO is posting his music on their Facebook wall, which has more than 13.4 million "likes". 

Blau, a mash-up artist who goes by the stage name of 3LAU, has been catching the attention of people all around the world since his days as a Wall Street intern.

"Back then I just started to get recognition," Blau told Business Insider in a telephone interview.  "I showed up at Credit Suisse and two interns had my song on their iPod.  Back then, that was awesome." 

Fast-forward ten months, the DJ is slated to perform in shows in April with big names such as R3HAB, Afrojack, Alesso, Dev, Killagraham, Passion Pit, T-Pain, Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Hot Chel Rae, B.o.B, Macklemore and Basshunter. He's received requests to do shows internationally in India, England, Australia and Canada, but can't take them (yet) because of school.

Since he's booking shows at major venues and music festivals all summer, he won't be returning to Wall Street as an intern.  Blau received offers from two major financial firms, but declined them so he could continue DJing.

It's no secret that college students often dream about pursuing careers that they're really passionate about instead of doing the corporate grind at a 9 to 5 desk job simply because it pays the bills. 

"This is an opportunity that you never get -- I never imagined myself getting paid well to do what you love to do." 

For now, Blau thinks his future in entertainment looks a lot brighter compared with the Wall Street track.

"Given all the crazy news that markets are experiencing and the overall uncertainty in the financial industry and that of the future of me as an investment banker or trader five years from now, as much as the entertainment industry is risky, I would have more of a stronghold there than competing with thousands of other students from Wharton or another school for a job,"  he explained.

What's more is the income he's earning as a DJ is a lot more appealing compared with finance, he added.

"The money looks like it might even be triple what an entry-level employee would make,"  Blau said.  "I'm working on music during the week and traveling and playing shows on weekends."

He imagined that if he were in banking he would have to work long days at his desk crunching numbers in Excel or possibly have to be called into the office on weekends.  

When he's DJing not only is he making money, but he's also doing what he's really passionate about.

"There's never a situation where I'm not actually loving what I'm doing, so both from a time/ financial earnings -- the time of "work" versus earnings -- the ratio is just so far in favor of being a DJ, at least on the scale I'm doing it."

That's not to say that the finance card is completely off the table for Blau.

The full-scholarship finance major plans to graduate and use his degree at some point.

"I intend to have my finance degree, so in the future if I want to create something larger than my career -- I do have that entrepreneurial drive at least.  I might take the money I've been making and pull some other money and invest in entrepreneurial entertainment ideas I've had over the course of the last few years."

Blau, whose father runs investment firm RABCO Asset Management, said his parents are now really supportive of his music endeavors.

"When my parents look at my Facebook wall and my Twitter account and they see 40,000 Facebook fans in 7 to 8 months -- those fans are not even close to the real number -- when they are seeing the response of the people who listen to my music, I think it's stuff like that than made my parents realize this is something I'm good at." 

For those of you interning or working on Wall Street, DJ 3LAU is expected to do a show in New York City this summer. 

Check out this video from on of DJ 3LAU's shows.  Here's his latest song release. 

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Many of us started out at jobs way down at the bottom of the food chain. Getting coffee and stuffing envelopes isn’t exactly a dream job for most people, but if you’re doing it now, take heart in the fact that these people started out as interns as well – and ended up running the joint.

1. Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner

These days, most people know Roger Goodell as the NFL Commissioner. But 30 years ago he worked hard to even get a lowly intern position. After receiving rejection letters from pretty much every team in the league, a young Goodell tried the NFL itself. Then-executive director Don Weiss replied to say that there wasn’t anything available, then blew him off with the trite, “Hey, if you’re ever in the area, stop by.” Though he was hours away, Goodell picked up the phone and said, “What do you know? I am in the area, so I’ll stop by tomorrow.” He drove seven hours overnight and “dropped in” on the league headquarters the next day, where they hired him because he seemed like a nice guy. It’s that kind of tenacity that landed him the plum Commish role 25 years later.

2. Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox

In 2009, Ursula Burns became the first black woman to helm a Fortune 500 company. But back in 1980, she was a 22-year-old mechanical engineering summer intern at Xerox. After her summer at the technology giant, Burns joined the company full time in 1981. Though she nearly left for a cushy position at Dell, Vernon Jordan – then a member of the Xerox board of directors – personally called and asked her to stay to help boost employee and consumer confidence in the company’s stability.

3. George Hu, COO of Salesforce.com

A mere 10 years ago, Stanford MBA student George Hu joined salesforce.com as a summer intern. Now he’s the chief operating officer. Hu was tasked with investigating new markets for salesforce.com to pursue, and in the process, his research ended up showing that the company was throwing millions of dollars a month away on direct mail campaigns that had generated exactly 14 leads in six months. After that, he quickly climbed the ladder at Salesforce. In October, CNN named him one of the 20 highest paid under 40 – and that was before he was named COO in November.

4. Daniel Hesse, former head of AT&T Wireless

Daniel Hesse didn’t let a little thing like college preference stand in the way of getting an internship at AT&T. As a student at Cornell, Hesse was determined to get a job at AT&T. The problem? Apparently the telecommunications company was only interested in Harvard-educated interns, because that’s the only place they advertised. Hesse caught wind of this and sent his sister, who lived near Harvard, to see if she could find any flyers hanging on bulletin boards. She managed to find the information and got Hesse an application. When AT&T received his paperwork, they called him to see how a kid from Cornell managed to apply for an internship that had only been advertised at Harvard. Hesse says when he explained himself, the recruiter said, “I want to meet you.” The recruiter probably felt pretty good about her choice when Hesse was promoted to the head of AT&T Wireless in 1997. He’s currently the CEO of Sprint.

5. Rob Cavallo, Chairman of Warner Bros Records

Rob Cavallo landed a sweet gig as an intern at Warner Bros. Records in 1987, where he worked with Black Sabbath. Seriously, can you imagine comparing notes with your friends? “I had to order lunch for everyone today. What did you do?” “Uh, I scouted out some bands to maybe tour with Black Sabbath.”

After his successful internship, Cavallo made a name for himself in the industry by producing Green Day’s Dookie album. After kicking around as Senior Vice President for a few years, Cavallo left the company for a while to pursue things like helping Phil Collins win a Grammy, an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Tarzan’s “You’ll Be in My Heart.” But he came back to Warner in 2002 and was named CEO in 2010.

By the way, Warner has a history of promoting people from the bottom rungs. Tom Whalley, the Chairman before Cavallo, started out in the mailroom.

6. Bill Summers, CEO of McDonald & Co

Though it would make for a good story if Bill Summers started out his career as a clown, we’re actually talking about McDonald Investments… not the fast food behemoth. Summers was a lackey in the Municipal Bond department in 1971. When he retired in 2006, he was the president and CEO.

These guys don’t quite fit the bill, but they’re close enough to warrant a mention:

Dick Cheney interned under Wisconsin Congressman Bill Steiger in 1969, three weeks before Nixon was inaugurated. Steiger and Cheney were only three years apart in age and ended up becoming close friends.

Ira Glass “talked [his] way into” an internship at NPR when he was 19. “Like most teenagers, I had never heard of public radio,” he said. The unpaid internship led to a job soon after, and now he’s the host and producer of This American Life.

Roger D. Hodge started at Harper’s Magazine as an intern in 1996 and was hired as a fact checker when the internship ended. He served as the editor from 2006 through 2010.

August Anheuser Busch IV, the former president and CEO Of Anheuser Busch, was once an intern/apprentice brewer. It will surprise no one to learn that he is the great-great-grandson of company founder Adolphus Busch, so his internship and rise to the top isn’t exactly a rags-to-riches story.

George Bodenheimer was once a mailroom clerk at ESPN who graduated to selling ESPN to cable operators around the Midwest. After serving as the president of the company for more than a decade, he was named Executive Chairman of ESPN, Inc., earlier this year.

Dick Grasso, former Chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, left the Army in 1968 and joined the NYSE as floor clerk for the mailroom. He was the chairman and CEO from 1996 to 2003.

Sidney Weinberg made $3 a week assisting the janitor at Goldman Sachs. That was in 1907, and by 1925, Goldman Sachs had purchased the junior high school dropout a seat on the NYSE. He was partner two years later, and from 1930-1969, he led the company.

More from mental_floss…

Act II: 10 People Who Switched Careers After 50 (and Thrived!)
11 Amazing Thank You Notes Sent by Famous People
How the Greatest Prankster in Political History Messed With Richard Nixon
Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Committed

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A few months ago we featured a day-in-the-life profile of Kendall Herbst, a first-year student at MIT Sloan's School of Management.

We recently caught up with her again, and she offered to share with us some of the coolest internships her peers landed for this summer.

"In the fall, banking and consulting recruitment begins, luring in interested parties along with risk-averse people who want to secure a prestigious spot early on," she told us. "Then comes tech companies like Google, Samsung and Facebook. Finally, my two primary fields of interest, startups and the luxury industry, start to trickle in. It's certainly stressful to have to wait until spring to recruit. But all of these industries come with their own blood-pressure-raising aspects."

You can follow Kendall at @kendall_to_go

Tiffany Kosolcharoen will be Klout's first business development intern

Hometown: Cupertino, CA

Job Before MIT Sloan: VC student fellow, business development, consulting


"I'm passionate about products that level unequal access to opportunities. Klout democratizes influence, enabling everyone, not just public figures, to be rewarded with exclusive experiences from brands they love."

Kaustubh Pandya is heading to a strategy consulting firm in San Francisco

Hometown: San Francisco, CA

Job before MIT Sloan: Forensic structural engineer

"Though my job before MIT seems drastically different, I am only changing the industry. Previously I focused on solving problems for existing structures; finding out why buildings or bridges fail and how to fix them. Now, as a strategy consultant, I continue to be a problem solver but with a focus on management instead of structures."

Shireen Taleghani is doing product marketing for Facebook

Hometown: Mill Valley, CA

Job Before MIT Sloan: Tech sales

"While I am staying in the same industry, I am going to have a completely new role in product marketing at Facebook. I'm excited for the challenge of learning a new function and working in an innovative and fast-paced environment."

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The average pay for a software development intern at Facebook is more than $5,000 per month, according to a collection of responses on Quora.

If you ignore taxes, that's a salary of around $60,000 annually for someone with little or no work experience in programming.

One user said the pay was as high as $6,800 per month with a stipend for living too.

The average monthly salary for a software engineering intern at Facebook is $6,229, according to GlassDoor.com, a site where employees review their companies.

Facebook also gives its interns a $1,000 stipend for housing and living expenses, according to the post.

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Interns everywhere, take heart: You could be the boss in less than a decade.

Take Salesforce.com COO George Hu. Just under 10 years ago, he got his start at the company—then a three-year-old startup—as an intern.

Salesforce.com is set to announce impressive earnings this afternoon—analysts expect bookings up 30 percent year over year.

Granted, software as a service is a hot trend, as companies abandon complex on-premise installations for software delivered over the Web. But we think there's also something to the way Salesforce grows its in-house talent—as exemplified by Hu's career trajectory.

One secret Hu shared: He's never been afraid to share his ideas, even when he was an intern. He proposed that Salesforce.com scale down its product for small businesses. He didn't think anything would come of his suggestion after he finished his internship. But to his surprise, he told Business Insider, when he returned to Salesforce in a full-time position, his colleagues had built the product, now called Salesforce.com Group Edition.

The only question we have: Since Hu has averaged a promotion every year or so, what does Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff have planned for him next?

Here's how Hu made those long, quick leaps up the corporate ladder.

• 2002 Intern, then product manager

• 2003 Director of product marketing

• 2004 Vice president, sales force automation

• 2005 Senior vice president, applications

• 2006 Chief marketing officer

• 2007 Executive vice president, products and marketing

• 2008 Executive vice president, marketing and alliances

• 2010 Executive vice president, platform and marketing

• 2011 Chief operating officer

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Summer is nigh, and soon a new crop of interns will descend onto New York, with many headed to Wall Street.

While we always get a kick out of the ridiculous antics interns get into, we also appreciate the bankers that think them up. And as the students start their Wall Street internships, we expect they'll get the customary "getting-to-know-you" hazing.

And in case you Wall Streeters were running out of ideas, the posters at the WallStreetOasis forums have put together a helpful list.

"Go into his dictionary in Outlook and set autocorrect such that it changes 'thanks' to 'you're the man'"

Source: TR @ WallStreetOasis

"Print screen his desktop and set that to his desktop pic. Then delete all the short cuts and hide the tool bar at the bottom."

Source: manbearbig @ WallStreetOasis

"Tell him the SEC wants to investigate him for something. Liar's Poker style."

Source: Asatar @ WallStreetOasis

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June will be here soon and that means your Wall Street summer internship is about to start. 

First off, our congratulations on scoring the position. 

Now it's time make sure you impress your peers and superiors with an appropriate internship wardrobe. 

Don't worry. We're here to help, summer interns!

Our thanks go out to The Fine Young Gentleman, one of our very favorite men's fashion bloggers, whom we consulted for tips and suggestions.

"I think it is pretty simple, err on the conservative side of things and realize there may be more do’s than don’ts at your company. You need to look and act professional and you need to act in a manner consistent with the firm which you are interning at," says the Fine Young Gentleman.

Know your audience.

"As an intern you are dressing for your peers, superiors and clients more than for yourself," says The Fine Young Gentleman, adding, "They want to see that you are capable of looking professional at all times."

According to The Fine Young Gentleman, the rules—both spoken and unspoken—may vary from firm to firm. 

"And even within firms different desks may have different rules, opinions, and expectations. Whereas others may have minimal restrictions. It is important to learn these early on so as to not make errors."

Source: The Fine Young Gentleman

Stick to the basics.

"For suits go with solid navy and gray, perhaps a pinstripe or two, but keep it conservative. Some firms may have unspoken rules on pinstripes so observe those above you and figure out what is acceptable," says The FYG.

"So what if solids are boring, they go with any pattern shirt or tie and are simple and indiscreet enough that you can wear the same solid navy or gray suit twice a week; three if you want to push it."

The Fine Young Gentleman advises that interns avoid plaids because they will likely be "too loud for an intern."

What's more is he says to make sure your suit fits really, really well.

"Use the fit to distinguish yourself from your peers."

Source: The Fine Young Gentleman

Remember not all offices require suits.

"If you are working in a business casual office the need for suits is obviously minimal, but make sure you have at least a suit and a blazer on stand-by in case you need them for an event or client meeting," according to The Fine Young Gentleman.

Source: The Fine Young Gentleman

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Julie Ver Hage, a Fox Business summer intern, has a personal account about how the MF Global bankruptcy debacle has affected her family. 

When the broker-dealer run by CEO Jon Corzine filed for bankruptcy last October, Ver Hage's father--a fourth generation farmer with a small dairy farm in Michigan--lost funds in his brokerage account like thousands of other MF Global customers.

Here's Ver Hage's account of what happened to her dad: 

Here's how it went down, at least from my father’s perspective: He contacted his broker sometime during the week of October 4, 2011, expressing his concerns about MF Global's  stability after hearing a report on FOX Business that Corzine had made a fairly risky bet on sovereign debt issued by at least two troubled European countries, Italy and Spain.

In other words, MF Global was doing more than simply buying commodities for farmers and ranchers; it was betting big in the global markets. Taking big bets in the markets is exactly how Bear Stearns and Lehman Brother got into trouble in 2008. His broker said that there was nothing to worry about because customer money is supposed to be segregated. He assured my father that if anything went wrong, his money would be there and he could simple transfer his account to another firm.

Toward the end of the month when MF Global was ready to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reportedly looking for a buyer to avoid complete liquidation, Ver Hage said her parents thought their funds were safe because that's what they had essentially been told.

It turned out that her parents accounts were frozen the following day on October 31st and that deal to avoid complete liquidation fell through because customer funds were found to be missing.  

The Fox Business Network intern, who works for Cavuto, explained that farmers like her father typically trade commodities through brokerages to hedge against future price changes.

Ver Hage said her father lost "a relatively small amount" of $7,000 as a result of the MF Global debacle, but she knows other farmers who lost a lot more.

Read Ver Hage's full piece here >

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Last summer, Justin Blau, a finance major at Washington University in St. Louis, was interning at Credit Suisse's New York offices.  These days he's putting on shows with big names such as R3HAB and Afrojack moonlighting as DJ 3LAU.  

Blau, the son of a hedge fund manager, used to dream about working on Wall Street, but now he's passionate about pursuing his career as a DJ.  

"The rollercoaster has been me playing all these shows in front of thousands of people who have come to listen to my music and I still feel like I'm a college kid from Las Vegas who is a finance major who has always dreamed about going to work for Goldman Sachs and now my dream is to take this DJ career to the next level," Blau said in a newly released video.  

Now you can see what his life is really like these days when he's traveling the country performing wild shows.

DON'T MISS: This Former Credit Suisse Intern Counts Paris Hilton As A Twitter Follower And Does Shows With T-Pain And Passion Pit >

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Over the past few weeks it’s become something of a fad to cover the impossibly catchy—and don't kill me for saying this, but totally awful—Carly Rae Jepsen mega-hit “Call Me Maybe.”

First it was Harvard’s baseball team.

Earlier this week it was an auto-tuned President Obama.

And yesterday it was the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders.

Well, we’ve received word from an anonymous tipster that one big bank had their own fun with the song over intern training week."Whenever interns are late to any training event or session," the tipster explained, "they make us sing 'Call me Maybe' to the entire crowd (about 60 people)."'

Take a video next time? Because we’d love to see that.

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When I was in college (~1990) in California, the romantic summer job for those kids in desperate need of cash and willing to do anything to get it (like lose an arm) was to work on a salmon boat up in Alaska. I can’t recall the details, but basically you worked insane hours for six weeks stuck on a boat. Some of those jobs paid very well, you didn’t have the time or opportunity to spend your money, and you didn’t even have to spend your entire summer vacation doing so.

So here’s my prediction for future expats: internships in Asian factories. Might be here in China, might be elsewhere, and I don’t know which sweatshops will be around in a decade or two. But mark my words, this is eventually going to look attractive to Western kids with no other options:

Foxconn is a well-known company for many reasons. But it’s not necessary a company where students would like to do their internship. A report from Micgadget wrote that students from Xi’an Technological University don’t really have a choice. All students who enrolled from 2010 must take up an internship role at Foxconn as part of the school’s curriculum. Note that we aren’t sure exactly what kind of work they will be doing, but hopefully it is something they can learn from rather than just a seat on the assembly line. (TechinAsia)

No, really. Paid internships are getting hard to find in places like the U.S., and while the Foxconn wages of roughly $240/month are still way too low to attract American kids on summer break, at least there’s some money there. Let those wages rise a few more years and you never know. Give ‘em some iCrap at cost, and they’ll work for free.

Besides, a few years from now, Foxconn might start having trouble finding Chinese kids willing to take these jobs. Spin this as a great CV builder and life experience, and they’ll attract plenty of middle-class kids from the West. Of course, they’ll be terrible workers, but nothing’s perfect.

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Liane Membis was fired from her summer internship at the Wall Street Journal for fabricating sources in a story she wrote earlier this month, TalkingBizNews reports. 

Here's the statement posted on the WSJ's site: 

Note to Readers: "Bridging a Local Divide," published online on June 17, has been removed from the Journal's web sites. Many of the names contained in the article about the re-opening of the 103rd Street Pedestrian Bridge in Manhattan were fabricated by reporting intern Liane Membis, and the quotes couldn't be independently verified. Ms. Membis is no longer working at The Wall Street Journal.

We did a little digging and here's everything we know about Membis: 

• She's a self-described Scrabble enthusiast who loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. 
• She calls herself an "accidental" beauty queen and currently reigns as Miss Black America Connecticut.  She will compete in the Miss Black America pageant in 2012. 
• She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in English and Ethnicity, Race & Migration. 
• She wrote for the Yale Daily News.
• While at school in New Haven, she worked as a tutor at a public school for three years. 
• She's a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority 
• She's had bylines for CNN.com, the Huffington Post and Ebony Magazine. 
• In the future, she would like to become "a journalist, professor, and non-profit program director."

Lesson learned: Interns, be honest about your work.

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As Wall Street interns settle into their summer routines, things can get a bit dull. There just isn't a constant stream of work, so they need to find creative ways to make the time pass.

With websites like Facebook and Twitter blocked at banks, the strategies that college kids usually use to waste time are lost.

That means they need to get creative.

We're here to help. Here's a list of ways to make five o'clock come faster, while looking engaged and busy.

Organize your desk and make sure that everything is perfectly in its place.

Make a mess during lunch so you have to spend the time wiping down your desk.

Thoroughly wash your hands and clean your nails every time you visit the bathroom.

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Armando Montano, the Associate Press intern in the Mexico City bureau, was found dead Saturday in the apartment building elevator shaft near his home in the Mexican capital, according to the AP. He was 22 years old. 

His death is being investigated by the Mexican authorities. 

The Colorado Springs native graduated from Grinnell College this spring. He was planning to spend the summer in Mexico City before studying for a master's degree in journalism at the University of Barcelona in the fall. 

Marjorie Miller, AP's Latin America editor based in Mexico City, told the AP, "Armando was a smart, joyful, hardworking and talented young man," Miller said. "He absolutely loved journalism and was soaking up everything he could."

While in Mexico City, Montano reported on the three federal officers who were shot in an airport. 

The AP reports that Montano was not on assignment at the time of his death. 

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Question: What is one job that you should never have one of your interns do for the company?

1. Don't let them put together financial reports.

"Not only is it not smart to grant a temporary employee access to important financial documents, but these reports also need to be flawless. Unless you have an amazing finance intern that you know you will hire on full-time after his stint, leave the heavy numbers out of his sight."

—Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon
Follow @loganlenz

2. Young interns aren't always masters of social media.

"A lot of companies have brought in interns with the hope of getting free labor for all the many aspects of creating a social media campaign. But an intern is the wrong person because the intern likely doesn't have the experience to make good judgment calls, doesn't know your company well enough to be an effective representative and may not be around long enough for a real campaign."

—Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting
Follow @ThursdayB

3. Don't give them busywork.

"Interns are best utilized by explicitly challenging these ambitious and pursuit-oriented students to excel in independent research projects with a definitive, report-based outcome. Set clear expectations. Assign a project due date. Help them. And, for not making them sort useless contact info or stack books, you'll win hearts who will rave about your organization."

—Dave Ursillo | Author + Speaker, Lead Without Followers Ltd.

4. Avoid using an intern as the face of a company.

"If there's a fire burning, a member of the management team should be putting it out, not an intern. Avoid using interns as the face of the company; besides being temporary, they're rarely able to appreciate the company's vision the way a key team member does."

—Lisa Nicole Bell | CEO, Inspired Life Media Group
Follow @LisaNicoleBell

5. Keep them out of setting up new business partnerships.

"When it comes to formalizing or setting up new business partnerships or alliances, it's best to leave interns out of it. Such decisions usually have important brand and financial implications and you want to make sure you're allying with the right people for the right reasons."

—Charlie Gilkey | Principal, Productive Flourishing

6. Don't try to turn them into salesmen.

"It may be tempting to use any new additions to your team for revenue-generation, especially if you're a smaller firm or a startup. However, it's not advisable to put interns in customer-facing sales roles as these jobs require cultivating relationships and fine-tuning negotiation styles over time. If you need sales support, consider using interns for sales qualification or lead generation instead."

—Doreen Bloch | CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc.

7. Keep them away from the clients.

"Interns should almost never interface with your clients/customers directly. Clients should be building relationships with you, not building relationships with your temporary staff. Rather than give interns too much autonomy, have interns draft content and communication and send it to you for review first. Once you confirm the quality of the work, you can send it to clients."

—Lucas Sommer | Founder CEO, Audimated
Follow @audimated

8. Don't make them clean bathrooms!

"Your interns are there to learn while providing value for the company. They are not your slaves, personal assistants or janitors. Give your interns interesting tasks that will help them grow, while helping the company. The quickest way to lose quality interns or ruin your reputation for future interns is to take advantage of them."

—Nathan Lustig | cofounder, Entrustet
Follow @nathanlustig

9. They shouldn't be the deal sealers with new clients.

"It doesn't matter how competent it seems like they are—you should be the one that talks with potential clients and seals the deal. Later on, you can introduce the intern to the team, or even have a highly regarded intern at key meetings or on key calls, but make it very clear that this is your territory and don't try and hand that off."

—Sean Ogle | Chief Adventurer , Location 180, LLC
Follow @seanogle

10. Don't give interns ongoing work—you'll miss them when they're gone.

"Interns are temporary by definition, but many companies make interns integral to their business' processes, and are then left in a lurch when they leave. Know that interns are temporary and only give them standalone projects with clear ending dates. Don't give interns ongoing work, give them a project that they can start and finish."

—Laura Roeder | Founder, LKR
Follow @lkr

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

Read more posts on Young Entrepreneur Council »

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Everyone has to pay their dues, but some dues seem more unfair than others.

And we want to hear all about the crazy tasks and dirty work you were asked to do as an intern. 

All submissions can remain anonymous, but we'd love to include as much information as you're willing to share — e.g., your industry and/or company, and how long you were there. 

We're looking for submissions in any industry — finance, business, fashion, public relations, etc. 

Please submit stories to scortez@businessinsider.com. 

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