When wandering through the halls of BBDO's New York office, which is in the midst of a major renovation, one might notice trading cards stacked on random coffee tables.

This year, BBDO New York's interns decided to produce their very own trading cards to give their superiors.

Every new intern class is asked to collaborate on a creative project that integrates them into the company. Sometimes it's a micro-site, other times interns make funny videos.

In honor of the Olympics, for which BBDO is working on numerous client campaigns, this batch of interns decided to both make a micro-site and create personalized trading cards listing trivia about what Intern Olympic sport they'd dominate.

Sticking with an Olympics theme, the interns wanted their bosses to know that they dominate the field at certain menial intern tasks...

... pouring coffee ...

...rapidly responding to emails...

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It's no longer a shock to see a 40-year-old intern.

Stay-at-home mothers, trying to get back into the workplace and many unemployed people trying to transition into new careers are accepting internships as a way to get their feet in the door.

In fact, many successful retraining programs include a requirement that the worker spend time in an internship. But even if 40-year-old interns are more accepted, it doesn't mean that it's easy to work side-by-side with 23-year-olds. Especially if your boss is a decade younger than you.

There can be big challenges, but here are five survival tips.

1. Walk in with confidence.

The negative self-talk—"I can't believe I'm doing this"—is going to hurt your performance. Focus on what you want to learn about the job and the industry. Give your younger boss the same respect that you would want given to you. Hold your head high and feel confident that you are being proactive about your future.

2. Recognize that your previous experiences are an asset.

You've probably had many life experiences that other team members have not. So when looking at new project, ask yourself, "How can I add value?" What prior experience and skills do you have that will help you contribute to the end goal? Once you do that, you will be recognized as a major asset—by your manager and co-workers.

3. Open up.

Everyone has a story. Some interns will talk about their parents pushing them into the field. Don't feel like you need to hide your situation from your co-workers. Come up with a three- or four-sentence explanation of why you are at the internship. Perhaps it's because you are exploring a new field, going back to work or got laid off. These aren't reasons to be ashamed of. Make sure that your story has a positive spin. The goal isn't to make people feel bad about you—it's to help people connect and relate to your experiences.

4. Let your boss know your goal.

You, more than any other intern, must make sure that your superiors in the workplace know your post-internship goal. You aren't there to play around for a summer or just appease your parents. Sit down with your internship coordinator at some point during the internship; after you thank him or her for the opportunity, explain what you like about the work, what your career goal is, and ask for advice. This will ensure that you are on the same page as your employer. Also, two weeks before the end of your internship, sit down with your employer again and ask for advice on how to land a job at that company or a similar one.

5. Constantly build relationships.

Anytime you meet someone from a department that you might be interested in, ask the person if you could have a brief meeting at some point so you can hear how he or she got started. Informal, informational meetings are a great way to turn these contacts into strong professional relationships. Always remember to ask, "Is there anyone else at the company you think I should connect with?"

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Daily Intel's Kevin Roose has put out some awesome stuff about interns this summer, but this probably takes the cake.

He asked a Barclays intern what it was like to find out the bank's CEO, Bob Diamond, had stepped down in disgrace over the Libor scandal in July.

Here's what the young man, known as "Paul" (not his real name obviously) said (from Daily Intel):

“It was insane. No one in the firm knew about it beforehand. I got to my desk that morning, and the guys on my desk were like, ‘Did you read The Wall Street Journal?’ So I go to WSJ.com and the headline is ‘Barclays CEO Resigns After Libor Scandal.’ That’s all we knew for the next three or four hours, and guys were just shitting themselves.”

On what happened next: “They called us in. This guy sat us down and was like, ‘Look, we’ve been through worse times than this, but this doesn’t reflect our reputation at large.’ But it was kind of like this big dent. Barclays is supposed to be this highly esteemed brand.”

Paul goes on to say that his mom had no idea what was going on, and neither did his friends. “People from back home don’t really understand what you’re doing. Wall Street is, like, a fabled Land of Oz.”

Read the full interview at New York Magazine's Daily Intel>

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Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Foxconn Technology Group said its interns in China are free to leave the program at any time after local newspapers reported that students from vocational schools were forced to make USB cables for Apple Inc.’s new iPhone.

A recent audit of three Foxconn facilities in China carried out by the Fair Labor Association found no evidence that any interns were pressured to participate, Foxconn said in an e- mailed statement today.

The company responded to reports in China Daily and Beijing News that vocational students in the eastern province of Jiangsu were told they had to work at a local Foxconn plant in order to receive academic credits. The interns earned a basic salary of 1,550 yuan ($244) a month and had to work overtime if they didn’t finish their daily tasks, China Daily reported, citing students it didn’t identify with full names.

A woman identified as Wang Yan said she couldn’t understand why her 19-year-old daughter, who is majoring in preschool education, was sent to produce USB cables, China Daily reported. The newspaper cited the daughter, identified only as Song, as saying she couldn’t get the credits needed to graduate if she refused the internship.

Short Staffed

Foxconn invested more than $210 million to establish new production lines for Apple components in the city of Huai’an, the China Daily reported. Now the plant is “short-staffed” as it works to fill orders related to Apple’s new handset, the newspaper reported, citing a Foxconn official it didn’t identify.

Apple on Sept. 12 will hold a product event in San Francisco, where it’s expected to unveil a redesigned iPhone.

Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Apple, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment. A news department official for the Huai’an city government, declining to give her name, said she wasn’t able to comment.

Foxconn, which also makes Apple’s iPad, has internship programs ranging from one to six months in length with “a number of” vocational schools in China, the company said in the e-mailed statement.

“Students are free to leave the internship program at any time,” Foxconn said, adding that the interns represent an average of 2.7 percent of its China workers.

The Beijing News cited the Huai’an government as saying in a statement that all internships organized by vocational schools must be based on the willingness of students, and the schools should immediately rectify any violations. All students who didn’t want to work at the Foxconn plant returned to their schools, the government was cited as saying.

The newspapers didn’t say when the students worked at the factory.

Labor Policies

Calls to Huai’an Broadcasting and Television University and Jiangsu Food Science College, identified by the Beijing News as having sent interns to Foxconn’s plant, went unanswered today. A man who answered the main line at Jiangsu Polytechnic of Finance and Economics, who declined to give his name, said students returned to the school a day after the internship started.

Foxconn’s labor policies have been the subject of past criticism. A Fair Labor Association audit of Foxconn plants working for Apple in March found “serious and pressing” violations of Chinese labor laws, prompting the biggest maker of Apple devices to pledge to cut working hours and give employees more oversight. Assessors found cases of employees working longer hours and more days in a row than allowed by FLA standards and Chinese law.

The commitment to cut worker hours while keeping pay the same means Foxconn will need to recruit “tens of thousands of extra workers” in the next year, the FLA said in the March report. The association said last month that Foxconn was ahead of schedule to improve conditions, while work hours exceeded targets and legal mandates.

--Edmond Lococo, with assistance from Adela Lin and Janet Ong in Taipei and Yidi Zhao in Beijing. Editors: John Liu, Michael Tighe

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Edmond Lococo in Beijing at elococo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net

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The following takes place between 6 AM and 6 AM, at a large investment bank in Tokyo.Events occur in real time.

6:00 AM: The alarm goes off. I really want to snooze but via sheer willpower I jump out of bed – need to impress my boss and co-workers.

6:30 AM: For my breakfast, I buy bottled tea and onigiri (rice balls) at a convenience store. I listen to the Nikkei Shimbun (analogous to the Wall Street Journal) podcast while walking to work.

6:50 AM: I am one of the first people at the office. I breathe a sigh a relief after confirming that my boss isn’t here yet – sometimes he comes in early too.

I had promised myself that I would prove to my boss what a hardworking intern I am. I hastily start the menial task of copying and passing out materials (e.g. research reports, recap of other world markets, latest rates data, etc.) to each trader’s desk. I wonder how many of the traders actually read what I pass out.

8:00 AM: The trading desk is almost full now. I am skimming articles on financial websites and Bloomberg, preparing myself to sound well-informed on the markets when talking to people for the rest of the day (Note: Many trading interns do not get access to Bloomberg since it is very expensive… to the tune of $1500 USD per month). I try to predict how the news will affect the markets for the day.

8:15 AM: All the equity traders have arrived at their desks – fixed income trading is on another floor. Everyone gathers for our morning meeting. Some of the salespeople that work with the traders float over to listen in.

Traders that specialize in each sector or type of trading – vanilla equity, options, portfolio trading, agency trading, etc. – give quick overviews of what happened the day before and their predictions for the upcoming trading session.

What happened overnight in the US/European markets is also naturally a point of discussion, since markets tend to follow each other.

Sometimes I struggle to understand all the jargon or the specific concepts underlying their comments, but overall I can grasp what they’re saying. Everyone speaks in English at the meeting, but many revert to Japanese afterward.

9:00 AM: The Japanese stock markets open. Today I am spending the first couple hours sitting next to an equity options trader, having gotten his permission the day before. I make sure to stay especially quiet right before and after the market close, since those are the busiest times for traders.

Out of his 6 monitors, he has Excel open on 2 screens, Bloomberg open (usually charts) on another 2 screens, Reuters open on 1 screen, and another screen for Microsoft Outlook. The numbers in Excel update every second. I see the trader wrinkle his eyebrows and I wonder why.

10:00 AM: I wait for a moment when the trader seems less busy, and I ask him about what happened. Apparently his gamma had not been hedged as well as he had thought – shortly after the market opened his gamma rose to a higher level than he had anticipated, which meant more risk than he wanted.

I nod in appreciation; I know that some other traders would not have bothered to answer my question.

11:30 AM: Today is a volatile day in the market, and many traders don’t feel comfortable leaving their desks for lunch. I am sent to McDonald’s to buy burgers for most of the equity traders. I’m OK with doing a bit of grunt work; after all, I am an intern, and I’m way better off than the interns in Liar’s Poker.

12:30 PM: By now my eyes and neck are a bit sore from looking at the equity trader’s 6 screens while sitting at the edge of his desk. The market is slowing down a bit now anyway, so I return to my own desk and read some articles and midday market recaps.

I work on the stock picking analysis project that my boss assigned to me, but I know I won’t be able to get any serious work done until the late afternoon.

1:30 PM: I figure I’ve annoyed the equity option trader enough for the day, so I try to find someone else on the desk that’s approachable enough to let me sit by them. I end up sitting next to an equity trader who focuses on retail stocks. Unfortunately, he is one of the more introverted types, and it’s hard to get him to say much. I see him make two trades for the rest of the day.

3:00 PM: Japanese stock markets close. Of course, there’s still after-hours trading, and much work to be done. I see the equity options trader I sat with get up and go to the coffee room. I “coincidentally” happen to go to the coffee room for a break.

There, I thank him again for letting me sit with him, and I do the best job I can of commenting on what happened in the market that day, while asking his opinion on a few points.

He comments that I am pretty knowledgeable for an intern, and it seems like I have made a good impression on him. I think to myself, “Yes…. one step closer to getting a full-time offer…”

4:00 PM: I go out for coffee with a guy from the middle office, an appointment made previously. He’s one of the junior guys, so he’s not too much older than me.

As an intern, not everyone is willing to go out to coffee with you – and sometimes you can learn a lot from people other than the managers and star traders.

I milk him for information: Which traders are more approachable? Exactly how do you interact with the traders? What happens when a trade doesn’t settle correctly? We also bond by talking about which girls in the office are cute.

5:00 PM: My manager takes me to a small conference room for my 10-minute weekly meeting. How much have I learned so far? Which type of trading was I most interested in? Did I have any questions? He reiterates that the competition is tough and that I’ll have to keep working really hard to impress everyone if I want a full-time offer.

5:30 PM: I start working on my stock picking analysis project once again. By downloading data (both fundamental data and technical analysis data) from Bloomberg into Excel on thousands of stocks, I try to figure out a handful of stocks that would be good long trades, and some that are good short trades. This is only one of several projects I am working on.

7:00 PM: Many of the traders have left their desks by now. I wander around the trading floor trying to find someone who’s not in a hurry to go home, and I try to start a conversation to learn something about their trading that day.

Sometimes traders are more relaxed at this time of the day and it’s easier to talk to them.

7:30 PM: I get an email with a link to 50-page economic report from the research team. I interrupt my work to skim the report.

8:00 PM: Almost all of the traders have left the office. Why is my manager still here?

8:30 PM: My manager finally goes home. Whew. I try to wait at least 15 minutes after he leaves so it doesn’t look like I am leaving right after he does.

While there’s less face time in trading compared to investment banking, you still don’t want to leave before your boss – especially as an intern.

9:00 PM: Meet up with a friend and some of her friends for dinner. Most of them are done eating by the time I arrive, but at least I get to say hi.

11:00 PM: Arrive at home. I plan to go to sleep within 30 minutes but after checking email, I end up staying up past midnight. I cringe when I think about how hard it’ll be to wake up the next day.

Then I think about my investment banking intern friends – who are still at the office – and I feel a bit better.

Day 2

5:40 AM: Wake up. I had set my alarm earlier because the day before I had trouble finishing the grunt work on time. I pummel my own head in an attempt to feel awake.

6:30 AM: I arrive at the office… and there is only one other person there. Hmmm, am I working too hard? I tell myself it’ll all be better once I am a full-time employee – which is usually true, at least in trading – and then I begin copying research materials that need to be passed out later.

7:00 AM: The copier is jammed, and I didn’t notice for 15 minutes. Crap. I start to multitask, using 3 copiers instead of 2.

8:00 AM: Today, before the general traders’ meeting, I go to the agency traders’ smaller meeting, which is only in Japanese. The agency traders are responsible for executing the large orders placed by large buy-side institutions, like mutual funds.

They talk mostly about news and overseas market movements, but they also talk about the previous day’s order flow, and about how a research report produced by our firm today might cause a lot of orders for a specific stock. The meeting lasts about 10 minutes.

9:00 AM: The Japanese stock markets open. Today I am spending the first couple hours sitting with the agency trading team. Agency trading is really different from proprietary trading because all the decisions about what and how much to trade are decided by the client – the only decision made by the trader is how to divide the order into smaller trades and when to execute them.

The trader I am sitting with has been doing this for years, and is able to constantly submit trades while barely looking at the screen and talking to me at the same time.

I pray that his discussion with me doesn’t cause him to make any mistakes. Fortunately, he doesn’t have fat finger syndrome. The trader has 4 screens – 1 for order submission and order details, 2 for Bloomberg (charts), and 1 for email / browsing. I am able to ask a dozen or so questions, which is more than usual.

11:00AM: The Japanese market closes for the lunch break (1.5 hours). I go out to lunch with the agency traders, who have less work than the other traders since they don’t have to do as much analysis.

Half of our conversation is about trading, and the other half is about Japanese celebrities. My knowledge of celebrities helps me bond with them… which might increase my chances of getting a full-time offer? I later realize that bonding with traders and being liked are quite important for getting an offer.

M&I Note: This is an important and oft-overlooked point. As an intern, people need to like you if you want a full-time offer – and the same goes for entry-level interviews as well.

12:30 PM: Since the agency traders don’t seem to be annoyed by me, I keep sitting with them until the markets finally close at 3 PM. I start to get bored and tired near the end, but I keep myself busy thinking of new questions for them.

3:30 PM: I had previously made an appointment for coffee with one of the sales traders, but he cancels on me for the second time. Maybe I just should give up on talking to this guy.

4:00 PM: The Head of Prop Trading is having a meeting with some other traders and some middle office guys and suddenly calls me and another intern into the meeting. He wants me and the other intern to help with trading commission calculations, and I have to collect some of the information necessary to do so myself.

I am surprised that a bulge bracket investment bank doesn’t precisely track its trading commissions – but later, I realize that even the biggest financial institutions are full of problems you wouldn’t expect.

I think about how I already have a big trading analysis project AND an equity research project AND grunt work AND other random stuff I have to do, but at the same time I can’t bring myself to say no. This guy is an MD, so I’ve got to impress him. Fortunately the other intern pipes up and finds excuses for why we can’t help.

4:30 PM: Afternoon snack. I go downstairs and make sure nobody I know is in the room, and then I eat a sandwich while massaging my eyes and neck. I don’t want to come off as stressed or physically strained to anyone.

5:00 PM: I spend an hour trying to figure out some Excel VBA for automating organization of data in the trading analysis spreadsheet I’m making. After some trial and error, I get it to work.

The other intern sucks at Excel and is having trouble doing his analysis, so he comes to annoy me with questions. I wonder why an MBA knows less than me about Excel.

7:30 PM: I eat some ramen. Mmmmm. No matter how unhealthy or cheap it is, I still love ramen.

8:00 PM: I feel really tired, so instead of working on my project I just read tons of financial articles. Nobody is paying attention to what I’m doing, anyway.

8:30 PM: Half of the trading desk is still here, mostly junior people. What are they still doing? I go over and talk to them – they are planning and analyzing trades for the next day.

I conclude that if these people weren’t workaholics, they probably wouldn’t be here. Then again, if you’re making or losing millions of dollars every day, sometimes overnight, maybe you’d never be comfortable being away from work anyway.

9:00 PM: I go home and cook noodles with canned fish, seaweed and soy sauce and eat them while watching Japanese music videos. Actually, it’s a pretty good way to cool down. I read a chapter of Future, Options, and Other Derivatives by John Hull.

11:00 PM: I crawl into bed. Wow, I’m going to get almost 7 hours of sleep!

Day 3

6:00 AM: Wake up. Back at it…

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Tony Blair will pay interns working in his profit-making businesses, his private office has told the Guardian.

The sudden change in policy comes less than a week after it was revealed that the multimillionaire former prime minister had been using unpaid "volunteers" in his office for three months at a time and a day after the Guardian published details of a possible investigation by HMRC, which enforces the minimum wage.

Blair's office was also exposed by the careers website Graduate Fog for turning down an intern who had passed a series of tests and interviews because they could only come into the office and work for free for four days a week instead of five.

The series of emails between the intern and Blair's office – which included a list of tasks which interns were expected to carry out such as opening the post and taking phone messages – brought into question whether interns working in the Office of Tony Blair and his consultancy, Tony Blair Associates, were volunteers or workers.

Introduced by Blair's government in 1998, national minimum wage law states that those who perform tasks that can be classified as work must be paid.

During the past 18 months campaigners have been stepping up attempts to use the law to make employers pay interns, who can sometimes work in businesses for more than a year without remuneration.

HMRC has also been writing to businesses it thinks may be in breach of the law, causing consternation among human resources departments.

Last year, the Guardian revealed that government lawyers had advised ministers that "the concept [of internships] has become endemic" and that most employers were likely to be breaking the law.

"Legal colleagues take the view that most interns are likely to be workers and therefore entitled to the NMW [national minimum wage] and other worker rights," the document to ministers stated.

In a statement last night, the Office of Tony Blair said it would now pay interns who worked for longer periods of time. "Over the past five years the Office of Tony Blair has had a small number of voluntary interns gaining work experience in the organisation.

"The vast majority came to us at their request, unadvertised for voluntary work. Of those, a number have since become full-time paid employees with us. We have also always acted on legal advice in respect of any intern.

"Nonetheless from now on, if we do have interns for an extended period ie around three months, we will pay them the national minimum wage.

The office added that the charities that Blair heads would, however, not be paying. "Two of the charities do have voluntary intern programmes. As independent charities they pay expenses," the office said.

Tanya de Grunwald from Graduate Fog, who help gather evidence against Blair's office, said it was another victory in a string of successful cases.

"This is a major victory for interns – and it proves that they have more power than they think they do.

"This is the latest in a string of cases where high-profile employers have either changed their policy on unpaid interns or awarded back pay to their young workers retrospectively as a result of our naming and shaming.

"Public concern about youth unemployment means it is becoming increasingly embarrassing for big brands of famous individuals to be caught using unpaid interns for extended periods and we are determined to exploit their fear of bad press.

"With Twitter and Facebook these stories can spread in minutes – and the nature of the internet means they can never be erased. As more interns are now coming forward to tell us their stories, big employers who have been using unpaid interns should be very worried indeed."

However, Gus Baker from Intern Aware queried why Blair wasn't paying all his interns. "While it is good and welcome that Blair has relented and agreed to pay the interns in his private office, he still reportedly does not pay those working for his charity.

"Failing to pay at least the national minimum wage isn't just unfair on interns who are asked work for free, it excludes those who can't afford to. Tony Blair should know better and pay all his interns a fair wage."

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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Business Insider needs an intern to write about advertising and to help build our coverage of marketing, media and entertainment.

This will be the most fun internship in journalism right now. You WILL generate many awesome clips!

The job requires a mix of blogging, traditional beat reporting, commentary and analysis. We need:

• someone who can work quickly and independently;
• someone whose spelling, punctuation and headline-writing are impeccable;
• someone who can work without too much supervision and is comfortable cranking out several items per day.
• someone who knows how to use blogs, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and other social media to attract and engage an audience.

You will also attend a lot of cool parties here in New York. We are growing. We tend to hire from within.

This is not a traditional reporting job!

The internship is for the spring semester (i.e. you will start in January or sooner) and is full time. It is paid.

To apply: Please send a resume (or Linkedin URL), a cover letter consisting of no more than three paragraphs about yourself, and five clips to jedwards@businessinsider.com.

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Facebook is the #1 company to work for in the world, according to a new study by Glassdoor.

The career site recently ranked the 50 best companies based on employee reviews and corporate data it collected.

After looking at the salaries of even the lowest people at Facebook, it's easy to see why employees are happy there.

According to 28 reviews on Glassdoor, Facebook pays its average intern $5,602 per month.

That ends up being a base salary of about $67,000 per year. According to the Social Security Administration, that's a good $25,000 more than the average US citizen makes, which is $42,976.

Facebook and other tech companies pay their interns well because they want first dibs on young talent. It's not easy to find engineers or designers right now, and all of the big tech companies poach from each other.  Some dangle salaries in front of current students and encourage them to drop out.

Maybe investor Marc Andreessen is right. A math-based degree is the way to go.

Here are some of the other average salaries at Facebook (click to enlarge):

SEE ALSO: Employees Say They LOVE Working For These 20 Tech Companies

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An intern for Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was an undocumented immigrant and a registered sex offender whose arrest was delayed by federal immigration officials just before the election, the Associated Press reports.

The Department of Homeland Security pushed the arrest back six weeks after some officials with the agency said they were worried the case might grab too many headlines before Menendez's re-election run, according to the AP.

The AP story, which cites internal agency documents provided to Congress, is long and rather complex, but the basic facts are these:

• Luis Abraham Sanchez Zavaleta, an 18-year-old Peruvian immigrant, first entered the country on a visitor visa, which has since expired, according to the AP.
• Last summer, he applied for the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which would have allowed him to stay in the U.S. legally for two years. He didn't tell immigration officials he was a registered sex offender, and his application was denied, according to the AP.
• He was charged with aggravated sexual assault in 2009 – for allegedly attacking a young boy at least 8 times – at the age of 15, according to the AP. He got two years of probation and had to register as a sex offender.
• In September, he began working for Menendez's Newark office as an unpaid intern.
• Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials in Newark had planned to arrest Sanchez on Oct. 25, but were then adviced by New Jersey ICE officials to postpone the arrest.
• Menendez, a Democratic Senator from New Jersey, was easily re-elected on Nov. 8 with 58 percent of the vote.
• Immigration officials arrested Sanchez in front of his New Jersey home on Dec. 6.
• The AP broke the story on December 12.
• The next day, Menendez's staff told him about Sanchez. His staff told the AP, as well as Roll Call, that they hadn't known about Menendez's immigration status or prior crimes.

Assistant DHS Secretary Nelson Peacock denied the AP's allegations in a letter on Monday, stating that Sanchez's arrest was not delayed "for political purposes."

SEE ALSO: Obama's Illegal Immigrant Uncle Might Be Getting Special Treatment >

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Earlier this month, we posted a perfectly blunt cover letter written by an aspiring Wall Street intern that went viral and was referred to as the "best cover letter ever."

In the student's email to a boutique investment bank in New York, he reminded the banker that they had met a couple summers ago at Smith & Wollensky in New York. 

After that name drop, Smith & Wollensky has taken out an ad in the New York Times offering the student an internship if the bank didn't give him one.

From the FT's Tracy Alloway:

Spotted in the NYT -"Goldman can teach you to evaluate a company, but can they teach you to properly age a sirloin?"twitter.com/tracyalloway/s…

— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) January 25, 2013

SEE: A Guy Took An Ad Out In The New York Times Telling Bill Ackman To 'Get A Life' >

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Now, most of the posters on WSO aren’t managing anyone yet or even have anyone below them on the totem pole for at least a few years, but those that will (or have) may benefit from this post. There are literally hundreds of threads talking about how to deal with bosses and colleagues but rarely do you find one discussing how to treat those beneath you.

More importantly, it’s probably going to happen sooner than you think. Unfortunately, I’ve seen even the BEST analysts fail and make countless mistakes when managing down while they have no problem with managing up. We’re so used to sucking up and playing politics as the lowest guy on the totem pole that we have no idea what to do when a wide-eyed 20-21 year old is thrust into our cubicle by the staffer.

The first rule is, leave the abuse at home. I was in one of the more fratty groups at my BB but even if the entire group “hazed” the interns/first years collectively, always treat your INDIVIDUAL intern(s) with respect. I don’t care if you got beaten with rulers or had printers thrown at you during your first year, but you are not to repeat the same behavior.

This seems like common sense, but many times I’ve seen great analysts decide that because they went through hell, they have the right to make others feel the same pain (or at least 50% of the pain they did) and it’s okay because you can say, “Hey, I went through way worse man.” No one cares about your life story, stop being a f--king d---.

Second thing I see a lot is that the good analysts are about 3000% more efficient than any new associate or analyst. They usually give some work to the junior and then realize that it’s taking him/her five times as long to do it. Even worse, you’ll think, “This intern/1st year is constantly bothering me with questions
every 5 minutes! F--- it, I’ll just do it all myself.”

NO! As tempting as it may be to just do everything yourself in 2 hours and leave for the night, take the time to delegate the work. And I don’t mean just give the intern bullshit work such as changing fonts. Yes, the intern should be doing even up to 80% of the b---- work, but make sure that he’s also doing something interesting/useful. It will take a longer time to teach someone something more complicated, but you’ll be paid dividends when he/she is able to take all the future tasks of that type and complete it for you efficiently.

This even goes against rule #1, which is that some senior analysts try to be TOO nice. Not giving someone any work is not being nice, you’re actually just stifling them and creating a useless intern/analyst that is going to piss off someone more senior later down the road when they realize that this junior kid knows nothing and can create nothing of value. Take the time to teach and delegate!

Finally, make sure that the new kid feels part of the team. Banking is all about the time you put in and no one can stand 100+ hour weeks without the bantering and joking around that happens in the bullpen. Obviously as a senior analyst you will have thousands of inside stories/jokes with your fellow colleagues that the intern/1st year is not in on. Explain to him/her the context and involve them in your conversations.

Now the important part of the article, WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU? After all, we’re all immoral greedy no-good selfish p----s according to the media, why are you helping someone else?

The answer is, how you treat the new blood can have a huge impact on how easy your 2nd year is. First of all, everyone is usually assigned work by the staffer. But of course you can also request who to work with. You would think that all the new blood would want to work with the best. Yes, but that’s not the only factor and was not the case when one the best analysts in my group was actually a huge dick.

Therefore, he missed out on the best 1st years for the rest of his stint because he kept regaling them with stories about how he was abused and shit on his first year. They nodded and tried to sympathize but in the end, they tried to avoid him at all costs.

By being friendly, respectful and inclusive, the senior analysts who treated the new blood well were able to have their pick of the litter. They were able to actually leave at 7pm or 8pm some nights because any new analyst is usually eager as hell to start working and learning and were well prepared to do so thanks to proper management and delegation.

Read more of this piece on Wall Street Oasis>

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Clément Lefert, a French swimmer who took home a gold medal at the London 2012 summer Olympics, is interning at a hedge fund, Bloomberg News' Matthew Brown reported.

The 26-year-old Olympian is currently interning at commodities and oil hedge fund Andurand Capital Management in London. His goal, however, is to become a trader, the report said. 

Here's what we know about him: 

• He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and holds a masters in finance from a French business school. 
• He's from Nice, France
• He's 6 feet tall 
• His main event for swimming in college was the butterfly 
• He holds the school's record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:33.67
• Lefert's 4×100 meters freestyle relay team beat the U.S. team, which included decorated Olympian Michael Phelps. 

SEE ALSO: The 31 Most Impressive Athletes On Wall Street >

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To show off how quirky it is, Heineken made a video about its ridiculously bizarre interview process for an events intern position. (Watch below.)

The job landscape is really a buyer's market, so the Dutch brewing company decided to have fun with some of the 1,734 people who applied for the internship.

Candidates had to hold hands with the interviewer, among other bizarre tasks, like participating in a fire drill. "It made me feel... comfortable," a hopeful intern said when asked about the hand-holding experience. Weird.

Mashable's Todd Wasserman notes that"many brands — particularly European ones — seem to have a fascination with punking consumers from their target demo."

He used Nivea's new immersive campaign as an example. Nivea tricked random strangers into thinking that they were wanted by the police with the hopes that they would become so stressed out that they'd need the company's deodorant.

An advertising agency in Brussels also boasts that it makes bad interns sleep in the dungeon-like basement of a building adjacent to its office while good interns get suite accommodations.

But fear not, America likes its intern abuse, too. So much so, in fact, that ad agency Neo-Pangea had a press stunt in which it physically abused interns on a live video stream.

Watch Heineken's strange internship interview process below:

SEE ALSO: Samsung Can Make Almost Any Ad — Even One About A Washing Machine — Go Viral Read

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Sixteen years before Mark Zinni was an anchor/reporter at Cleveland's Fox 8 News, he was just a lowly intern at NBC's "Today" show.

But Zinni became nationally known Thursday after a tweet in which he called Matt Lauer "not so nice" went completely bonkers on Twitter.

It all started when Zinni responded to a tweet inquiring about the controversial Lauer:

The tweet went viral after it was mentioned by Zinni's newscast producer:

— Darren Sweeney (@dwsweeney) March 26, 2013

Lauer, who's been called a "bully" in the press this week, caught wind of the tweet and offered an apology (which has since been deleted):

@markzinni huh? Always tried to be nice Mark. Sorry you didn't think so. Hope you're doing well.Matt

— Matt Lauer (@MLauer) March 27, 2013

After a barrage of Twitter comments and press following Lauer's reply, Zinni defended his story in a post on FOX8.com, writing:

Darren Sweeney, an executive producer at FOX 8, asked about my experience with Matt Lauer. If you know me, you probably know that I don’t take myself too seriously. So, my answer was more of a joke about being young and naive during my time at Today, but I added that he wasn’t nice to me. I didn’t slam the guy,I just made an honest comment. ...

Twitter is a great resource for everyone because it’s instant and, thankfully, shorter than a phone call. Bottom line, I was shocked Matt Lauer even bothered with me and, really, he remembers me? I’m flattered.

SEE ALSO: Ann Curry got pranked and teased by her "Today" show co-anchor and crew >

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In an unstable economy, a job or even a whole career can fall apart at any moment. And so many workers try to have a "Plan B" ready just in case the paychecks stop flowing. But if there was to be one exception to that rule, you would think it would be a professional football player, many of whom earn millions a year.

But according to a report by Bloomberg News, some players in the NFL are interning at major corporations -- in between touchdowns and tackles. It's self-preservation. Despite big paychecks and celebratory headlines, NFL players typically have brief careers, and often find that the money doesn't last through all those years of retirement. In fact, 78 percent of NFL players are broke within two to five years of retirement, according to Sports Illustrated.

While on vacation, Thomas Welch, an offensive lineman with the Buffalo Bills, recently completed a six-week internship with the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management division of Bank of America, Bloomberg notes. He earns $540,000 a year as a football player, according to Sportrac.com, the sports salary website. But according to Bloomberg, "he is in the final year of a two-year contract" and says he knows that "his long-term future won't be on a football field."

Welch told Bloomberg that the internship "was a great experience." During his six-week stint, Welch was asked to put together a mock $1 million portfolio. And he did rather well on the test; his investments grew 4.98 percent during the first quarter of 2013. "I got a better understanding of what [bankers] do -- not just about wealth management, but all aspects of the financial industry." 

More:Highest-Paid Public Employee In Your State Is Probably A Coach

And often these internships do lead to full-time jobs. David Howard, also 25, recently took a full-time position with the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management division after leaving the league. A 2010 draft pick of the Tennessee Titans, Howard also completed an internship during his career. "I've always known there would be life after football and career was more of a priority," he told Bloomberg.

Boot Camp

The NFL encourages moonlighting and provides players with a robust training program to prepare for their next workplace. The training program includes a four-day career-training boot camp at some of the most prestigious business schools in the country -- such as Stanford and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The program helps with basics of job search, such as resume writing and interviews. It also includes coursework covering the basics of different industries like hospitality and entertainment.

As Vincent, who played from 1992 to 2006, told Bloomberg:

"Football is not a career; it is an experience. The body has an expiration date. It's out of your control when you are going to be released. They need to start planning their next career right away."

The $20 Million Players

Still, some NFL players are so great that they can surely wait till after they're out of the league before worrying about what comes next. The league's top quarterbacks, such as Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens and Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints famously make $20 million a year. But these players are the exceptions. In fact, most members in the league would have to be living in a fantasy not to plan their second careers, according to Vincent. The minimum wage for players in the 2012-13 season was $390,000 a year, and the average career lasts about 3½ years, Bloomberg reported.

"The player today has to make a conscious effort not to engage" in career planning, he told Bloomberg. "There is no excuse."

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We recently spoke to a well-connected Wall Streeter who told us the No. 1 piece of advice bankers have for new recruits.

It's something that no New York summer interns are going to want to hear.

Don't go to the Hamptons.

Why?

If you really want a job offer, then you need to spend almost every waking hour in the office that you possibly can. That also means you need to make yourself available to try new things at your firm.

And if and when you do get a full-time job offer, you'll be able to enjoy the rite of passage of heading east another summer.

Until then, stay in the city on the weekends.

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It's that time of the year.  Wall Street summer internships have begun.  

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!

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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Editor's note:  Last summer, one of our interns put together a great post on the ways Wall Street interns make themselves appear busy all day every summer.  Since the season has officially started we've decided to share this with you again. 

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.

Every summer, we welcome a new class of interns to join the editorial team at Business Insider.

This year, we're thrilled to have 19 talented young journalists join our team. They'll be spending the summer helping us build the business news site for the digital generation.

(And yes, all BI interns are paid.)

Amelia Acosta, Dartmouth College [Politics]

Alexandra Mondalek, University of Michigan [Strategy]

Anmargaret Warner, Wake Forest University [Lists & Rankings]

Brian Jones, Columbia University [Military & Defense]

Cole Katzter, University of Binghamton [Social Media]

Christina Sterbenz, Syracuse University [Law]

Justin Gmoser, Clarion University of Pennsylvania [Video]

Kyle Russell, UC Berkeley [Tech]

Laura Brothers, Ithaca College [Personal Finance]

Liz O'Connor, Boston College [Lifestyle]

Lynne Guey, University of Florida [Careers]

Melia Robinson, Syracuse University [Entertainment]

Michael Thrasher, Ohio University [Retail]

Peter Jacobs, Cornell University [Colleges]

Philip Johnson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [Sports]

Robert Ferris, NYU [Science]

Sam Colt, Kenyon College [Contributors]

Steven Perlberg, Washington University [Markets / Finance]

Steven Tweedie, University of Michigan [Tech]

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Google has made a video that documents the first week at Google for five actual interns , in an attempt to  portray the work experience accurately — and not the way it's seen in the movie "The Internship."

The Mountain View Google HQ is plenty quirky, filled with unique features such as an outdoor volleyball court, spherical work stations, and a campus filled with Android sculptures and other art.

Who knows, you might even run into someone like Sergey Brin.

While not as in-your-face-Google as the movie "The Internship," there are certainly similarities to the actual headquarters, such as the Noogle hats for newcomers.

Get ready for some team bonding — Google has lots of group activities to help interns acclimate.

Feeling restless at your desk? Google offers some unique work spaces such as these spheres for a more comfortable work environment.

You get to check out some of Google's experimental tech such as this massive six-monitor display, which appears to be running Google Earth.