Two days after a judge ruled in favor of two ex-Fox Searchlight interns who sued over an unpaid gig they say violated the law, two former Condé Nast interns have launched their own lawsuit.

Lauren Ballinger was an intern at W Magazine in 2009 and Matthew Leib interned for The New Yorker in 2009 and 2010, The New York Times reports. The New Yorker paid Leib $300 to $500 for each summer he worked at the magazine, and Ballinger said she was paid $12 a day to work in W's accessories department.

While Leib was working for The New Yorker, he reviewed pieces for submission, proofread and edited articles, and helped out with various aspects of the magazine's cartoon section, according to court papers. Leib worked three days a week for about eight hours a day, The Times reported.

Ballinger told The Times that an editor at W compared her internship to Anne Hathaway's job in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" but said it was worse because there was no makeover at the end. She said W paid her $12 a day to work in the accessories department, and her hours were from 8 or 9 a.m. each morning until 8 to 10 p.m. each night. Ballinger said she was responsible for packing, organizing, and delivering accessories to editors.

A spokesman for Condé Nast told The Times it doesn't comment on litigation.

The U.S. Department of Labor has set standards for unpaid internships, which are considered illegal unless they meet the following criteria:

• The internship must be similar to training that would be given in an educational environment.
• The internship experience must be for the benefit of the intern.
• The intern can't displace regular employees, and must work under the supervision of existing staff.
• The employer can't derive any immediate advantage from the activities of the intern.
• The intern can't be promised a job at the end of the internship.
• The employer and the intern must understand that the intern isn't entitled to wages.

More lawsuits were expected to come forward after a judge handed down Tuesday's ruling in the Fox Searchlight case. The judge found that the interns qualified as "employees" and were entitled to minimum wage. Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, who brought the suit, both worked as unpaid interns on the "Black Swan" set. 

Not all recent lawsuits against companies who use unpaid interns have been successful. Last month, a judge threw out a class-action suit against Hearst Magazines filed by former Harper's Bazaar intern Diana Wang. The judge ruled that Wang and other plaintiffs could file individual lawsuits against the company, but that the suit could not go forward as a class action.

This creates a problem for interns who might want to take on companies that didn't pay them for their work. As New York Magazine points out, individual plaintiffs are less attractive to lawyers because the suits would have small payouts — minimum wage back-pay for the time they were at the company.

The ruling in the Fox Searchlight case might have changed the playing field. That judge said the interns' suit could proceed as a class action, which means Footman and Glatt could potentially recover money for all Fox Searchlight unpaid interns.

Click here to read the entire lawsuit against Condé Nast.

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While everyone focuses on the plight of unpaid interns, MBA interns are making out nicely. The average hourly pay for MBAs is $22.97 an hour, and that gets significantly higher for top schools.

John Byrne at Poets & Quants compiled a list of average monthly intern pay for top schools.

The winners were Columbia and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business with an $8,000 median monthly salary.

Depending on where you go, the number gets even higher. The average consulting intern gets $10,500.

There's a reason these companies pay so much. It's a great way to get the inside track to hiring top students. Some 48% of Booth graduates end up taking a job at the place they interned the previous summer. 

Here are the schools that come out on top: 

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This week, a federal judge ruled that Fox Searchlight violated minimum wage laws for not paying two production interns. So what are those laws? Are unpaid internships ever OK?

Here are some answers to commonly asked questions about intern pay.

What laws determine when an intern should or should not be paid?

The Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, regulates minimum wage and overtime for U.S. workers, including interns. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is responsible for enforcing the law, and has a six-factor test to determine whether interns at private sector employers must be paid minimum wage.

According to the Department of Labor, an unpaid internship must meet all these criteria:

• The internship is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment

• It’s for the benefit of the intern

• The intern doesn’t displace paid employees

• The employer doesn’t benefit from work the intern is doing, “and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.”

• The intern isn’t promised a job at the end (unpaid “tryouts” aren’t allowed)

• Both the intern and their boss understand its an unpaid position

So are unpaid internships ever OK?

Very rarely, for work done at for-profit companies. According to the Department of Labor's test, companies can’t derive an “immediate advantage” from an intern’s work. And in the private sector, work that doesn’t benefit the company is rare.

“It’s fair to say most private-sector employers who employ volunteers are violating the law,” said David Yamada, a professor of law at Suffolk University in Boston.

What if they provide a stipend or lunch money? Does that count?

Probably not, assuming it’s a private sector employee covered by the FLSA, according to Yamada. If an internship at a for-profit employer doesn’t meet the factors laid out in the six-point test, they most likely have to pay their interns minimum wage.

What about internships at nonprofits?

According to the Department of Labor, nonprofits have an additional exception for unpaid interns that "volunteer their time." The government's guidelines state that“unpaid internships in the public sector and for non-profit charitable organizations...are generally permissible.”

What about gigs with the government?

For most interns on Capitol Hill, it’s perfectly legal for them to be working for free. Congress conveniently exempted itself from the Fair Labor Standards Act, meaning they don’t have to pay their interns. (It’s just one of many workplace laws that Congress doesn’t have to follow.) Most federal-level internships, including the White House’s program, are also unpaid.

Does getting college credit mean it’s OK to not get paid?

Not really. Many companies attempt to use academic credit as legal justification for an unpaid internships. But this week’s “Black Swan” ruling suggests college credit is not a reason to not pay your interns, a move that, as Yamada put it, opens an “interesting door.”

From the judge’s decision:

“The law focuses on what employers are doing and if they’re offering a bona fide training program,” said Rachel Bien, an attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the Fox case.

If an intern feels they’re owed pay, what can they do?

They can either attempt to work it out with their employer, file a complaint with the Department of Labor, or sue.

Of course, many interns don’t act. The Department of Labor has said they only receive a handful of complaints per year. And in recent years, there have only been three major lawsuits alleging companies should have treated interns as employees.

When interns do bring a lawsuit, it often settles out of court. Employment lawyer Michael Tracy says that in his experience, interns that did complain were paid “quite quickly and quite well...That’s what keeps it going. You pay one or two interns that complain, and you keep 20 or 30 that don’t. That’s a good business model.”

According to Yamada, cases that settle out of court often involve a confidentiality clause that prevents the intern from talking about the settlement. Interns are rarely in a position to stick with a case through trial. “Few unpaid interns have the resources to wait five years for a case to resolve,” said Tracy. ”You need a moral crusader.”

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Three former interns are suing Gawker and publisher Nick Denton over their time spent writing, editing and doing things that would otherwise be compensated in cold, hard cash for the New York blog empire.

The three interns, identified by the New York Post, claim they spent at least 15 hours a week working for Denton's network in the lawsuit filed Friday in a Manhattan federal court.

Aulistar Mark, Andrew Hudson and Hanchen Lu held Summer internships within the Gawker network between 2008 and 2010. Mark and Hudson worked for Kotaku and i09, respectively, but Lu has no detectable presence on any Gawker sites that we could find. (If you find evidence of his work, please forward it to us.) All three claim they wrote, edited, did social media and were even forced to moderate Gawker's notoriously miserable comment sections during their internship and were "not paid a single cent," the lawsuit says, according to Bloomberg:

“Gawker employs numerous other ‘interns’ in the same way, paying them nothing or underpaying them and utilizing their services to publish its content on the Internet, an enterprise that generates significant amounts of revenue for Gawker,” the plaintiffs said in the complaint, which was filed on behalf of all of the company’s unpaid interns.

Of course, this is all coming on the heels of a judge validating Eric Glatt and Alex Footman's claim claim that Fox Searchlight should have paid them as production interns on Black Swan. The internship lawsuits have since been popping up all over town, obviously, by disgruntled former interns looking for late-game compensation for their work. Editorial employees seem more rankled about the ruling than others; Condé Nast was also sued within the last week. 

Gawker just recently started paying their interns with real money. As recently as August 2012, Gawker was offering college credit for their fall interns. In January, a cold call for new "editorial fellows" said they were "paid, hourly employees." When writing about the Glatt and Footman case, Gawker writer Adrian Chen called the two "ungrateful" after they were privileged enough to fetch Natalie Portman's coffee.

It really should be mentioned (because no one else is saying it) that Chen was being tongue in cheek. "This is America, where exploiting young people via unpaid internships, thus cutting out anyone who isn't rich or well-connected, is a time-honored tradition,"he wrote. Gawker reps told The Hollywood Reporter they haven't been served yet. They aren't commenting at this time. 

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These days, it seems like interns everywhere are suing their old bosses.

Hey interns — cut it out. You are extremely lucky to have an internship, even if it's unpaid.

Look, I feel you. I had six internships before I was officially hired as a reporter. Out of those six jobs, two of them were unpaid.

So I can relate to interns like Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, two former Fox Searchlight interns who told The New York Times they had to make coffee, take out the trash, and clean up the production room on the "Black Swan" film set.

Or Diana Wang, who unsuccessfully sued Hearst in 2012 for back wages from Harper's Bazaar, alleging to magazine internship website Ed2010 that "the type of work that interns were doing at Bazaar put them at risk safety-wise" by returning bags of clothes and accessories around New York City.

I even had virtually the same experience as the two Condé Nast interns Lauren Ballinger and Matthew Leib who recently launched yet another lawsuit. Both were barely paid during their time at the media conglomerate, and were doing the jobs of full-time employees.

A few of my "paid" internships were barely paid, too. I once received a stipend of $400 a month to live in New York City while working 45 hours a week. Another internship was a sponsored position through my college's art history program, where I received $1,000 a month while living in an MIT frat house over the summer to save money.

For a year before I was officially hired full-time at Business Insider (where all interns are paid), I also served and hosted at various restaurants on weekends and the odd weeknight to supplement my income, if I had one. It was normal for me to work seven days a week, and I was exhausted.

But I also recognized how fortunate I was. Not only did my parents help me financially when I was in dire straights, but they also let their grown daughter live with them for six months while she interned and saved money to move to New York City.

I could afford to take unpaid internships (or virtually unpaid), learn from my coworkers, and network. So that's exactly what I did.

Many internships suck. You're the lowest on the totem pole, and your responsibilities aren't always the exciting start in the industry you thought they'd be. You won't always feel appreciated. Sometimes, you might actually feel invisible.*

But not every young adult has the luxury of working an internship, paid or not. In the real world, people take jobs that they don't love all the time because they need to make ends meet. And those who dream of going into creative careers are often held back because they can't afford to take an unpaid job, even if they work a second one.

I strongly believe that all internships should be paid. It makes interns feel valued and gives them a financial boost, even if it's a small one.

But this is not always the reality we live in. And I'm not convinced that suing huge companies (with more money and more lawyers than you) helps, apart from making a whole lot more "unpaid" internships for school credit only (which opens up a whole other can of worms, because you're paying for school while working — you are essentially paying to work).

Plus, suing is a long, drawn out process that could hurt your career as well as the company you were originally so excited to join.

If you have the privilege and the opportunity to take an unpaid internship — even if it means taking a second job to support yourself — do it. Learn from it. Work your hardest and impress your boss. You are investing in your future career, networking with people in your chosen field, and getting hands-on experience.

And after work, grab a drink with your fellow beleaguered interns. Complain about your boss, your apartment, and your financial situation. Wish that you were paid, and loudly complain that you aren't.

But leave the bitching at the bar.

*If you're being sexually harassed, working inhumane hours, or are in any way being abused, you absolutely need to stand up for yourself. Ignore everything I just said and sue, sue, sue!

SEE ALSO: The 10 Best College Towns In America

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Mod Note: This comment is a response to the ContemplatingBanker's post "How to Deal with the Hours"(find this comment lower down on page 2). Patrick called this "one of the best comments I've ever read on WSO" - so naturally it deserves its own spot on the homepage. Enjoy!

ContemplatingBanker – I read your post and empathized very strongly with what you wrote. I have been in a similar place myself and, in some of my lowest moments, remember reaching out to a few trusted advisers and getting literally nothing back from them. Despondent about this, I hunkered down and carried on with my job while thinking hard about how to rationalize the junior banker experience and get the most out of it without coming away from it defeated and bitter.

I mean no disrespect to the other posters and agree almost entirely with the sensible advice that they have shared. I will however say that their good advice seems to be mostly tactical and focused on the day-to-day blocking and tackling of the job. Permit me to offer a slightly more strategic and higher-level perspective. Tough as it is in the short term, you do have an extraordinary opportunity before you and I discourage you from acting rashly and without due forethought. Much as being an Analyst blows, you can cope and you can come away from this experience as a stronger and more empowered person with terrific career options ahead of you.

I should probably “introduce” myself first. I have lurked on WSO for a long time but this is the first time that I have felt moved to post anything more than a few lines. The comments below should probably be set in context by some bare facts about me: I am in my mid-30s, my first career was as an infantry officer in which I spent two tours fighting in the Middle East. I did an MBA at H/S/W and then worked as an M&A Associate for a MM advisor on the East Coast. I am now working in a completely different industry, although I would not have got this chance if I didn’t start my business career with an investment bank.

What follows is simply an account of what I found helped my state of mind while I was getting crushed by repeated 100+ hour weeks one after another. I am writing this in the spirit of trying to help another guy trying to get through a tough and miserable time – if it comes across as preaching or condescending then that is unintentional. If it comes across as braggadocios alpha-male bullshit then that is not intended either. I was a soldier for nearly a decade and I guess that colors how I look at a lot of situations. Here goes:

1. Adopt a Survivor Mentality. 

There are some extraordinary stories of people that have survived in the face of incredible odds against them. I am talking about being stranded in the wilderness or adrift at sea – that kind of a thing. There has been a certain amount of academic research and a number of books filled with awe-inspiring stories. Movies too; “127 Hours” is a recent example that comes to mind. Those that survive exhibit a number of common personality traits. Fortitude and an absence of self-pity are among them, but the one that really resonated with me is: Acceptance. Those that got their heads down and prevailed against an awful situation accepted the hand that they had been dealt. That was just how it happened to be for them. They accepted that this was the situation that they’d got themselves into, they accepted what resources (or more importantly what constraints) they had, and they made the best of what they had to work with. Getting frustrated or angry about things that you simply cannot change is an enormous waste of energy. Save that energy for something that will actually help you.

2. Put it in Perspective.

I am wary of becoming preachy here so I will keep it short: there are many, many people whose lives are a fuck’s-sight worse than yours. Nothing highly original here, but what put it in perspective for me was reading a well-written book about somebody roughly the same age as me who is having an altogether different, and worse, experience. Apart from the fact that reading is an enjoyable and enriching escape – even for 20 minutes before bed, it can also give you tremendous perspective. [I had the Kindle app downloaded onto my work computer, and sometimes inconspicuously read between 9am and 3pm while I was waiting for a turn of edits]. “Unbroken” and “Matterhorn” are two books that I recently read. I also taped a small picture of Nelson Mandella to my monitor. When I was really hating life I thought about what he described in “The Long Walk to Freedom” and it put things in perspective for me. Once one of the Directors asked me who the picture was of – I told him it was my uncle and he seemed to believe me, the ignorant fuck.

3. Rationalize 2 Years.

 I know its hard when you are there, and at the time of being an Analyst its not much less than a tenth of your life, but two years really is not a long time. If you get caught with a small amount of weed and are unlucky you can get sent to prison for more than two years, soldiers go to Afghanistan for nearly 18 months. I know that these are downbeat examples but you can get through two years if you can keep the end in sight and break it down into chunks. I created a fancy spreadsheet with loads of date functions that broke down how far through my stint I was and how much money I had made so far. This can sap your morale as well as boost it so decide for yourself and obviously never let anyone see it! Two years all at once can seem overwhelming so break it down into milestones that work for you: Thanksgiving, when bonuses get paid, your one-year point – whatever. Focus on getting to the next milestone and then pick another one. Somehow it makes things seem a tiny bit less shit.

4. Be Strong. 

Carry yourself with purpose and aplomb – do not look like a victim and never complain. It is a shitty life right now – everyone knows that it is. The Analysts that tearfully drag themselves about the floor like zombies mark themselves down as bitches and it becomes a downward spiral of disrespect from there. It is an ugly, “Lord of the Flies”, side of human nature and I am not endorsing it but if you mope around and visibly hate every moment then it gets noticed and it becomes the legacy that you do not want.

For the rest of the tips, head to Wall Street Oasis>

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For centuries before the rise of educational institutions, everyone learned on the job, through formal or informal apprenticeships. An aspiring blacksmith learned his trade by working alongside a master craftsman; a dressmaker-in-training performed increasingly complex tasks under the tutelage of an experienced seamstress. But much of today’s work, of course, is less concrete than hammering an anvil or cutting a bolt of fabric; it’s social, emotional and intellectual labor, often carried on inside a person’s own mind.

In a landmark article published more than a decade ago, cognitive scientist Allan Collins and his coauthors John Seely Brown and Susan Newman gave us a new way to think about this kind of contemporary learning: novices, they wrote, can engage in a cognitive apprenticeship. Like a traditional apprenticeship, this form of training pairs a rookie with a worker who’s far more advanced, but Collins and his colleagues adapted the older custom to the new needs of executives, managers, salespeople and other professionals who work with their heads rather than their hands.

As they describe it, the cognitive apprenticeship proceeds in three steps. First, the master models the skill for the apprentice. Second, the master coaches the apprentice as he or she attempts to execute the skill. And third, the master “fades” or pulls back as the apprentice is increasingly able to work independently. Over the course of this cycle, the apprentice learns to identify and correct mistakes, and to integrate his or her burgeoning knowledge and skill into a smooth, coordinated performance.

So far, this sounds a lot like how things were done in the olden days—but as Collins writes, “Applying apprenticeship methods to largely cognitive skills requires the externalization of processes that are usually carried out internally.” That means that the modern-day master and apprentice must be continuously communicating as they work side by side.

Collins prescribes two specific types of talk: in the first, the master and the neophyte take turns explaining what they’re doing as they do it. This alternation allows apprentices “to use the details of expert performance as the basis for incremental adjustments to their own performance,” Collins writes.

The second approach Collins calls “abstracted replay”: that is, after a task has been performed, the master offers a detailed commentary on what just happened (sometimes augmented by the actual replay of video taken during the task). During the recap, the more experienced member of the pair recounts what would have been his or her internal dialogue so that the less-experienced participant can hear it—and, in time, draw that dialogue inward as well.

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We’re in the heart of intern season, which means thousands of bright-eyed college and graduate students are putting in the hours, setting themselves up for long distinctive careers on Wall Street. Others, meanwhile, are shooting themselves in foot, killing their chances of finding work down the road, at least at the bank in which they’re interning.

In an effort to help keep the latter group as small as possible, we reached out to four vice presidents on Wall Street – two investment bankers at bulge bracket firms, a hedge fund exec and a consultant – to capture the dos and don’ts of being an intern. Each source not only currently manages interns, but has been one in the past at the MBA level. Two are female and two are male. They asked to remain anonymous to give you the real dirt. And off we go…

Male VP – Investment Banking

• Don’t take your necktie off. Ever.
• Be awesome to your assistant – she’s probably one of the boss’s assistants too.
• Walk fast everywhere – people will think you are busy.
• Don’t ever, ever ask for more work.
• When you get an offer, people will expect you to make a speech. Be prepared.

Female Hedge Fund Exec:

• Don’t wear flip flops to work in the morning, even if it’s from the elevator to your desk. My feet hurt too. Suck it up.
• Heels should be no higher than 4 inches. Leave your Louboutins at home. Only secretaries where the red soles to work.
• Don’t carry a bag that is exponentially nicer than your boss’s. And no logos. You don’t have to go super budget with a Kate Spade or Michael Kors catastrophe, but be cognizant of your surroundings. Saint Laurent or Valextra are fine.
• Don’t count calories openly if you are skinny. Use MyFitnessPal or some other app discreetly on your iPhone.
• No screen saver shot of your “amazing” boyfriend of __years.
• If flying on business, NEVER wear an underwire bra, it will set off the X-ray machine at security.

Female VP – Investment Banking:

• Ask questions! Don’t sit at your desk for hours spinning your wheels because you don’t understand something. If you have spent more than 5 minutes trying to figure something out and you know it shouldn’t take long, ask another person in your summer class and if they don’t know ask a full time analyst. Everyone assumes you are dumb and don’t know anything about this job. They won’t think less of you if you ask a question.

For more insights, read the full report at eFinancialCareers>

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If you want to land a job these days, chances are you’ll take on a few internships. In many cases, internships are used as a segue into employment, with 60 percent of internships turning into a job offer.

But internships come with their own set of stigmas.

Case in point: the recent case against Fox Searchlight Pictures. A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan ruled that the studio violated federal and New York minimum wage laws by not paying production interns. While paid vs. unpaid internships are a whole ‘nother story, it does raise the question of whether or not an intern should speak up. As an intern, when should you say “no”? And what are effective ways to do it?

Set boundaries early

Before you start an internship, set your expectations early. For example, checking out the job description or talking to the organization about what your job duties will be can help you to see what you can expect.

If the manager is calling for a 30-hour work week and you can only handle 20, don’t commit. Instead, ask the employer if they can compromise by either reducing the hours or letting you work remotely.

Evaluate what you can handle daily

Once you take the internship, you still have to evaluate what you can handle every day. Some days are inevitably going to be busier than others. However, sitting down with your tasks each day can assist you in pinpointing your workload instead of waiting until you’re up to your ears in tasks.

If you’ve organized your tasks and your workload is absolutely out of this world, bring the full list to your supervisor. Oftentimes, they aren’t aware of what you’ve been assigned. Seeing your entire workload on paper can help them understand why you’re overwhelmed and determine what can be moved around.

Meet with your manager often

As with any job, it’s in your best interest to meet with your manager often. This can either be done on a set schedule, like once a week, or whenever you need guidance. When you meet with your manager, it enables you to lay your worries on the table, show them what you’ve been doing and help them understand your busy workload.

If you’re working on a new account, but don’t have time to do other tasks, meet with your manager and say, “As you know, I’m working very hard on our new account, and we’re making lots of great strides. However, I feel like if we want to continue working at the same level, I may need some of my other tasks moved around. Can we work something out?” This helps the manager to see that you’re not slacking—you’re trying to find out the best way to continue to work well.

Just say something

It can be intimidating being the intern, but sometimes you just have to buck up and say something. Being overwhelmed or not enjoying what you’re doing can put a damper on your work performance, which isn’t good for anyone. For the sake of everyone’s happiness, let your team members or your manager know what’s up to solve any frustrations.

If you have a trusted colleague or someone who knows your manager well, seek their advice. They can fill you in on some tips for how to talk to them effectively, without seeming like you’re complaining or you can’t handle the job. This allows you to go into a conversation with a stronger backbone while framing your concerns in the best way possible.

While you may believe being an intern means you aren’t afforded the same things as a regular employee, know that what you do influences the organization. In the end, implementing these tips about saying no can only help the organization in a positive way.

What do you think? What are some other ways to say no when you’re an intern?

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Congratulations, you made it. You are a 2013 Goldman Sachs Summer Analyst. You might feel like you just crossed the finish line. But the race hasn’t even started yet.

Most banks hire the majority of their 1st year Analysts from the intern pool. They’ve proven themselves. They’re likely to accept the offer.  And it saves HR a s**tload of time and money.

Don’t worry if you don’t make the cut.  You ‘ve been vetted and hired by Goldman f***ing Sachs.  Even if this is your last dance here,  there are plenty of Vineyard Vines wearing, New Canaan commuting,  Morgan Stanley name-dropping ‘rainmakers’ waiting to pick you up and dust you off.   Not making the cut at Goldman is like being traded by the Yankees. You’ll still probably make millions, but it’s just not the same.

So here are 20 tips to help you with your journey:

1. If your boss smokes, smoke.
2. If your boss is Indian or Pakistani, learn the rules of cricket.  He probably also smokes, so see #1.  But be careful, if he doesn’t, he’s a vegetarian yogi.
3. Don’t wear Hermes ties, ever. You have to earn it.
4. Buy a decent suit or 3, but no cuffed or pleated pants.  And don’t wear a tie unless you might have a meeting.  No one likes that kind of kiss-a**.
5. Learn how to tie a double Windsor; just make sure the knot’s not too fat.
6. Keep your shoes shiny, but don’t let anyone see you having your shoes shined.  You have to earn it.
7. If you went to a decent boarding school, subtly find out if anyone who matters went to the same school.  Boom, he’s your rabbi.  At this point, no one cares about college credentials; it’s a given.
8. As it relates to fellow interns, make no mistake about it – it’s war:
1. Let’s be clear. It’s impossible to compete with female interns.  And it’s not cool.  So don’t bother trying.
2. When a fellow intern leaves his desk, change his screen (or screens) to rolex.com, porsche.com, or morganstanley.com.
3. Come up with dismissive nicknames for fellow interns (Chico, Bud Fox, Fredo, Bubba, etc.). Hope that it catches on.
4. When a fellow intern leaves his computer unlocked at the end of the evening, change the signature on his Email settings.  Using white font, add any variety of obscene words.  No one will see it… except for IT and HR.
9. Don’t be too good to do the coffee runs.  It shows confidence.  Just don’t f**k it up.  If you can’t be trusted with coffee, how can you sell bonds or manage risk.
10. Call Bloomberg and have them give you a tutorial on functions.  It’s free.  And most EDs and above are still using functions and short cuts from 5+ years ago.  It’s an easy way to impress them.  And many of the Bloomberg girls are hot.
11. Leave a jacket on the back of your chair at all times. While you are at it, keep a tie in your drawer.  Zegna is a good choice.
12. Ask the secretary for the travel schedules of the senior members of your group for the week ahead.  She’s dumb enough to think you are being proactive.  But now you know when you can sleep in, hit the gym, or beat the traffic to Southampton.
13. Read this rule here.
14. Don’t offer to buy drinks when out with your seniors;  you can’t afford them and it won’t score any points.
15. Don’t brag about being a decent golfer. This should be a given.
16. Read this rule here. 
17. An MDs jokes are always funny. Period. And if you are at the receiving end of a joke, you better laugh with it.  If you take yourself too seriously, no one else will.  This is Wall Street; there is no such thing as ‘bullying’.
18. Acknowledge the quotes from Caddyshack or Fletch, but don’t make any yourself.  You have to earn it.  And don’t initiate the fist bump that comes with ‘Charge it to the Underhills’.
19. This might be the most important one. It’s okay to make a mistake or ask a question. But don’t ever ask the same question or make the same mistake twice. If you do, just know that the world needs ditchdiggers too.
20. Don’t talk in the f**king elevators…  or at a bar.
21. *Follow @GSElevator on Twitter 

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When it was revealed last week that the person who wrongly confirmed racist names for the pilots of the crashed Asiana flight to a TV station was a National Transportation Safety Board intern, the unnamed summer hire was fired, raising the genuinely plausible question: Was he the worst intern ever?

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Every year, college and MBA students flock to New York and other financial centers for highly-coveted summer analyst positions at investment banks.

A Wall Street intern who works hard and is a great team player has the potential to turn their 10-week long summer stint into a full-time offer from their respective firm.  

We spoke with Suzanne Gauron, a Goldman Sachs managing director, about internships in the bank's Investment Management Division. 

She shared tips for summer interns and explained what she looks for when making a hire.

Guaron, who studied humanities in college and began her career at Goldman as an intern, also told us what an intern can do to impress her and the biggest mistake they can make.     

We've transcribed our Q&A with Gauron below. (Note: It has been lightly edited for clarity). 

JL: First off, can you give me a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are today? 

SG:"I was a humanities major in college. I studied 18th century poetry. I had no experience in business. I was a summer analyst at Goldman before my senior year in college. That was my first real business experience and I was extremely, pleasantly surprised by that experience. I was invited to come back as a full-time analyst on the same team I worked with that summer in private wealth management. I covered high-net worth clients for two years, went back to business school at that point and then joined the group that I'm in now eight years ago. The group I'm in invests in private equity managers on behalf of Goldman Sachs' clients."

JL: Can you describe the typical day for an intern in your division? What sort of responsibilities do they have?

SG:"In our group, we're an investing group, and our interns work on the transactions that we're working on. They're staffed as though they are full-time employees with the same level of responsibility and involvement. So we're taking them through the transactions. They're working with senior members of the team leading the transactions. They would be doing the valuation work, the research work that we do around the types of investments that we're assessing and they're part of the team that forms a view on whether we are going to make the investment or not.

"That's our group, but generally people are doing a combination of shadowing and education in their summer analyst program that starts to get them to build the types of investment views and perspectives that we're looking for in investment management."

JL: How do you balance the desire to use an intern's talents and delegating responsibility, while still feeling comfortable? Basically, how do you decide how much responsibility to give an intern? 

SG:"We give them as much responsibility as they're willing to take and that they can achieve on. In terms of day-to-day, we're trying to build a support system around the interns so they can be successful. So we're giving them big chunks of responsibility, but we're also giving them a lot of resources that they can use to make sure that they're on the right path on this. That means that they're staffed with another analyst who can help show them the steps that they could take to solve the problem or model out the valuation that they might be working on. They have a mentor who they can talk to about 'Hey, is this a dumb question? or not a dumb question that I'm thinking about and I'm asking about?' because they're integrated in the team they can go to other members of the team at any time. So if I just looked out of my office, they're sitting next to two other analysts who are full-time analysts who have more experience who are willing at any minute to sit with them and take them through a question large or small that may be a challenge to them." 

JL: Do you mentor an intern? 

SG:"I mentor a number of interns. We have a big buddy system and then a more senior mentor. The big buddy is the person who can talk to them about what time do you get in in the morning? What does casual Friday really mean? That sort of day-to-day practical things that can trip somebody up. Then the senior person is there to give broader counsel about career development and the types of feedback you receive during the summer to make sure that people are thinking more long-term about their career and where their place might be in the firm and group."

JL: What sort of advice would you give to an intern in your group? Like, what would be the best piece of advice you could give them? 

SG:"I think the best piece of advice that I give most often is  I think that people get really hung up on the practical skills that they have to have coming in. So what we see in Investment Management is a lot of people want to demonstrate 'Oh, I've run a portfolio. I've invested for myself.' And that's certainly a good thing to have, but the thing that's really priceless over the summer is having a good attitude because during the summer they face a lot of challenging situations and there are long hours and so feeling like the person next to you is excited to be there and wants to do the work every day is the thing you remember about somebody after they've gone back to school in September."

JL: When you were an intern, did someone give you a piece of advice that stuck with you?

SG:"I think my managing director did say to me when I was an analyst, I didn't know at the time it was true, he said look, 'You're 22, you think you're a grown up, but you still have a long way to go.' And when I look back on my career in my 20s, I actually evolved not just as a professional, but as a person a lot with the experiences I had in the first five years. I think people are sometimes too pre-mature in pigeonholing themselves based on who they think they are at 22." 

JL: So what do you think is the biggest mistake an intern can make?

SG:"Probably the biggest mistake is not writing things down and remembering them. So we always tell people that they should ask more questions. That's a very common feedback that we give interns and we're willing to entertain as many questions as they have, but they need to write that down and take that answer on board not just ask a question for the sake of asking a question and then ask it again a week later." 

JL: That's good advice.

JL: What's something that impressed you about an intern?

SG: Probably going the extra step. So there are some interns that do the work and do it well and then there are some interns who say, 'Here's this good work product that I've done that's fully checked and accurate and when I think about how this fits into your business here's the next thing that I think I could do. Or why don't I build you this other model as well.' So offering up other things that they can do that are thoughtful and show that they understand the business is a really exciting thing to see from someone. 

JL: If I were an intern, what's a good way to standout?

SG: "I think being a good team member is always the most important thing. You're probably the youngest person on the desk and sometimes people feel like they're not a full member of the team, but nobody else views it that way. Everyone views it from day one that you're just like everybody else and so that means building personal relationships with other people on the desk, getting to know people and meshing as part of the team so at the end of the summer people are surprised when you have to say that you're going back to school." 

JL: In a job market that is so competitive, what are some of the details which make a difference in an interview or on a résumé? 

SG:"In a résumé, showing expertise at something is really important. So I'm looking for depth as well as breadth of interests. So you have to have taken one thing and moved up in the organization or excelled at a sport or whatever it is that is most interesting to you. And then following on that, in the interview demonstrating passion about that thing. We're not looking for everyone to have a PhD in finance, but we're looking for them to have done anything that they like in the world and done a good job at it and feel deeply about it." 

JL: What advice do you have for someone who wants to turn an internship into a full-time job? What should they do? How should they do that?

SG:"I think it's a combination of coming in every day and doing the work and fitting in on the team so that people don't remember by the end of the summer that you weren't there full-time. I think people can be reasonably vocal about it. We can't read anyone's minds so saying, 'I really like this. I'd like to do this next year' never hurts.

JL: How should someone prepare for an internship in this division? And then talk about the training they get on the job.

SG: "In preparing for the summer, I think following the markets is very valuable because we are investing. So I always ask people what stories they are following in the financial press and what companies they're most interested in. It's not a matter of knowing the price quote for the S&P for the last fifteen days in a row, but having larger framework that they can fit knowledge into over the summer.

"And then on the job, we have a pretty extensive training program at the Investment Management Division level. It starts off with a couple of days where all the interns are together getting an introduction to the firm and to investment management so they understand the different businesses across the division, not just the business that they'll be working in. Then they also throughout the summer have thought leadership gatherings were different business leaders come in and talk about the challenges and interesting opportunities that they're seeing in their businesses. And then professional development as well around things like feedback, thinking about your career, working on teams. So it's both the practical and the longer term."  

JL: Can you talk about the diversity of candidates that you all look for?

SG: "We're looking for very diverse set of students. It's not all finance majors as I said before. I think I'm a pretty good example of that. I hadn't taken any classes that required math in college. We're looking for people who are logical and organized and disciplined and have demonstrated the ability to come up a learning curve in something in the past whether it's learning to speak Chinese or learning to play an instrument or a sport or taking up something else that's a challenge. I think you see that in a cross-section of our summer class that they have a lot of different backgrounds." 

We will be doing these Q&A's with Goldman managing directors in different divisions over the next couple of weeks. Up next will be the Technology department. 

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Former Credit Suisse intern/Washington University St. Louis finance major Justin Blau (a.k.a. 3LAU) recently released his new electronic song "Escape" with Paris & Simo featuring Bright Lights. 

Check it out: 

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For the past couple of weeks, we have been speaking with Goldman Sachs managing directors in different divisions about summer internship advice and how to turn these summer-time stints into a full-time job offer from the bank. 

For our final installment, we spoke with Stratford Dennis, a vice president in Goldman Sachs securities division.

Dennis told us the biggest mistake an intern can make on the trading floor.

He explained that there's a tendency for some interns to group together and not engage other senior people on the floor.

He admitted that the trading floor can be intimidating, but interns who isolate themselves with other interns prevent senior people at the firm from getting to know them and seeing their talents and abilities that would add value as a full-time employee.  

Dennis, who interned at Goldman during college, also told us what an intern can do to impress him and how they can prepare for an internship. 

We've transcribed our full Q&A below. 

JL: First off, can you give me a little bit about your background and how you go to where you are today? 

SD: I grew up in Connecticut. I went to an all-boys high school and then went to the University of Pennsylvania where I majored in philosophy, politics and economics with a concentration in economics. I actually interned at another bank in between my sophomore and junior year and then interned at Goldman between my junior and senior year. I've been here since 2004. I started off trading equity options on the S&P and for the past four years I've trading emerging market equity options. 

JL: OK. So we're going to talk about the securities division today and internships. I can imagine the securities division is pretty broad, can you talk about just briefly some of the jobs just to give our readers an idea of what they do? 

SD: If we had to talk about all of them we'd be here quite some time. The groups that we could use are sales and trading and other. You know sales people are spending their days talking to professional money managers, pension funds, hedge funds, mutual funds and working with them to come up with strategies to better their performance. And, trading is managing the firm's risk and providing liquidity for these clients. In the other group, there are probably countless other types of jobs ranging from working with lending or things like that to support for the sales and trading function.

JL: Can you describe the typical day for an intern in your division? What sort of responsibilities do they have? 

SD: Again, it kind of varies by desk. If they sit on a sales or trading desk they are limited in what they can do given that they don't have their licenses, so they are not exactly sitting here actually trading or actually selling. They get in any where between 6:00 and 7:30 a.m., which is when the full-time professionals get in as well. They are working with them, you know, they might be doing things like helping with putting together presentations or things like that. Once they get ramped up they could be doing analysis for the desk or helping out in ways that you obviously have to have some insight to do so.

JL: How do you decide how much responsibility to give an intern? 

SD: You start small and you see how much they can chew. Like I said before, you start off with something that's a bit more simple and you see that they can do that and they prove that they can do that, you give them a little more and give them a little more and give them a little more. And you can see kind of what their bandwidth is, which is quite frankly is very similar to the way that it works on the full-time side. 

JL: Do you mentor an intern at Goldman? 

SD: I mentor, it's funny, I mentor quite a bit of interns. I'm involved with working with our diversity program, so some of underrepresented diversity I'm looking over their performance, seeing how they're doing, helping them out where I can and things like that? 

JL: So what sort of advice would you give an intern?  What would be the best piece of advice or couple pieces of advice?

SD: What I tell them is that your job as an intern is to do two things. One is to prove that you have the aptitude, the ability to do the work. Given that our recruiters do a great job on choosing talent, you know nine times out of ten the interns absolutely have that. Then, the next step is proving that you have the desire, the hunger and that you're assertive and you can perform well on a trading floor environment. 

JL: You mentioned before that you interned, did anyone ever give you a piece of advice that stuck with you during your career? 

SD: There are so many. I think one of the great things about this place is that you do have a lot of senior people willing to help you. I would say that one that has been told to the interns recently in a room that I was in that resonated with me was, 'Tell your story.' It might sound simple, but I think a lot of times these interns are extremely impressive. They've done a lot of things. Some of them have started small companies already, some of them have spent time overseas already, learned different languages already, some of them have worked and paid for their own college. Often times, that story doesn't get vetted and the advice that was given was just 'tell your story and make sure people understand all the great things you have done and can do.'  I think a lot of time people don't want to come across a certain way so they don't tell their own story.

JL: That's good advice. 

JL: What's something that impressed you about an intern? 

SD: There was an intern who was telling me a story about how he was in a business competition and the business competition had like 5,000 people who entered into it. He gave his pitch and he came in third out of all 5,000. I thought that was the end of the story. I thought 'Wow, that's a great story. You're obviously a very sharp guy.' And he said, 'I was so disappointed because I came in third. I didn't come in first. I wanted to come in first.' Again, I thought that was the end of the story and that he had learned a lesson. Then, he went back the next year with an even better presentation and even better product and ended up winning. Again, out of 5,000 people. That may not be the exact number, but roughly. It was an example where he had kind of persevered and come back and triumphed. I thought it was interest because 1.) In my mind, you know third place was pretty strong and 2.) That he was able to come back and win the next year was pretty impressive.

JL: What's the biggest mistake an intern can make? 

SD: Outside of the obvious—coming in late or not giving the maximum effort, things like that—I think there can be a tendency amongst interns to do what feels comfortable and what feels comfortable is to you know congregate amongst each other and to not necessarily engage other people who seem very busy. The trading floor is a loud place and it can be intimidating, but if you curl up in your shell then some of those things I mentioned earlier like telling your story and making sure people know your skills those things don't happen. And at the end of the summer you could be in a situation where you have all the talent in the world, but a lot of people aren't aware of your potential and the things that you can do. 

JL: Let's talk about advice you would give to someone who wants to turn their internship into a job. What should they do? And how should they do it? 

SD: Well, again, I think make sure your story is heard. Make sure you prove that you have the intellectual capacity and make sure you prove that you have the desire and that you have the work ethic to do this. I think what I'd add to that is be direct. Make sure people understand what you want. Make sure people understand that 'I want to work for you. I want to work for you in this group. This is my top choice.' Be very forward. Again, the trading floor is place where there are a lot of assertive people. If at the end of the summer you did a good job, but if I don't really know that you want to work with me then that's not a good thing. So be very open about what you want. 

JL: We have a really competitive job market out there, so what are some of the details which make a difference in an interview or on a resume? 

SD: I'm going to assume that you have good grades and things like that already because ultimately that is kind of a prerequisite of sorts. I don't know the exact details of what you have to have, but people want to see that you're working hard towards your academics. Outside of that, you want to get your name in the small pile somehow whether it's international experience, speaking another language or 'hey, I started my own business' even if it wasn't necessarily you know the next Apple, that's OK, but 'hey, I tried at this. This is what I learned.' Things like that can kind of separate you from the people that are just 100% academics and maybe not as well-rounded is certainly important. 

JL: Any advice on preparing for an internship in this division? Anything that they can do beforehand? 

SD: Absolutely. The one thing is to contact any desk that you think you want to be on or think you will be on and find out what books you can read. You know I trade options and we tell our interns to read a certain book before the come in if they ask. That's a book that we're going to ask them to read during the internship. So to the extent that you can, get a head start on it. 

JL: What's the book? 

SD: It's a book called Options Pricing and Volatility by Sheldon Natenberg. It goes over the basics of options. 

SD: Then I would say reaching out to people that you know within the firm. Mentorship and sponsorship is key. You know, you want someone to kind of teach you the lay of the land before you come it. That's certainly going to give you an advantage.

Check out our interviews with a Goldman investment management managing director here and a Goldman technology managing director here. 

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Little did MTV film site, NextMovie, know what they were getting into when they hired intern Christopher Rosa.

Turns out the University of South Carolina junior has a secret talent — he can recite the entire "Mean Girls" movie in under 30 minutes.

Except his epic monologue isn't so secret anymore.

After the video was released this morning, Rosa has gone viral, acknowledging:

Is this real life?

— Christopher Rosa (@chrisrosa92) August 8, 2013

Rosa tweeted that his bosses at the internship didn't make him memorize the lines, insisting"the fabulous nextmovie staff did not force me at all! They're so fetch."

NextMovie executive editor, Kevin Polowy, confirmed via Twitter, "We didn't force him! We begged him to share this hypnotic super-talent with the world."

Watch Rosa's incredible memorization skills at work below:

SEE ALSO: Lindsay Lohan Hosts 'Chelsea Lately,' Mocks News Headlines That Happened While She Was In Rehab

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Bank of America intern Moritz Erhardt died last week while completing a 7-week internship program in London, the bank confirmed to Bloomberg.

The cause of death is unknown, but is being treated as "non-suspicious," according to a London police statement cited by Bloomberg.

Erhardt was found unconscious in his student residential building in East London on Thursday. From Bloomberg:

He was pronounced dead at the scene after being treated by paramedics, said the policespokesman, who asked not to be identified, citing agency policy. Erhardt was an exchange student at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and attended WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany, according to his biography page on social-network site seelio.com (Update: Erhardt did a semester of exchange at U-M Ross, which concluded in May of 2013, according to a spokesperson from the University of Michigan).

According to the online profile, Erhardt had also worked at KPMG Consulting, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank, and went to high school in Germany, where he was valedictorian.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the news of Moritz Erhardt’s death," Bank of America spokesman John McIvor said in a statement. "He was popular amongst his peers and was a highly diligent intern at our company with a promising future. Our first thoughts are with his family and we send our condolences to them at this difficult time.”

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The cause of death remains unknown for Moritz Erhardt, the 21-year-old Bank of America intern who was found dead last week in the shower of his East London dormitory. 

Unconfirmed message board rumors have made their way through the media saying that that Erhardt fell into an epileptic fit after three consecutive all-nighters as part of his internship (sleep deprivation and stress can trigger an episode).

True or not, the chatter has prompted one charity lobbying for better intern treatment to speak out. From the Financial Times:

Intern Aware, a charity campaigning for the better treatment of interns, hit out against what it called a 100-hour working culture for students spending their summer work experience at banks. 

Ben Lyons, the charity’s co-founder, said there needed to be a “change in culture and HR procedures where employees are assessed not on the total number of hours they are able to grind out, but on the quality of work they are able to produce."

Wall Street internships are among the most grueling (and, as a result, the most lucrative). Banking sources insisted to the FT that internships are used as recruitment tools and are not designed to be "sweatshops." 

SEE ALSO: A 21-Year-Old Bank Of America Intern In London Has Died

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Some of the projects Microsoft interns create are hilarious.

There's one particular project, from intern Halley Profita, that really caught our eye. Profita is earning her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder by creating clothes with computer sensors. Your T-shirt might one day monitor your health condition, if Profita has her way.

As cool as that sounds, her summer internship at Microsoft was even cooler because it involved an actual water cooler.

She spent the summer turning ordinary objects into interactive games and placed them in renovated buildings around the Microsoft campus. Using a Kinect sensor, she built a water cooler that flirts with you.

Stare into its bubbly eyes and it stares back.

Microsoft sent us a picture.

SEE ALSO: The Business App 50: The Best Apps To Help You Do Your Job

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Nancy Diao works part time, for a small stipend, at a Bay Area education nonprofit. But at 60, Diao isn't your average intern. She's a former executive who will spend her fellowship year at Breakthrough Collaborative serving as acting chief operating and chief financial officer.

Diao didn't feel ready to retire when she left Wells Fargo last year. "I had a hard time saying 'I'm retired,' because I'm not, mentally," she says. She didn't want to return to banking, though; she wanted to find meaningful work that would still allow her to spend time with her two young grandchildren.

Millions of baby boomers, like Diao, don't want or can't afford to check out of the workforce at age 65. And many are seeking a transition into work that has a social impact. The San Francisco-based Encore.org helps older workers make that transition by pairing them with nonprofits in need of their private-sector expertise for a fellowship year. It's an arrangement that fits the needs of all participants, and it has broader ramifications: As the population ages, keeping older workers in the workforce could boost the economy, alleviate retirement insecurity, and ease strain on the social-safety net.

In 2009, President Obama signed a law that--inspired by Encore.org's model--allowed for the creation of federal fellowships for those 55 or older in every state. Funding has yet to be appropriated for the program, but that hasn't stopped Encore.org from creating a 20-city network that placed 200 fellows last year. The organization estimates that 31 million Americans ages 44 to 70 want to find work with a bigger social impact. 

The era of long, vacation-style retirements is over, says Marc Freedman, CEO and founder of Encore.org. "That ideal is no longer attainable for individuals, and it's not sustainable for society. Who can afford a balloon payment for 30 years of leisure?" he asks. Federal survey data show that most full-time workers actually retire in stages--switching to part-time work, or dipping in and out of the labor market as they age.

Older Americans are also collecting their Social Security checks later and working at rates not seen since the 1960s. In the mid-1990s, less than a third of people age 55 and over were either actively employed or looking for work. Today, the share is 40 percent, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

Lengthening life spans and changing lifestyles account for part of the shift. Americans who hit age 65 can expect to live another 20 years. Often, their family responsibilities are still ongoing: In 2012, one-third of baby boomers had both an elderly parent and a financially dependent child, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Changing pension plans are also part of the story. Fewer workers are enrolled in defined-benefit pension plans, which guarantee monthly payments after retirement, and more are enrolled in 401(k) plans that grow with salary contributions. "There's a much bigger payoff to staying in the workforce," says Richard Johnson, director of the program on retirement policy at the Urban Institute. "As you keep working, you're really improving your retirement security, because you're able to add to your nest egg."

With the average fellow earning $25,000 for a year of 1,000 hours of work, Encore.org's fellowships aren't supposed to be family-supporting jobs but are intended to help older workers move to the next stage of their working lives."The fellowship is serving a lot of purposes of a person's transition," says Leslye Louie, national director of the Encore Fellowship Network. "It could be going from the for-profit sector to the nonprofit sector, it could be going from full-time work to part-time work, it could be moving from one part of the United States to another."

Anyone can apply for Encore fellowships, but the majority of fellows so far have spent their careers in the private sector and have been able use that experience to help build the capacity of nonprofit organizations, drawing on expertise in areas like marketing or performance management. Organizations affiliated with Encore.org's fellowship network vet candidates and set up interviews with employers. Stipends are generally provided by nonprofit partners, although some fellows are supported by former employers or by foundations. Many fellows go on to take full-time or part-time nonprofit jobs.

Just like fellowships for recent college grads, Encore fellowships help workers get their foot in the door. It is generally harder for older workers to find new jobs than younger workers, and a bad economy has exacerbated the trend. In 2011, the average job seeker over age 55 was spending 35 weeks looking for a job, compared to 26 weeks for younger job seekers, according to federal statistics. Age discrimination continues to be a problem older workers face. Some employers assume--falsely-- that more-experienced workers are more expensive, harder to manage, and less committed to their jobs, says Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

For Breakthrough Collaborative, bringing on Diao as an encore fellow was a perfect solution to a pressing problem. The organization needed high-level expertise to help manage a big expansion to new sites and new cities but couldn't afford to bring on a CFO at an executive-level salary, says Laura Zahn, the nonprofit's chief academic officer. Diao's yearlong position will cost the organization just $35,000, and should see it through the critical expansion period.

Since Diao's fellowship began this summer, she has worked on eliminating administrative inefficiencies and getting the organization more affordable office space. "I have a lot of experience, so when I look at something, I can say, well this makes sense, this doesn't make sense," she says. Her colleagues think she's working miracles. When Zahn originally looked at Breakthrough's existing lease earlier this year, she thought extricating the organization from it would be a nightmare. But then Diao got on the phone with the leasing agent and put to use her years of negotiating with and managing people. "Something that could have been either contentious or impossible became an opportunity," Zahn says, who has learned that Diao's soft skills in dealing with people are as useful as the hard skills she brings to the organization. The learning cuts both ways; Diao's new colleagues are teaching her about Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft Excel.

Having Diao around has also had a calming influence on Breakthrough's staff, who are almost entirely in their 20s and 30s, Zahn says. "What I love about Encore is this bringing together of generations," she says. In one of their first conversations, Zahn told Diao: "You're two years away from my mom's age, and my mom is my best friend! I love having your wisdom and expertise." Diao's age wasn't a problem. It was an asset.

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Business Insider is on the hunt for a paid Social Media Editor intern. We're looking for somebody that eats, breathes and sleeps social media.

This person already knows or is eager to learn how to reach an audience on each different social network with the right brand tone and content, and somebody who understands that social media waits for nobody. Keeping up with innovation and social trends will be a must.

Requirements

-Communication pro

-Some writing experience

-Addicted to the Internet

-Ability to multi-task

-Extremely fast learner

-Is looking for a career in social media editorial

-A sense of humor

-Good news judgement

-An eye for imagery

-Basic Photoshop skills 

-BA or anticipated graduation by December

A bonus if you have ...

-Experience running/growing social media networks/campaigns for a brand or publication. 

-CMS experience

-Understanding of social metrics and traffic tracking (Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, etc) 

-Can create killer gifs

What you will be doing ...

-Monitor social traffic across the board

-Post daily to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and G+

-Build BI presence on new social media platforms 

-Problem solve social media issues when they arise

If you're interested (and you should be), please send your resume, online profile, writing samples, links to your personal social media accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Etc.), and any social media accounts you have run for a brand or organization to jliebman@businessinsider.com.

Please note that the internship is 40 hours a week at our Manhattan office.

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