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DBD 5.26.11 Intern Season Is Here!


So as summer kicks off (sans the nice weather, in SF at least), our workplaces experience a trickling in of summer interns. Our office just got a handful of interns, all basically cut from the same mold: wide-eyed juniors, eager to learn all they can about "the world of business". I knew something was up when I saw our intern's two-page resume, with a whole page dedicated to high school clubs.

Now San Francisco is a a big financial hub, second in America after NYC, so there is no shortage of businessmen, old and young, walking around. Yet you can quite easily differentiate the interns in this city from the actual young professionals:

Dress sense - San Francisco is a much more casually-dressed city than NYC, a place where even senior bankers can get by on a regular basis with dress slacks and a collared shirt with no tie. Yet, somehow interns manage to make themselves known in this laid-back environment.  One of the quickest giveaways is the kid who walks into work on the first day with a black or red (boo) shirt and tie. I shouldn't have to say this, but this just isn't done. Kids, leave those shirts for bar-hopping and wear a white, blue, or light-striped shirt. Please.

Confusion - Walk around downtown FiDi or SoMa around ten AM and you'll, in general, notice three types of people. First, you have those who work here, who walk between places with purpose, whether they're going to a meeting or just going to grab some bolani. Then you have those locals from SF who aren't working at banks or consulting firms or high-tech companies, but casually wander around these areas anyway due to its proximity to the shopping districts of Union Square. Don't you guys have jobs? Finally, you have the interns who try to dress like the former, wander like the latter, and have a confusion all their own, as they stare around everywhere. Yes, there are tall buildings that oddly seem to "scrape" the "sky". Yes, the lady who just passed you on the street is a senior managing director who was directly involved in underwriting Zynga. Fantastic!

Migratory Patterns - Much like college freshmen, interns tend to move from place to place in the city in one of two patterns. On one end, many interns are part of an intern "class", and as such, have many fellow interns either with the same company or from their school and in the vicinity, with whom they go to lunch and happy hour. They can be spotted as the group of ten kids slowly crawling around with one person trying to figure out the name of that sick place that serves $4 mojitos and $5 pizzas all night that their older cousin told them about a while ago (hint: it's Palomino). On the flip side, you have the interns who aren't part of such a class and are in a city significantly outside of their school's splash zone. Think a kid from a Midwestern school who was smart enough to get a consulting internship on his own, but is now placed in such a location that he's the only intern. Don't feel sorry for this kid; she'll learn to get outside of her comfort zone and maybe consider looking up from the copy of US Weekly she's reading while eating her caeser salad at Specialty's to go talk to people.

Of course, we all know there are plenty of advantages to the interns. If you're lazy, they're great for busy work. After all, who the hell likes filing? Or getting their own lunch for that matter? If you're a sleazebag (not it!), plenty of attractive interns come through for just the summer. Myself, I prefer to try to mentor the interns and get them to be just like me. Which reminds me, I wonder how my project from last summer is doing...

Credit to Leveraged Sellout for the inspiration
http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2007/06/sheer-suckers/

Be nice. You can find the original CGB team at WriteForCalifornia.com.

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