[Everyone’s got a morning after story (some of which are way more mortifying than others) and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we’ll post it – anonymously, of course – right here!]

I’ve come to learn two fundamental truths this week: the happy hour does not exist, and breaking and entering is easier than it looks. I’m serious.

If I had known that a quick drink with a friend after work was going to lead to free steaks with married men, a rooftop bar with what may or may not have been a British boy band on holiday, and a late night snack session alone in my friend’s boss’s apartment, I would have worn a better outfit to work that day.  Because that’s my biggest regret of the night… obvi.

But as I was saying before, there is no singular hour that is happy, at least not in my world. Personally, I want each hour to be happier than the next. And I accomplished that, to the max, with my friend Monica this past (epic) Wednesday night. One beer turned into three different bars, multiple drafts, and a gaggle of new male friends with money to spend. So, despite the wedding bands and balding heads, when they offered to take us out to dinner, who were we to say no?

The Bald Brigade took us to a restaurant in the Meatpacking District of New York that can only be described as a steak-turned-whore house. It was like a bachelor pad designed by a metrosexual with a taste for busty women and black satin. But seven courses (and seven gin and tonics) later, we were having a grand old time discussing how many times a week we can eat Chipotle without falling into coma. The verdict: 7 times… but only if you got the burrito bowl with no cheese or condiments, which basically sucks all the fatty joy out of it anyway.

Once that pressing issue was settled, it was off to the rooftop bar at the swanky Ganesvoort Hotel where we replaced our gentlemanly dinner guests with a group of British men who all sported the Justin Bieber hair do and were more than happy to make sure our glasses were never empty. It was around the time I was entering “Leo Your Fiancé” into my phonebook when I realized that …. wait a tick, I live in New Jersey, and it’s now three a.m. and there are no trains going home. And it’s a weeknight. One minute I’m sitting in the VIP section of a luxury hotel with the world on a string, the next I’m homeless and without a change of clothes for work in the morning. How cruel life can be sometimes.

While Monica found it prudent to seek shelter in the arms of a Backstreet Boy, I still had no place to go. That’s when Monica remembered her boss was out of town for the week. PERFECT. She sent me off to a Manhattan address, with only the knowledge that I could find a key to the apartment underneath the mailbox. Next thing I know, I’m entering into a stranger’s apartment and making myself right at home.

I proceeded to: take a shower, making sure to remember to shave my legs; get myself dressed for bed, finding a sassy little nightie in this woman’s top drawer; and eat a late-night snack of cashews and Rocky Road ice-cream. My last fleeting thought before I finally passed out was, I better make sure to position myself correctly in this lady’s memory-foam mattress, otherwise the jig is up! Because surely the empty jar of cashews and dirty ice-cream spoon in the sink wouldn’t be enough of a clue.

I woke up in the morning not 100% sure where I was… or why I had thought it OK to wear another woman’s clothes to bed. Or to even sleep in her bed in the first place. But I made sure to return the nightgown to its rightful place, make the bed, and return the key to it’s hiding spot underneath the mailbox.

As I walked around H&M searching for an acceptable outfit to wear to work that morning (I chose a see-through t-shirt dress, sans panties, and sneakers—I must have still been drunk), I pieced together my night. After giggling to myself in the dressing room (both at my reflection at at the previous night’s shenanigans), I realized that I’d actually learned a third lesson:

If you ever happen to become a boss of any kind, don’t – under ANY circumstances – let the location of your hide-away key slip to your employees. Just don’t.

A new study has found that women get royally pissed when they’re given a nickname in the office.  No, they’re not talking about that time your boss got drunk at the holiday party and called you Tits McGee.  The names included on the no-no list ranged from the benign “kiddo” to the slightly more (okay, a lot more) bizarre “poppet”.  While the study was conducted on women of various ages in the workforce, I do suspect this aversion to causal titles had to have stemmed from somewhere.  Perhaps a too-friendly college professor?  A nagging group of guy friends?  A fake-nice roommate from hell?

Becoming so drastically offended by someone referring to a peer as “dear” (also on the list at #8), just seems a little extreme to me.  I know you’re all probably envisioning some grotesque, perverted, middle-aged dude with a heavy breathing problem leering at you while rasping, “Hey darlin’ (#2) , bend over. I think I dropped my pen.”  And yes, that would be gross.

But imagine these more likely offenders: A professor who’s become a close mentor, the dude you’ve been best friends with since middle school, the precious old lady at the cafeteria register.  The study never indicated whether the coworkers in question were male or female, older or younger.  Does that mean there’s some sort of double standard for nicknames?  It’s okay for a female professor to dub you “hun” (#5) but not your male TA?  The girl down the hall can call you “Chick” (#7) but definitely not that guy from last night?  Where do we draw the line on all this nonsense?

And with that I ask you, what’s the big deal with a nickname?  So long as no one’s calling you Hoochie Mama or Busted Slut, is slipping an innocent “love” (#1!!) in here or there such a crime?  I think it’s time we relax a little and start sprinkling in a few nicknames of our own.  That’s right, I’m lookin’ at you, killer.

Yeah, Monday was a little uncomfortable.

It’s not uncommon for awkward situations to come up at work. There are so many rules, regulations and requirements, that it’s no surprise when something goes awry and things get very uncomfortable very fast. This week I reached out to CollegeCandy writers, friends and fans to find out their most awkward or embarrassing work story. And what I heard is enough to make you want to quit working all together.

Rachael – University of Miami: My first two years of college, I spent my summers as a “beauty consultant” at CVS (I sold makeup). Because the Beauty girls all dressed in black, not everyone realized we worked there, but for some reason the people who did figured we knew everything about the store and its products. One man spent a good five minutes telling me about his rectal bleeding problem before he paused long enough to let me explain that I only worked in cosmetics. I’m honestly not sure who was more embarrassed as I directed him to Pharmacy.

Nina – Michigan State University: At one of my internships, I swear one of the interns sitting near me had “bodily functions” going on ALL THE TIME. And when my boss walked past, he’d wrinkle his nose and look at me strangely. I couldn’t tell him it was HER… sooo awkward!

Jessica Wakeman – TheFrisky.com: I once burst into tears in front of an old boss while I was giving two weeks notice! It wasn’t like I loved the job or anything. In fact, I hated it! I was just really emotional and stressed me out because I wasn’t 100% sure I’d be financially able to support myself at the new job I had found. So I was sitting in this tiny conference room with a male boss who was a lot older than me and I just started bawling. He got really awkward and handed me some napkins he had in his pocket. He suggested I take some time to think things over and make sure I really wanted to quit. I think he thought I was crying because I didn’t really want to leave!

Lauren – University of Michigan: I normally don’t like to go to the bathroom at work (there’s only one toilet and it’s across the hall from my boss’s office), but I had a terrible stomach issue and just had to go. My boss caught me on my way in and talked to me so I tried to make things quick since he clearly knew I was in there. Well, I ended up having to plunge the toilet and was in there a lot longer than I expected. I thought I could sneak out (maybe he wasn’t paying attention), only when I left the bathroom (sweaty from all that plunging) he was waiting for me in the hallway to tell me I had a call. The look on his face when the smell wafted out of the bathroom is something that will haunt my dreams for eternity.

Julia – FashionPulseDaily.com: I took off of work to go to the TopShop opening in NYC — seriously, how could you miss that? Of course I called in sick, and had the fortunate/unfortunate experience of being interviewed on camera by a WWD reporter. [And] of course I Tweeted about it, pubbed the video on my site, and emailed it to people, accidentally adding in someone from work to the email list. Oops!!

Alex- University of South Carolina:  Once I caught my boss stealing bottles of vodka from the club I worked at.  Two weeks later, he was fired for being drunk on the job.  Too bad, I feel like we really could have bonded…

Kaitlyn (via Facebook): I worked at a professional regional theatre where I lived as an acting intern and performed in shows alongside seasoned professionals. During a performance of “Carousel” I was a can-can dancer in the dream ballet sequence. And it was supposed to be this dead-pan serious bit of the scene. In this number we were supposed to dance on chairs and the chair the girl behind me was standing on broke mid-way through. Of course, we all broke into giggles and tried to stifle them. Shortly after I hear the laughter increase but can’t figure out why…until I see the puddle. The girl had held her laughter in so hard that she had peed…on stage…in front of a 500 person full-house audience. Our director wasn’t amused.

Emmy – Loyola University Chicago: Today, this guy who works in the warehouse of the office that I am interning in (and has to be at least fifteen years older than me) just asked me out on a date IN FRONT OF MY BOSS. Awkward doesn’t even begin to cover it. Just not okay.

Sara C – Fordham: Earlier this week, my boss came into the ladies’ room, took the stall next to mine, and tried to start up a conversation about the weekend. There is nothing quite as awkward as making small talk with a superior while dropping the kids off at the pool.

Charlsie – Hollins University: Being asked by blogger Julia Allison, when I was her intern, to return things she received for free (she had bags and bags of stuff for me to return) in exchange for cash or gift cards was awkward. For example, Betsey Johnson sent her some underwear. I felt so awkward because these companies sent her stuff to feature on her blog or to write about — not to return the products, so she could profit in return. This began the realization that I was working for a scam artist — and the whole internship went downhill pretty fast.

Elizabeth – University of Missouri: My first month of working at a coffee shop when I was 16, I spilled an ENTIRE 16 oz 200 degrees cup of coffee on a customer’s beige khakis.

Jackelyn – San Francisco State University: Oh god. On my first day of work at a radio station, I worked a Street Team event. En route to the location, my boss realized she “forgot” something at her apartment, so we swung by “really quick – 2 minutes, tops!” Yeah, the other girl and I waited in the car for AT LEAST 1 hour. When she came back, her hair was different, her clothes changed, and her boyfriend kissing her good bye. Let’s just say we waited in the car while someone decided it would be a good time to have makeup sex. Oh, I’m not assuming this – SHE TOLD US.

Christie – NC State: My boss walked in on me asleep on the job. Not the most awkward thing in the world, but I was pretty embarrassed.

Alex – Lakehead University: Definitely when I was hit on by a local author at a bar and then had to run his meet-and-greet the next day at work. He creeps me out anyways and winks whenever I fill up his water, but now those winks take on a whole new meaning.

Kari – Florida State: I thought I heard my boss call me into his office, which I thought was strange because he was in a meeting. I walked in, and we stared at each other for a solid 45 seconds before he asked what I was doing there. Turns out, I was just hearing things. All the “grown ups” in the meeting laughed as I walked out. AWK.

Michelle – Virginia Tech (via Facebook): Have you ever gone to the bathroom and tucked your skirt in the back of your pantyhose and proceeded to walk back out onto the work floor..showing your ass? Well I have.

What’s your most embarrassing work story?

She's mine, all mine! Mwahahahaha.

After three long summers of unpaid interning (and people say slavery is illegal!) I’m finally getting my own interns tomorrow. How quickly the tables have turned.

Of course I’m using the phrase “my interns” very loosely. One of the companies I work for is getting interns and I’ve been placed in charge of supervising them. And considering the entire company operates through e-mail and Facebook pokes, I’m pretty sure supervising them consists of g-chatting them weekly and asking “wassup.”

So unfortunately for me (and my dreams) there will be no coffee runs, copy machine assignments, or endless paper recycling drills. Unfortunately for my interns, I will be requiring that they refer to me as madam each time they address me in person and thy honorable Jenni each time they begin an e-mail. I’m only a few years older than them and I look 13 so I have to make it clear from the start that I’m in charge.

In fact, I might just drill that point home by adding  a dress code chapter to the intern guidebook (an 80-page manual that chronicles my life from birth to present) that I so generously wrote for them. Nothing too fancy of course, basic black-tie casual attire should do.

I don’t plan to be a complete lunatic as their internship-coordinator-life skills-director-inspirational-influencer (just the new title I added to my resume). I want them to leave this internship with crazy experiences that they can eventually exaggerate successfully on a resume. After all, I never would have gotten where I am today if I hadn’t listed this job on my resume as CollegeCandy Founder, Owner, & Contributor — it sounds a lot flashier and important than self-obsessed blogger.

The learning begins early tomorrow and I have a busy first day orientation planned for them that involves reading about the company, prank calling my friends at work, and commenting excessively on this post. While I can’t even begin to predict how much my interns will have learned by this time next week, I can safely predict that I may be demoted and will no longer be able to call myself an internship-coordinator-life skills-director-inspirational-influencer.

Whether you think his announcement was noble or unnecessary, whether you care where Letterman puts it or not, the scandal brought me to this week’s topic: the top ten people you should avoid sleeping with unless you want to suffer some serious aftermath. Maybe not a mistake that warrants a $2 million extortion, mind you, but still pretty scandalous repercussions.

10. The Bartender and/or Bouncer
Especially not at your favorite bar or club. One mistake with a bouncer equals embarrassment strong enough to keep you out of the doors of your favorite sports bar forever.

9. A neighbor in your dorm
Do you really want to worry about running into your fling when you’re in the dorm hallways wearing Powerpuff girl pajama bottoms?

8. “That Guy”
Collar popped underneath his Ed Hardy shirt with a sideways hat and a Lance Armstrong bracelet. Spare your dignity.

7. Ray-J
Unless you want a sex tape on the internet. Although it did kick-start Kim Kardashian’s career, so I guess this isn’t such a bad idea if that’s the direction you want to take your life.

6. Your BFF’s boyfriend
You’ll definitely lose a bestie and have other friends questioning your loyalty. Not cool.

5. Co-Worker
Particularly a boss. As hot as it would be, it violates some serious company policies <cough Letterman cough> and could also jeopardize your future with the company. Leave that one in your fantasies.

4. That foxy professor
He has kids. Stay away. Do not fantasize about showing up to his office hours in lingerie or your old Catholic schoolgirl uniform. Just. stay. away.

3. The R.A.
Enough said.

2. The cabbie giving you a ride home from the bar at 4 AM
I’m not even going to comment further.

1. Your roommate
Living with guys totally rules. Sleeping with them is a guarantee to screw up a great living situation and force you onto the streets or, worse, back into the dorms.

No one can deny that the male ego is truly an amazing (and monstrous) thing after reading the article, “Why Women Can’t Be Bosses” posted on AskMen.com. In a breakdown of the reasons why women apparently suck at being in charge, the article really makes some rather interesting points (interesting = far fetched, misogynistic and disgusting), some of which include how women don’t know how to control their emotions, how they hold grudges, and apparently all – yes I repeat, all -  have queen bee syndrome.

This has to be a joke, right? I mean, no guy really feels this way about women, right?

Take this line, for example: “In order for women to compete with any level of competence, they have to adopt masculine qualities.” Seriously? Wow. I wonder to which male qualities the writer is referring. Is it the ignorance, the insolence, or just the immaturity to write such absurd blogs like this one?

Or how about the claim made that women act the same way in a business setting as they do in relationships? Because apparently we don’t know how to separate the two or act in a professional manner. I’m not saying women don’t sometimes have emotional outbursts, hormonal rages, whatever, in a relationship,  but how does that automatically translate to their professional lives?

And, what, men can’t be crazy? I’ve seen men throw punches outside a bar over a sporting event, but I don’t automatically assume they are going to start punching people at work.  Maybe the real issue is that women are understanding creatures, whereas men are just quick to judge. I can’t imagine that’s a great quality in a boss.

The article concludes with this final thought: in being a boss, “there are goals to attain, hills to take” and “battles to win — all of which require decisive leadership and the respect of those serving underneath.” While that was intended to be yet another dig at the female leader, it seems to me like men are automatically disqualified from any sort of leadership role. I sure don’t see any “respect” for women coming from this article. Women who, since they can’t be leaders themselves, would 100% be serving underneath them.

It’s 2009 and, sadly, stereotypes still exist, and always will. They will never ever go away. In fact, as this article proves, they will only get worse and worse. But who cares? We can break these stereotypes and prove men wrong. That’s what they’re afraid of anyway, isn’t it? It’s that fear of being beaten out for jobs that leads men to make such ridiculous assumptions.

A leader or boss is someone who is decisive, strong, dedicated, and assertive. If that doesn’t describe a woman of the new milennium, I’m not sure what does.

[Every week, CC and John bring you some of the weirdest, funniest, saddest things he hears on his college campus. Join the Overheard revolution!Leave your own overheard convos in the comments or send ‘em over!]

(Guy, stalking around office, exasperated.)

Guy: And nobody here knows what a cloaca is? Seriously? You guys need to get out more.

(Two girls at a dining hall table.)

Girl 1: It’s not like that. If you put anything in a crust, it’s a pie. That’s a pie.

Girl 2: What about cheesecake? Cheesecake has a crust.

Girl 1: No it doesn’t.

Girl 2: Have you ever had cheesecake? Have you even seen a cheesecake? This is a problem, like, for us. For you and me.

(Guy, bothering another guy outside a door.)

Guy 1: No, dude, no, that’s not cool.

Guy 2: C’mon, man. I gotta be your guest. Just for like, thirty seconds. You gotta let me be your guest, c’mon.

Guy 1: No! That’s stupid! Crazy!

(Girl, on the phone.)

Girl: Okay, what’s the office rule? No drinking? Or was it two people… only two people? Oh. Two people have to be sober. Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.

(Girl, reading paper, incredulous.)

Girl: Six shots? Over fifteen hundred calories? What are you shooting, Kahlua?

Girl 2: Pure chocolate fudge.

Girl 3: Deep-fried fudge-flavored lard.

(A guy slams his hands down on a table.)

Guy: No! Your life sucks because you couldn’t do a barrel roll!

(Guy, in line at Starbucks.)

Guy: Okay, not to hate on my boss, you know. No offense. But she’s an idiot, she gets distracted, she’s loud, she has no sense of humor and I can’t stand working with her. She makes my job so much harder than it should be. No offense.

(Guy, talking to a girl.)

Girl: They had those four-liter things. You want that?

Guy: Jeez. Four liters of wine. Why don’t we stop measuring in liters and start measuring in ‘how many couches I’m gonna light on fire.’

(Two guys in dining hall.)

Guy 1: Check it out. Steroid burger.

Guy 2: What?

Guy 1 (Completely seriously): Steroid burger. Like, with steroids.

(Submitted from a reader: Two girls reading a sign.)

Girl 1: What is EasyMac

Girl 2: A really easy Mac computer

However, a couple of weeks ago I was presented with a problem when the advisor of my sorority came to me with pictures of me and my fellow sisters drinking in the house. While it is pretty easy to deny that you break the rules, it is hard to do so when you are presented with a picture of yourself mid-Smirnoff shot in your own room.

Though none of the pictures came from my own albums, I still found myself staring at my own face. These were pictures that were DE-TAGGED. Pictures that I had known were inappropriate, and had clicked the little button next to my name, the one that makes everything bad go away. I suppose when we all look at the pictures tagged of us and don’t see one, we forget that, despite not having our name, it still exists. Albums from August with pictures that I had forgotten existed were shown to me. While my first thought was, “Wow, this person needs a life if she is stalking pictures of me from 6 months ago,” my second one was “Well. This isn’t pretty.”

To steal one of the most worthwhile things my father has ever said to me, it wasn’t that our parents didn’t do stupid or illegal things when they were younger. They just never had to worry that within 24 hours, this illegal activity would be popping up on mini-feeds all over the country. While my experience with adults and Facebook has luckily left me with minimal scars, this was my first warning to how technology-savvy bosses can check in on their future employers. My advisor used a girl in my house to spy on us. Large companies have greater access, more resources, and more reasons to background check their employees’ backgrounds. Would you really want someone who advertises pictures of themselves passed out drunk or in a cloud of smoke in your law firm every day?

So here is the warning: Delete Delete Delete. Do not de-tag. And if you are like me and still want everyone to be able to see your pictures, discover snapfish.com. You can e-mail your friends and family your albums and, since it is a website, you are safe in case your computer ever crashes and you lose everything. While I love the ease and access Facebook allows, having my friends view pictures of us holding vodka in one hand and rum in the other aren’t worth me being punished again.

[Photo courtesy of Asurroca on Flickr.]

Believe me, you will regret it if you don’t at least attempt something. Can’t come up with anything clever? Try these bad boys on for size…

iPhone Application Hit your friends where it hurts: their iPhones. Anyone who has one will agree that their phone embodies all that is awesome in this world. Lucky for you, Apple has easy to access applications that will put the fear of god into iPhone lovers everywhere. If the “cracked” application or “iFart mobile” don’t suit your fancy, try making your own.

Naked Hunks Mug This is a magical mug. You see, when you put hot liquid in the “Naked Hunks Mug” his itty-bitty banana hammock disappears. Really, its a treat for everyone involved.

Sneaky Art You don’t have to have a mansion to appreciate the hilariousness of Rory McInnes’s prank. “He painted the giant genitalia on the newly-finished flat roof of his parents’ million-pound mansion… but the imposing member remained a closely-guarded secret for a whole year before it was ‘discovered’ by a helicopter pilot flying over the area.” So, maybe you don’t have a mansion or a can of spray paint laying around, but think on a smaller scale… the side of a dorm building and some chalk, the roof of a car and some shoe polish? Let your imagination run wild.

Jello Stapler You can than thank the writers of The Office for this one. If you haven’t seen the clip of Jim hiding Michael’s stapler in a giant mold of Jello, you need to watch it immediately.

Auto Correct This prank is best performed on a roommate or a really friendly co-worker. Simply hop on the computer this person uses for assignments, and open any word processor with auto-correct capabilities. Then, set their boss’s name, their name, professor’s name, or random words (the possibilities are endless) to  be auto-corrected into  “loser” or “skank”… again, the opportunities are endless. Just be sure to keep a list of what you changed.

“Win” the Lottery Fake scratch off tickets are a classic prank that will crush the dreams of everyone around you.

Facebook Hack This prank needs a little preparation. You will either need to be in posession of the victim’s username and password, or you will have to wait until they conveniantly leave their computer open to an attack. Believe me, your super slueth skills will pay off. Once logged in, enjoy coming up with a clever status change, change profile pictures, start relationships… go nuts.

Is the spring semester half over already? Sadly, it’s true. And while some of our peers will be looking forward to spending the summer at one pool party after another, many of us are currently scouring job listings for summer internships.

Internships are a great way to add experience to your resume, make industry connections, and discover what kind of career path you really want to follow. While school’s in session, it can be hard to fit an internship into your schedule; in the summer, however, you can devote more hours to the gig.

Unfortunately, just because you sign up to work a 40-hour work week from May to August, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get paid like a fulltime employee.

Many internships pay nothing. In fact, they often offer college credit as a means of skirting the salary, but in that case, you’ll find yourself coughing up summer tuition money just to work at the company that hired you. While there are plenty of paid internships out there, they usually offer a stipend rather than a modest hourly wage. So, if you’re going to be working your ass off, how do you decide whether the internship is worth it?

Paid internships certainly have a bit more sparkle at first glance. However, there’s a reason they call it an internship and not a job. Unless it’s a major company, you could probably make more money serving omelettes at Denny’s… but waitressing the third shift isn’t going to bulk up your resume. So, while you may be lucky enough to get paid this summer, you will have to figure out if you can live with a meager paycheck.

Paid internships may or may not be more challenging than an unpaid gig. After all, if you’re expected to work a full-time schedule, you’ll really become part of the office, and get to know your coworkers. You’ll be involved with bigger projects, because the bosses will know you can work on them throughout the week, rather than worry about you only tending to assignments on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday basis. Plus, if they’re bothering to pay the interns, they must think highly of the students they choose for the task, right?

Note that I said “may or may not” above. Many non-profit companies (or smaller businesses with less budget) employ a smaller staff than a Fortune 500 biz. In that case, you may be given a broad spectrum of responsibilities and may have the opportunity to develop a close relationship with your superiors. Any internship will probably require you to do a fair share of answering phones, photocopying, and filing, but you might also get to work for several different “departments” at an unpaid internship- especially if the department consists of one associate.

If you are moving away to do an internship, you should try to plot out how much your living expenses will be in an unfamiliar city. It can be more difficult to find a second job outside your home town, and, if you’re being paid at all, the internship might require more commitment. In reality, landing a paid internshp might not be as profitable, especially if you don’t have time to find another source of income.

Most employers usually appreciate their interns for working for free, and may be more lenient with the rules of the job. Many unpaid internships ask for less hours per week and try to be flexible with scheduling. This means that you can keep a few shifts at your regular summer job in order to pay for your gas to the internship!

Plus, unpaid internships come with some sort of business-related incentive, such as free parking permits or subway cards. You know, so you don’t lose money coming to work. Depending on the company, they may offer free meals if there’s a cafeteria in the building. If that’s the case, then hey- it won’t cost you anything besides time to go to work and the experience might help you get a higher paying job in the future.

There are pros and cons to either side here. If you are going to look into an internship, you should truly ask yourself what you want out of the experience and be prepared to ask questions before taking the job. If you’re not getting paid, it’s easy to get frustrated with menial tasks such as photocopying, filing, and going on Starbucks runs for the bigshots. Then again, an unpaid internship might be intimate enough for you to truly pick your boss’s brain during downtime and get a mentor out of the experience.

No matter what, my advice to future interns of the world is to take the next few months to try to save up and secure sufficient resources to provide for yourself over the summer – this way, you can choose the position that is truly best for yourself and your career goals, rather than only focusing on the monetary aspects of the job.

Personally, I’ve done my fair share of underpaid labor, whether in the form of an unpaid internship, paid internship, or a generally sh*tty part-time job that didn’t pay well enough. While the sh*tty part-time jobs did nothing but supply my weekend drinking funds, all of the internships let me walk away with something more valuable than money. I’ve been paid in experience, connections, all the coffee I can drink, and every random perk from catered meetings to free t-shirts to tickets to killer events. So while the payment issue is something that you should consider when taking one, the bottom line is that you won’t be an intern forever, so, for now, money shouldn’t be the first priority.