Interns during the school year are not paid anything.

This is normal, but there is no reason to take an internship here (from my perspective) because compensation in other forms - such as valuable experience - is lacking and/or non-existent.

As an intern, the work was extremely boring. Interns (at least in this division) were not treated well and learned almost nothing. Being relegated to cold-calling did little to teach me about the field I was interested in!

Long nights and weekend work. Investment Baning at Merril is just like any firm. You get very little credit for the hard work that you do - its just expected that you work hard.

We work extremely long hours at the office. I feel that we work longer hours than we really have to. The management wants you to stay in the office as long as possible; therefore, my team works a little slower so that we can stay at the office longer. We come into the office early and leave late just because it looks like we're working harder.

The company is very political and hierarchical. In order to advance, you need to get in good with the management as well as show great value. There is no set promotion timeframe.