The Wall Street Journal has a funny-not funny piece about a memo circulating on Wall Street claiming to offer advice to summer interns on how to survive their internships. Written by a second-year analyst at Barclay’s Global Power & Utilities group, it includes such gems as:

5. Never take your jacket off at work. This is investment banking, ladies and gentlemen. Other groups may be more liberal when it comes to summer dress code, unfortunately were not …

7. I recommend bringing a pillow to the office (yoga mat works as well). It makes sleeping under your desk alot [sic] more comfortable, in the very likely scenario that you have to do that….

I hope it is clear from the rules above that the internship really is a 9-week commitment at the desk. You are here with the sole goal to impress the group enough to receive a FT offer. During my summer in the group an intern asked our staffer for a weekend off for a family reunion – he was told he could go. He was also asked to hand in his blackberry and pack up his desk.

Some of it’s tongue-in-cheek, but it’s that brand of humor that works– i.e., scares newcomers– because you don’t know which parts are real, and which parts are exaggerated. (Are the GS Elevator’s dress tips really that good?) And certainly it reflects a deep assumption that when you take a job like this, even as an intern, you’re signing over your life to the company.