As pointed out in a piece in The Washington Post Magazine, a reader submitted a query indicating he or she wrote two promotional booklets for a retirement facility, the same one where the reader actually lives. When the bill was a submitted, the facility director pushed back. She said, “We can’t pay you for this.”

“The term ‘freelance’ originally referred to mercenary soldiers: ‘free’ meaning unaffiliated, and ‘lance’ referring to their pointy weapons,” explained Karla L. Miller.

The work columnist added, “Apparently your facility’s director has reinterpreted it as someone you can stick it to without paying.”

Her advice per the piece? “Do no unpaid work. Never start a project without a contract spelling out payment, deadlines and milestones, for your protection and the client’s. Without a contract, the client may well assume you’re volunteering — which is why plumbers, paperhangers and other professionals have you sign something up front.” continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A class action suit was filed on behalf of two Conde Nast interns alleging the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor laws. The suit argues the interns must be paid minimum wage since they worked for the employer and performed productive work even when they learned a new skill and professionally benefitted from the internship.

We received a release from law firm Outten & Golden LLP which represents the plaintiffs. It indicated Lauren Ballinger worked at W Magazine. In the accessories and fine jewelry departments, she packed and unpacked accessories and jewelry in addition to running errands and completing insurance forms. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lauren Dolgen

“I actually was an MTV intern, like, a gazillion years ago, but it really sparked my interest in television, really sparked my interest in MTV in general,” she said. “I also think that production assistant work and getting in on the production side is a really great experience, and I think that it has helped me, as well, in my career. Especially on the development side, knowing production a bit really does help, because when you are asking your producers for things, you recognize what you’re really asking for and will help strategize to get those things and accomplish them.”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Lauren Dolgen, EVP of MTV’s Series Development?

– Sherry Yuan

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a federal judge granted a victory to interns as it relates to their lawsuit against Fox Searchlight.

Okay, here are the details: Alex Footman and Eric Glatt were two interns who filed the lawsuit in late 2011. Per the piece, they worked on Black Swan and indicated Fox Searchlight’s unpaid internship program violated minimum wage. Plus, they claimed it violated overtime laws. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After all, why not make the most out of the workplace experience in order to learn, grow and ultimately beef up your resume?

Greg Giangrande, HR executive in the media, offered some tips in today’s New York Post:

1. Take your assignments seriously. Be committed! Even if you’re given work to keep you busy, don’t take it lightly. He advised, “So take it like a pro, and act like you were born to file, answer phones and make copies in order to earn rewards with more meaningful assignments.” continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Our friends at AOL Jobs mentioned the Weather Channel interns are involved with a simulated tornado on camera as part of “Tornado Week.” No worries though, the @TornadoWeek Twitter feed indicated, “No interns were harmed in the making of this in office tornado.”

Aspiring employees take turns sitting in an office with electric fans. Get this — as they get more and more tweets, the tornado becomes stronger and stronger. They’re still doing their work at their desks, huddled in hoodies and continue with a business as usual mindset.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Pssst. Here’s a hint: Internships.

According to an Internships.com survey conducted last week, 69% of companies polled have offered full-time jobs to their interns in 2012.

Essentially an internship serves as a “new interview” as the critical selection step for both students and employers.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to the Maynard Institute, a “well-placed source at the network” has revealed the big news. Details are unclear because the number of available internships and actual salary amounts haven’t been determined.

Perhaps other news outlets will begin paying their interns as well?

Keep in mind, according to the piece, ABC News and CNN pay their interns and CBS News and Fox News create arrangements for the college/university to provide course credit. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In what has to be the weirdest intern recruitment video ever*, TheStreet reporters talk about….everything besides why you might want to intern here. The tongue-firmly-in-cheek video has reporters talking about how their interns from last year “can’t be working” (“actually, they’re interning at Bloomberg now,” says another), points out that the Wall Street bull statue’s “bollocks are bigger than its brain,” and then shows viewers how close TheStreet’s offices are to Zucotti Park, where “thousands of jobless kids just like yourselves rose up against the greedy investment banks. The same greedy investment banks that keep business journalists like us employed.”

*Ok not really. This video aired at the 2012 Financial Follies, a sort of White House Correspondents Dinner for New York financial journalists. On the other hand, it’s all about interns, and can’t help but leave some sort of impression in interns’ brains. Do you find the jokes funny? Does the vid make you more or less likely to want to intern at TheStreet?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The broadcast journalism major told The New York Post while working for 92.3 FM’s digital media department she got to see Justin Bieber and will.i.am, but more importantly she got an experience to bolster her resume. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Well, we’ll add one potent statement to punctuate the sentence by simply stating, “In reporting.”

The Wall Street Journal fired an intern who apparently fabricated sources and quotes, according to The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog. Whether you’re a full-time staffer, freelancer or even an intern who’s three weeks into the job, it matters not: It will cost you if you’re not abiding by one of the main tenants of journalism. As in, the truth. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to a piece in The New York Post, an intern expresses concern he’s going to be given menial tasks. Wanting to know how he can approach his employer to ask for more work, he wonders how to communicate this message without sounding like he’s whining?

“You can’t,” Greg Giangrande, executive vice-president and chief human resources officer at Time, Inc., writes in the piece. “It seems to be in your DNA, you youngsters — all you little Zuckerbergs think you should be given VC funding to reinvent the Internet before you’ve paid any dues. Which is great if you’ve got that kind of unique vision, ambition and intelligence.”

Essentially, Giangrande says interns need to start making copies just like we all did at some point in our careers. Yes, this means making coffee runs, too. He points out in the piece that attitude is everything. “If you want more responsibility, the way you’ll get it is to be masterful at what you’re told to do and do it with a great attitude.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As you gear up to turn that short-term gig into a full-time opportunity, for starters, Jacquelyn Smith writes on Forbes to “act the part.” This means abiding by the company dress code, hours, and overall behavior: “Never wear flip-flops, show cleavage or wear anything that’s ripped or torn.”

Next, you’ll need to take the bull by its horns. Meet with your manager to outline quantifiable goals and demonstrate a positive attitude no matter how menial the tasks may seem. Tom Busbach, former producer at Yahoo! told Forbes, “Not every task you’re going to do is something you’ll enjoy, but have the attitude that these are building blocks to your career. Once you show you can be trusted with small tasks, managers will give you more responsibility.”

As for the third way; make a name for yourself. Volunteer to work in other departments or on task forces that may not be relate to the job. Although it recently passed, one example is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. By spreading your wings and networking with other folks, it’ll give you a better grasp of the company and ways to explore its numerous departments. Leverage your time there and ask new contacts out to lunch or coffee to get a better understanding of what they do. Plus, it’ll give them the opportunity to get to know you better. During the dialogue, be sure to express interest in working there so they may keep you in mind when opportunities arise.

Lastly, get feedback. Meet with your manager and keep track of your skills and projects to add them to your resume. Keep track of positive emails and notes; ask for recommendations and references. Specifically sit down with your manager and express your interest in working there. After all, he or she isn’t a mind reader! Even if there’s not an opportunity as soon as your internship has ended, be sure to stay in touch so your name is top of mind when full-time opportunities become available.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lauren Berger, also known as the Intern Queen who landed 15 internships in four years, tells TIME there are several ways to make the most out of an internship. For starters, she says to know your rights. Considering a few companies have been sued over unpaid internships, you’ll need to know what’s legal and what’s not.

For instance, buzz words like “sales” or “commission” certainly raise red flags. If you’re an intern, you really shouldn’t work on projects that impact revenue.

Moving on, Berger emphasizes getting a mentor. How do you do this? Sounds pretty simple by asking the internship coordinator for permission to contact an executive internally. It’s essentially a quick meeting to simply ask the exec how he or she got started in the business, any mistakes they made early on, and how they would break in today if they were in the intern’s shoes.

The importance of the mentor is raised again as the internship comes to a close. Instead of asking point blank to have a job, the Intern Queen suggests asking for advice.

In the piece she explains, “I tell students to take the pressure off of thinking the internship will turn into a job. An internship doesn’t guarantee that you’ll work at the company afterwards. What you need to do is leverage your contacts and stay in touch with them.” Plus, an internship is a terrific way to get a referral and recommendation for future employment.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to the labor department, interns at a for-profit business who qualify as employees “typically must be paid at least the minimum wage and overtime compensation for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.” That means if your intern is slaving over a project until 2 a.m. at the office, you better be writing those checks.

Remember, the bottom line is that an unpaid intern’s experience should be focused on his education more so than his benefit to the company, so make sure he or she is picking up a valuable experience.

For more ways to keep your program legit and rewarding, read 7 Things That Are Ruining Your Company’s Internship Program.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.