So how do you get to be a 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley? (updated)

'Teenagers often prefer to download films and music for free as opposed to buying dvds, cds and other media in the shops' - actual quote from the report, wouldn't hold my breath over the 'legendary' status of this kid. If this is what the banks consider ground breaking, they should sit in on some of my pub chats with my mates, it'll blow their narrow, out of touch minds.

So this kid "earned" and internship at the tender age of 15, personally, I don't think that this is that impressive. I worked for Phillips Semiconductors (admittedly not a corporate bank) when I was 13 going on 14 and worked on some ground breaking projects.

The thing we should admire this "child" for is his initiative and willingness to work as opposed to spending his time down the park with his mates and squandering his parent's money.

The article has been updated to reflect that Robson did indeed get the internship, not through family and friends, but thanks to his dog.

I'm coming to the end of my first year on a grad scheme and my team/department is full of the Director's little darlings. They are broadly below average, graduating from joke Universities like Oxford Brookes and Stirling, whilst the rest of the grad intake studied at Oxbridge, LSE, Durham, Warwick etc. The little darlings also have the most preposterous RP accents, floppy hair and awkward laughs you could hope to encounter.

Whilst it's a shame that they have effectively stole grad places from more deserving students, they are a constant source of amusement as they try to emulate their sleazy, gin-soaked parents' (nearly always father actually) presentation styles, dress etc.

They tend to fade away after 18-months - 2 yrs (or so it seems), though I fear that the more difficult jobs market will result in more of them appearing come Septemeber as they have struggled to get jobs elsewhere.

definitely not uncommon to have 'relationship hires' in banking & finance, but aged 15 does sound a bit...'i don't know what'. i'm out in asia right now and our country manager's son was here last year as an intern - he was a rising fresher (i.e. just finished 6th form), so no older than the age of 18. i thought that was young enough!

i used to feel pretty bitter about relationship hires taking up all the internship spaces. when i finally got into a grad scheme (with temp experiences in unrelated fields) and got to work with a bunch of interns, i came to the following understanding:

1. more interns = more relationship hires
2. a majority portion will NOT try to get a return offer
3. the few that get return offers are actually pretty smart despite how they got the internship in the first place