Pearson stressed that the college-aged interns, who receive no compensation whatsoever for what is officially scheduled as a three-day, 30-hour-per-week internship, should always aim to “go above and beyond” by accepting a wide array of jobs designed for multiple full-time staff members.

“We really want you to get a good sense of all the different areas of our business,” said Pearson. “So now that you’ve been here for a few weeks and have gotten the hang of the basics, feel free to branch out a little more. For example, if you want to challenge yourself and assemble the purchase specs for the Freeman-Baines buy, just go ahead. We love to see things like that.”

“And if you have time, you could also compile the account’s CRM data, outline the six-month revenue targets, and email it to [Vice President] Mike [Seibert],” Pearson continued. “And if you could get it done by 3, or 4 at the latest, that would be very helpful.”

On top of making coffee, photocopying documents, answering phone calls, and sorting mail, the additional responsibilities Pearson has encouraged the interns to “not be shy” about undertaking reportedly include coordinating meeting schedules, processing expense reports, analyzing sales data, writing website copy, arranging travel itineraries, providing IT support, scheduling employee training, issuing internal memos, filing payroll forms, managing social media accounts, preparing press releases, collecting market research, building project proposals, managing upcoming deadlines, and searching for new client leads.

Pearson added that if an intern ever has any suggestions for expanding the program to include additional duties ordinarily performed by much older and properly qualified employees with families, his “door is always open.”