"You can spend about 20,000 yuan to avoid interviews, and I was recommended to intern at a well-known international private equity firm." In the second half of last year, Xiao Wang, a boy from Northwestern University who had just entered his senior year, purchased an internship through an internship agency.
In the past few days, he has received the pre-admission notice from the University of Glasgow in the UK for business graduate students as he wished.
Although the cost of the internship is high, he regards this internship certificate as one of the "stepping stones" to the "value for money" study abroad application.
In recent years, the media has frequently exposed the gray industry chain of "paid internships". It is easy to find such institutions by searching for "paid internships" and "internship intermediaries" on social networking sites and e-commerce platforms.
Many intermediary agencies are focusing on college students who are preparing to study abroad. In order to enter the internship experience of an internationally renowned company in the application for study abroad and submit a recommendation letter from the company’s "mentor", they continue to have prospective graduates like Xiao Wang, looking for Intermediary agencies spend money on internships in exchange for the "highlight moments" in the application for studying abroad.
Gray market brought by recommendation letters for study abroad applications
Xiao Wang's colleges and universities are not very dominant in the domestic rankings. If you want to apply for key disciplines of foreign universities, you need to have a "bright" internship experience and a letter of recommendation.
Through his classmates, he found an intermediary agency that "feels more reliable". After submitting his name, ID number, mobile phone number, school education, academic background and other information to form a personal resume and a deposit of several thousand yuan, less than two This week, I received an intern employment notice from a well-known international private equity firm.
Because the new crown pneumonia epidemic situation was improving at that time, Xiao Wang chose to go to the company's Shanghai headquarters for an internship.
"The intermediary staff made a special trip to pick up the plane at the airport, and there was also a girl who was arranged to be sent to the company. After arriving at the company, she went through the internship procedures under the arrangement of the human resources department."
The reporter checked the application process of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom and found that filling in the internship experience in the application system and providing the recommendation letter of the recommender are official requirements. Such conditions are also common in applications from well-known overseas universities.
Recommendation letters, as an objective evaluation of a third party or industry professionals, are often valued by overseas universities.
With the increasing number of students studying abroad, intermediary agencies are targeting the demand for recommendation letters and mobilizing the "ideas" of international students.
Xiao Wang told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the intermediary charges fees according to the intern company, position, and length of the internship. After he gets the intern admission notice, he needs to pay the full amount of about 20,000 yuan, 6 The monthly off-site internship needs to pay for living expenses and rent. The intermediary staff will also ask about the internship performance from time to time. "If the internship performance is not good, the intermediary would rather give a refund and suspend the internship for fear that we will smash his sign."
The reporter found in investigations and interviews that among college students applying to study abroad, the phenomenon of "spending money for internships" is not uncommon. There are even overseas study agencies and internship agencies working together to jointly recommend internship positions in exchange for letters of recommendation. The prices are all About tens of thousands.
Xiao Wang reluctantly said: "This is a gray industry chain. Internships in large companies are monopolized by intermediaries, and you can't even access this type of internship on your own. Problems that can be solved by spending money have become no problem."
Xiaohe, a college student, told reporters that her undergraduate degree is in human resource management. She plans to go to the United States to study a graduate student in business analysis. She also tried to find an internship on her own. However, it is very difficult to find an internship across majors. "An experience related to the business analysis profession.
The agency that provides one-stop service for studying abroad introduced her to an internship agency and recommended her to purchase a strategic consulting position from Roland Berger Management Consulting Company for an internship at a price of 15,000 yuan. The online tutor will teach one-on-one, and the internship period is two months. .
Unlike Xiao Wang’s on-site internship, Xiaohe’s internship does not need to go through the company’s human resources department at all, and does not need to go through any formalities. In the end, Xiaohe will also get a letter of recommendation.
A number of prospective international students told reporters that in recent years, many "famous companies pushing organizations" claimed "free pushing" in their WeChat public account articles, but after they actually submitted their resumes to an intermediary agency, they paid tens of thousands of dollars. Service bill".
An unnamed teacher at a university in Beijing said that according to his knowledge, some intermediaries recruited for short-term study tours or study under the banner of "famous company internships", which are "equivalent to winter and summer vacation classes"; there are also some internationally well-known ones who have been peddled. Enterprise internship positions come from the co-construction of internship bases, and some positions fall into the hands of “middlemen” for sale. “Demand breeds the market. Whether it is fresh graduates or students applying for studying abroad, it is for the purpose of enriching their personal resumes and spending money to fight.”
The epidemic has spawned "cloud internships" or facilitated "paid internships"
When epidemic prevention and control becomes the norm, online office has become a new model, and subsequent recruitment of interns for “cloud internships” has also become the main choice of most companies.
In the past, it was difficult to recommend intermediaries to the company for on-site internships, and smelled "bigger business opportunities."
Lilian, a junior at Nanjing Agricultural University, is not as lucky as Xiao Wang.
She originally planned to participate in an internship experience activity in Hong Kong through an intermediary, but because of the epidemic, seven students including Lilian were introduced to Nielsen for online internship.
There is no need for any interview, and Lilian received her offer notice two days after submitting her resume.
The content of the actual internship is, "The instructor in the company created a WeChat group with us. During the one-month internship period, the instructor will send some data packets in the WeChat group so that we can analyze and report in groups. A one-week task, Basically, it can be completed in two or three days, and the meeting will be reported once a week, and we will return to class."
Although Lilian confirmed the status of the instructor on the LinkedIn professional social network, she did not get the internship certificate issued by the company in the end. She spent 6,000 yuan as an intermediary fee and only got the recommendation letter from the instructor.
She told reporters that the administrative management major and Nielsen's internship position are actually not compatible, "The cost performance is very low, and can only be written in the overseas and work history as an experience."
The reporter contacted an internship agency as a student seeking an internship. The other party said that they could provide a directory of nearly 20 well-known companies. After learning about the reporter’s information, they recommended a number of remote intern positions in Internet companies. "The tutors are all at manager level or above. , While taking you to do internship work, training will be carried out at the same time." The internship period is one month and the fee is 8,000 yuan.
The intermediary stated that although it is not possible to enter the human resources department like on-site internships, “this kind of remote internship is cost-effective and focuses on recent background refreshing and rapid resume competitiveness. The recommendation letter provided by the internship has an official email address, which can be written in the future. On the resume, Haitou can also support background checks."
However, the other party suggested, "Try not to apply for the same company with this experience in the future, because the project is not in the corporate personnel system, you can try to invest in other companies."
After the reporter determines the position, the intermediary requires to submit a resume and pay a fee of 500 yuan before being recommended to the leader of the internship department. It is only necessary to pass the review without an interview.
After signing the internship agreement and making the final payment 2-3 days, you will receive an official email notification.
The intermediary promised, "If I come to push you, I can screen out hundreds of opponents and greatly increase the success rate", and provide precise guidance such as revising resume templates. "In short, it is to go through contacts and fast-track to ensure admission. ".
When the reporter asked for an on-site internship, the intermediary said, “If the resume is not a big problem, just arrange a round of interviews. You only need to consider the learning background and the reasons for the internship.”
Standard overseas investment interns generally need to submit an application and resume to the official website, complete a written test and at least two rounds of interviews before they can be admitted.
The agency told reporters that on-site internships can provide internship certificates, but the price is 3-4 times that of remote internships.
If the interview fails, the intermediary said, "You can continue to recommend other companies until you get an offer."
However, the reporter consulted related companies in many ways, and the relevant persons in charge stated that there is no such kind of paid internships within the company, and "the internships are all uniformly recruited by the human resources department."
However, some corporate employees told reporters that she had received emails from such intermediary agencies several times in her work mailbox, clearly stating that "if an internship position is available, the agency will pay a certain amount of commission fee."
Many potential legal risks should not be underestimated
According to Jin Lin, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, the emergence of such "paid internship" intermediary agencies is essentially a kind of resource realization, but the many potential legal risks in the operation of such agencies should not be underestimated.
She told reporters that because such internships are often not part of the formal process of corporate human resources, intermediary agencies or employees of related companies will inevitably take risks in pursuit of benefits.
"On the one hand, if the internship certificate or recommendation letter itself is false, it may involve criminal offences such as fraud or forging company seals; on the other hand, even if the internship itself is real, due to the existence of one-to-one teaching and interview guarantees. In over-graded situations, there may be cases where intermediaries bribe the personnel directors of related companies or related employees in the recruitment process, which not only involves the violation of related corporate employees, but may also involve criminal risks such as bribery by non-state employees. In addition, if the arranged internship positions involve auditing, strategic consulting, legal affairs, etc., departmental data and information are mostly trade secrets. If the interns use or disclose information improperly, there will also be legal risks of infringement of trade secrets.
In this regard, Jin Lin reminded that although the contract signed with the intermediary during the paid internship is valid, although the intermediary can be held accountable after being defrauded by the intermediary, there is no guarantee whether the direct loss can be fully recovered, and the time cost and indirection involved The loss cannot be fully compensated.
In addition, interns need to pay special attention to the preservation, use and destruction of relevant data and materials obtained during the internship. If they are accidentally leaked, they will also face legal risks.
(The names of the students in the text are all pseudonyms) (Reporter Meng Peipei and intern Chang Xiaoyufei)