Behind the paid internship of "clearly marked price"
"6000 yuan a month can provide internships in the investment banking department, research department and quantitative positions of CICC, and the internship can be completed online." In the job hunting season for college students, many students believe that the experience of an internship in a famous company It can make your resume more beautiful, so as to enhance the job search in the future.
However, this kind of psychology of students has been spotted by unscrupulous businesses.
Searching for keywords such as "internship" on platforms such as Xianyu and Taobao, many businesses claim that they have internship resources from large companies. As long as students pay, they can "join" large companies remotely.
Some businesses not only clearly marked the price, but even stated that if students do not want to participate in remote internships, they can directly purchase an internship certificate that supports background checks.
The Beijing News reporter's investigation found that some of the so-called paid remote internships in famous enterprises, some intermediaries privately find employees of famous enterprises to train "interns", and some even guide the "interns" themselves. Not only is it difficult to guarantee the quality of internships, but also cannot achieve The effects of internships in famous companies may even have illegal and criminal behaviors.
During the interview, more than a dozen students who paid Beijing Siya China-Hong Kong Education Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Siya”) to apply for remote internship opportunities from large companies such as Tencent and KPMG reported to the Beijing News reporter that the internship was "water injection", and The identity of the mentor is in doubt.
At the same time, the above-mentioned famous companies have issued a "counterfeiting" statement in 2020, saying that the company does not have paid internship programs.
In 2020, Tencent issued an official statement reminding students to pay attention to scams such as "paid internships".
Network screenshot
On the “KPMG Restructuring Consultation” project certificate received by the students, the tutor was signed by Vivian Y He, but the name was checked in KPMG’s global system, and no such person existed.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Exciting internship "opportunity" for "Dachang" and an exceptionally smooth "interview"
"Spent 8,000 yuan. I bought nothing but lessons." On February 15, 2021, after the nearly one-month paid online internship program ended, college student Zhou Lin (pseudonym) felt that the "lesson" was My only gain.
Zhou Lin is a freshman majoring in e-commerce at a key university of finance and economics in Beijing.
In October 2020, he participated in a sharing session on "remote internship" in school.
At the sharing meeting, the senior’s words gave him a sense of urgency.
There is a lot of pressure to compete. In the future, thousands of people in our school will get the same diploma. Why do companies like Tencent want you and not others?
"
"Nowadays, many internships, especially good internships, rely on internal referrals... The previous one who participated in Tencent remote internships was directly internalized (worked) by the mentor because of his good performance." The senior's description of the internship opportunities of famous companies makes Zhou Lin was moved.
The senior recommended to Zhou Lin the "Global Virtual Internship Program", which is operated by Beijing Siya Zhonggang Education Technology Co., Ltd.
According to the information provided by Zhou Lin, the reporter found after registering an account on Siya's official website that the industries involved in the remote internships operated by it include the Internet and management, fast-moving consumer and management, accounting, and financial industries. Specific projects include: Tencent product operation management, NIKE Data analysis, KPMG restructuring consulting, Ernst & Young Taxation, Bridgewater Fund, etc., the internship time is one month, the project cost is 9,980 yuan from Bridgewater Fund, and the remaining 7,980 yuan.
"Is it so difficult to find an internship now? Not only does it not pay the internship salary, but also pays to get in..." With the longing of obtaining professional experience and a beautiful resume through remote internship, Zhou Lin signed up for Siya's "Tencent Product" Operation Management" project.
"Siya" mentioned in the application confirmation email sent to Zhou Lin that the remote internship project requires a 12-15 minute telephone interview and asked Zhou Lin to pay a telephone interview application fee of 850 yuan.
"If the applicant fails the telephone interview, the 850 yuan fee will be refunded in full; if the applicant withdraws midway or terminates the application due to personal reasons, the application fee will not be refunded."
On October 27, 2020, Zhou Lin transferred 850 yuan "phone interview fee" to his personal Alipay account named Guo Danrui.
Sky Eye Check showed that Guo Danrui was the legal representative of Beijing Siya China-Hong Kong Education Technology Co., Ltd.
A document called "Siya Official Payment Guide" obtained by the reporter shows that Guo Danrui appointed the designated financial officer for Siya Company, and the project application fee can be transferred to Guo Danrui personally through Alipay or bank card.
What Zhou Lin didn't expect was that the content of the "interview" was very simple.
Zhou Lin recalled that the interview on October 28 was a behavioral interview and did not involve any professional knowledge.
"All of them are the topics on Siya's Interview Guide for International Projects, such as giving examples of what is the biggest setback I have experienced, how to face criticism from others, what is the one thing I insist on for the longest time, etc. The interview questions are similar."
Zhou Lin said that the interviewer claimed to be an employee of Tencent, but he was suspicious of authenticity. “I checked the number of the interview phone and it was not Tencent.” After the "interview", Zhou Lin quickly received a notice from the catalog. .
The unusually smooth process made Zhou Lin suspicious: There are many applicants and the difficulty of entering the "big factory" internship, why did it pass so smoothly?
Zhou Lin faintly felt that there might be a problem with this project. He sent an email to the company, saying that his family's financial situation was not good and hoped to withdraw from this project.
However, the other party replied to Zhou Lin's email to emphasize again that the interview fee is not refundable.
Zhou Lin, who couldn't get the application fee, decided to participate in the internship after repeated considerations, "Since the interview fee cannot be refunded, let's try to gain more knowledge during the internship."
On November 5, 2020, Zhou Lin once again transferred 7,980 yuan to Guo Danrui's personal China Merchants Bank account.
The chat history between the senior and Zhou Lin.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"Internship" with content water injection, "Tutor" with doubtful identity
There is no related process required for regular entry. Zhou Lin’s "Internship Entry" is very simple. On January 17, 2021, "At the Tencent Conference, we held a meeting with other interns, project mentors, and teaching assistants. Announce the start of the project."
After the "entry", "Siya" sent Zhou Lin the "Internship Notes", which clearly stated that the "Tencent Product Operation Management" project team is composed of 1 industry mentor, 1 teaching assistant, 1 project manager and 22 interns .
The industry mentor is Shirley and he is currently working in Tencent's CSIG Cloud and Wisdom Business Group.
However, the true identity of "Shirley" made Zhou Linbe skeptical: Zhou Lin asked for the Chinese name of "Shirley", "she said she would call her Shirley"; Zhou Lin asked for a recommendation letter as an excuse to ask "Shirley" to provide Tencent jobs Email, the other party said, "I only sign the English name when signing the recommendation letter, and the Tencent mailbox will be filtered out. It is perfectly possible to use the personal e-mail address of the tutor to recommend."
In addition, “the 28-day internship, only one day a week, the tutor spends two or three hours to teach us, and the assistant teacher is a junior student who gives us attendance and posting tasks. When we count it, the total course time does not exceed 10 hours.” Zhou Lin told reporters.
In Zhou Lin's view, the so-called "internship" with high water injection can only be regarded as online training at best.
Zhou Lin later learned that as early as August 18, 2020, Tencent’s recruitment team issued a statement stating that it had never cooperated with any third-party organization or individual and that Tencent’s “introduction” did not incur any costs. .
On March 3, 2021, regarding Zhou Lin’s “online internship” experience, Tencent Public Relations responded to the Beijing News reporter saying that there is no fee for internship programs within Tencent, and all formal internships are officially issued through Tencent’s recruitment. Students are on the official website. After registering the resume, the formal interview process is carried out. The formal interns need to go through 3-4 rounds of interviews. The interview process is strict.
At present, many "fee internal pushes" and "fee internships" appearing on the market are all scams, reminding students not to be credulous.
The reporter called Mr. Hu, the general manager of Beijing Siya China-Hong Kong Education Technology Co., Ltd., and the other party said that the full name of the online internship project is Global Virtual Internship, which is virtual internship. When recruiting students, it has been explained to the students that the internship is not a public or official project of Tencent. No company internship certificate is provided.
Mr. Hu sent reporters an English document called Referencing Policy. The article mentioned that when students quote this internship experience in their resumes, they must write it in the "Extracurricular Activities" or "Certificate" and "Achievements" section. Listed as formal work experience.
"This is a virtual project. We hope to invite tutors who work in large companies to imitate the company's work for students and give them a workplace experience. We will send this document to students before they pay."
Zhou Lin said that before paying the fee, no Siya staff reminded him that this was just a "virtual internship". The instructor only told them that this experience can only be counted as an extracurricular activity and cannot be included in the internship one of the resume. column.
On March 14, Zhou Lin reviewed Siya’s project promotion materials and found that “the beginning of the project introduction was written in Chinese as a remote internship, and it was clearly stated that virtual internships can also be called remote internships or online internships. ,Telecommuting".
Zhou Lin believes that Siya’s project introduction is seriously misleading.
A student also said that the campus partner (senior sister) who recommended the Siya Huawei remote internship program to her repeatedly emphasized to her on WeChat that the program has an official background.
Doubtful project certificates, unrecognized recommendation letters
Liu Ni, who also participated in the Siya remote internship program for a fee, went through the same interview and admission process as Zhou Lin.
Therefore, the previously registered Hong Kong project was affected by the epidemic and could not be carried out. In the case that he could only choose the remote internship program when he could not get a refund, Liu Ni participated in the Siya "KPMG Restructuring Consultation" project in August 2020.
In this regard, Mr. Hu said that Siya has been operating Hong Kong projects and US projects since its establishment. Due to the epidemic and other reasons, the company's operations were damaged, so it opened a "virtual internship" program to keep the company operating.
A number of students who signed up for the US and Hong Kong projects in Siya told the Beijing News reporter that they had received emails from Siya saying that only the students who had participated in the “virtual internship” program could be refunded for the US and Hong Kong projects. Of payments.
"To take someone to participate in the virtual internship project, we refunded 3000 yuan." A student said.
In this regard, Mr. Hu said that the money paid by the students for participating in the US project and the Hong Kong project has been spent on hotels, professors, etc. "Now it is not that we do not want to refund, but the hotel and professors do not refund. We There is no way."
Regarding the content of the internship, Liu Ni also believes that there is a "water injection" component.
She recalled that the "trainee mentor" told them about KPMG's past and present and basic knowledge of company restructuring.
In a month, I only attended four classes, each of which lasted about two hours. In the rest of the time, the students who "intern" together were completing the group assignments assigned by the "mentor".
"Why don't it make sense for me to go to the Internet to read papers."
After the internship, Liu Ni found that the project completion certificate she received, except for a section about KPMG, was not stamped by KPMG, and there was no information indicating which company the certificate came from.
The certificate of completion of the project was signed by Vivian YHe, and his position was Restructuring Service Manager (KPMG).
According to the mentor recommendation letter provided by Liu Ni, Vivian claimed to be KPMG's Restructuring and Litigation Assistant Manager in the body of the recommendation letter, and signed as KPMG's Restructuring Service Manager in the signature.
In addition, the suffix of Vivian's mailbox is "intern.org.cn", while the suffix of KPMG's mailbox should be "kpmg.com".
The reporter used the domain name query tool "whois" to find out that "intern.org.cn" was owned by Beijing Siya Zhonggang Education Technology Co., Ltd.
This means that neither the project closing certificate nor the recommendation letter obtained by Liu Ni can prove that the project is related to KPMG.
In fact, as early as April 2020, KPMG China issued a statement stating that “KPMG China has never authorized any third-party organization or individual to provide paid KPMG interviews and job opportunities, nor has it provided any remote online internships or jobs. For the project, all hired interns or employees must report to the relevant KPMG China office and go through formal entry procedures before they can start their work."
Xiao Yu (pseudonym), an employee who had interned at KPMG and officially joined KPMG China in the fall of 2018, told the Beijing News reporter that KPMG China’s internship process is very standardized. “All interns must apply through KPMG’s official website. And you must go to the site for an interview. After the internship is applied for, the company will issue employee badges and computers to the interns. Except for the fact that they cannot be on duty due to the epidemic, so far, I have not heard of KPMG offering online internships."
Xiao Yu also said, “The internship certificate issued by KPMG China should have the KPMG logo in the upper left corner, and it will also have KPMG’s official seal.” Xiao Yu helped reporters look up the name of VivianY He in KPMG’s global system and found that there was no such name in the system. People exist.
So, if there is no company head-up paper printing, the recommender's mailbox is not the company's mailbox, and the recommender's identity cannot be verified, will it be recognized when applying for study abroad?
In this regard, a staff member of the China Office of a well-known university in the UK said, “First, when the admissions teacher reviews student materials, the paper must be the header of the institution; second, the mailbox of the institution or sufficient information must be used. Prove the true identity of the recommender; finally, if the student is a fresh graduate applying for a graduate school, we would prefer to see two academic recommendation letters from school teachers, without using company recommendation letters. When evaluating recommendation letters, we value the recommender and the student The relationship between each other, such as how long we met and where we met, etc., a one-month recommendation letter from an online intern tutor is not persuasive."
In addition, the reporter noticed that many students who had participated in the KPMG remote internship program received highly similar recommendation letters. In this regard, the above-mentioned staff stated that highly similar recommendation letters are not recognized by the school. One year, the contents of the recommendation letters from several applicants in our school were exactly the same. It was later verified by the school that several applicants purchased the recommendation letters from the same agency. Because of lack of integrity, the school did not admit any of them."
The "paid internship" routine
On February 26, reporters searched for relevant keywords on platforms such as Xianyu and Taobao, and found that many organizations were selling remote internships and internal recommendations.
As a student, the reporter consulted a company called Shangzhilu Education Consulting on Xianyu.
The other party stated that the price of the CICC remote internship program is 6,000 yuan a month, which can provide internships in the investment banking department, the research department and quantitative positions. "Interns" do not need to register offline and can complete the internship online.
Internships can receive internship certificates, high-gold recommendation letters, and corporate emails to support online applications for companies.
The reporter stated that he is not a financial major. The customer service staff of Shangzhilu Education Consulting Company said that on-site internships cannot be carried out without financial background, but they can participate in online internships without changing their resumes to financial backgrounds. After the remote internship is over, CICC stamps can be issued Proof of internship, support background check, and get a letter of recommendation from the company.
The customer service staff said, "You can't go to personnel in your situation, because professionalism is not right. If you go to personnel normally, no brokerage investment bank or bank will ask for people you don't need." "We have the four major and eight major investment banks of brokerage firms, and you need them. Which one can I say."
The reporter later claimed that the online internship could not be purchased on the grounds that “parents did not agree”. The customer service also suggested that “you can consider buying an internship certificate from an investment bank at a price of 650 yuan to support background checks.” Moreover, the time on the internship certificate can be based on your own The situation is "free to fill."
The reporter provided the other party with a fake name, ID number, randomly compiled school, and major. On March 12, the reporter received a Chinese and English internship certificate provided by Shangzhilu, stating that a certain student had been in January 2021. From 15th to March 1st, 2021, I will be intern in the industry research position of China Securities Co., Ltd.
After providing fake identity information to Shangzhilu Education Consulting Company and paying 650 yuan, on March 12, the reporter received a fake internship certificate that can be filled out at will during the internship.
Beijing News reporter Qi Wang
On Zhihu, many college students posted about their personal experiences on issues such as "reliable remote internships", "should you participate in paid job search projects" and so on.
On platforms such as Black Cat Complaint, there is no shortage of complaints from students about the "paid internship" trap of certain intermediaries.
The reporter found that, among them, some "job hunting" intermediaries are actually implementing "online courses" as a gimmick of "paid remote internship".
Because the interns cannot go to the company’s offline internships and have not signed an entry agreement with the company’s personnel department, the so-called “remote internship” is either the company’s internal employees leading the “interns” to complete certain internship projects, or the intermediary conducts company internships The slogan of fooling students.
No matter what kind of behavior mentioned above, it is expressly prohibited by the formal "big factory".
Last year, in addition to KPMG and Tencent, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, both well-known accounting firms, also issued a statement saying that they did not cooperate with any other third-party job hunting or training institutions, reminding students not to be superstitious.
Xiao Yu told reporters about the common routines used by intermediaries to provide "paid internships".
In 2019 and 2020, two organizations successively contacted Xiao Yu through the workplace social platform "Linkedin", hoping that he would provide KPMG's internal information in the online internship program opened by the organization to teach students.
Xiao Yu said that the company's information involved the privacy of customers, and he strictly declined the invitation of the organization.
Xiao Yu said that many of his classmates and colleagues working in the "big four" or well-known large companies have been contacted by similar intermediaries. The needs include providing company emails, helping to modify resumes, and taking students for "remote internships".
"As long as there is supply and demand, there will be third-party industries, that is, the gray industry chain of internal pushing intermediaries." Li Jun (pseudonym), a staff member of a chain education consulting company in Beijing, believes that many college students do not understand the industry and blindly believe that they only need to spend money. The internship can be successful, and it gives others an opportunity to take advantage of, "Under capital operation, organizations are only profitable, and there are bound to be many pitfalls."
Regarding the phenomenon of "paying internal push", Bao Hua, a lawyer at Beijing Anli Law Firm, believes that this is not just a matter of consumer rights, but a violation of workplace rules. "This kind of behavior is likely to be either illegal or criminal. Businesses. There will be no paid recruitment business. It is illegal to use the company’s business name and trademark for profit without the authorization or recognition of the company; if the incident itself is false, there is no such thing as an internship, we can take it It is understood as fraud."
As far as internal employees are concerned, the "internal push" of receiving money is suspected of commercial bribery.
"Even if the head company staff can promote the paying students, how many places can there be in a year? I believe many people will not endorse this benefit." Bao Hua concluded that the "black intermediary" is not capable of pushing students The internal promotion of the enterprise, but still collects money under the banner, its behavior is suspected of fraud.
Bao Hua advised college students not to take shortcuts.
"If there is a shortcut, it must be frank, truthful, and serious about doing the thing at hand."
Beijing News reporter Qi Wang Liu Yang