□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Wen Xuchen, an intern of this newspaper
The moment she found out her written test results, Liu Min (pseudonym), a fresh graduate from Yunnan, was both happy and worried - she is usually good at written tests but not good at interviews, and would be nervous and trembling even when answering questions in class.
In order to seize this hard-won employment opportunity, she spent money to sign up for an interview coaching training class, and finally successfully passed the interview and was hired.
But Zhu Xi (pseudonym), a fresh graduate from Beijing, was not so lucky. “I spent 2,000 yuan for one-on-one training for an hour. After the conversation, I was even more confused.”
The "teacher" who provided interview coaching told him that his resume did not need to be modified, but that his thinking framework needed to be improved. "Improving thinking cannot be achieved overnight. How many 2,000 yuan will it take? I feel like I have been cheated."
As the spring recruitment market for 2024 continues to heat up, more and more graduates are seeking various ways to improve their interview skills in order to get a job of their choice.
Some individuals or job search service agencies have seized this "business opportunity" and used the slogans of paid coaching such as "senior HR" and "experienced people", and have launched interview coaching services, including scenario simulations, leaderless group discussions, structured interviews, pressure interviews, etc. For various scenarios, the price ranges from a few hundred yuan, a few thousand yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan.
But will paid interview coaching become a "shortcut" to getting through the employment barrier?
What issues should graduates who are new to society pay attention to?
"Rule of Law Daily" reporters launched an investigation into this.
It’s hard to tell the truth from fake interview coaching
Some people come ashore and some people step into the pit
Like Liu Min, Bai Ling (pseudonym) from Yunnan, who is not good at interviews, also recently got a job opportunity, but in the later stage, she will have to face many rounds of interviews, such as first interview, second interview, final interview, and HR interview.
In order to learn more about recruitment and interview processes and information, she shopped around and purchased a paid interview coaching service from an organization.
"At the beginning, we will conduct relatively basic exercises such as pronunciation, Mandarin, and speaking speed, so that we can speak confidently and avoid some modal particles. Then the teacher will make suggestions for improvement based on the specific practice conditions." Bai Ling introduced explain.
In the end, she successfully passed the interview and got the job opportunity.
Yang Xuan, a graduate counselor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, believes that interview coaching institutions were born out of the market, which also reflects the increasing competition in job interviews.
"In fact, the tutoring classes on the market are actually just support. The important thing is to test the candidates' comprehensive abilities and comprehensive qualities."
However, during the investigation, the reporter found that many people reported that the paid training did not improve their ability to cope with interviews and felt that they had been "cheated".
Cheng Yue (pseudonym), who graduated from a university in Anhui last year, signed up for career editor interview coaching and one-on-one online teaching for a total of 40 hours. He paid 5,000 yuan first and then paid an additional 3,000 yuan after "onshore".
"When asking about the teaching staff, the other party promised that the teachers are experienced employees." What Cheng Yue didn't expect was that after taking the first experience class, she found that the so-called teacher spent half the time reading courseware. "Follow-up When I contacted the customer service, the other party kept making excuses and blocked me directly when they saw that I had no intention of paying for the class.”
The reporter searched the social platform using the keywords "interview coaching" and "national examination interview" and found that there were many posts on the platform claiming to be true personal sharing, but in fact they were soft-text promotions by an interview coaching agency.
These promotion "routines" are generally the same. They first recall their mental journey after entering the interview, and finally introduce their own methods of applying for classes, which are usually introduced by people they know or relatives and friends; and then they start with "Today is the first time in a certain institution." × day" as an introduction, seize the interview shortcomings of some candidates, and share their experiences in a targeted manner, including many keywords such as "professional, good atmosphere, and rapid progress", so as to achieve the effect of promoting the organization.
A reporter browsed the homepage of an interview coaching agency and found that a candidate complained in the comment area about his experience of enrolling in a class: he enrolled in a contracted class, took two days of classes and felt that the content of the theoretical class was deviated, and hoped that the agency would refund the money, but the other party said " If you unilaterally break the contract midway, you will be charged a tuition fee of 200 yuan/hour."
"I had no choice but to take the exam, but the tutor I met later was even more cheating. He even asked for leave during class to take the exam." The candidate asked the agency's sales staff "Why did the tutor still have to take the exam?" and got The reply was, "Teachers also have the idea of taking the exam, and we don't promise that you have to pass the exam to become a teacher."
In the comment area, many candidates commented: "The people who taught me classes before were also fresh graduates who had just finished the exam." "My friend is working as an interview tutor in this institution. In fact, he himself has not even taken the public examination."...
Market pricing lacks standards
Training fees can easily reach tens of thousands of yuan
In addition, the reporter noticed that there is no standard price for paid interview coaching and the price varies greatly.
During the investigation, the reporter found through searches that such services are not uncommon on some social platforms and trading platforms. You can find them by directly searching for the job title and adding interview coaching keywords, such as interview coaching for operations positions and interviews for marketing positions. For tutoring, you can also add the name of the company you want to interview for a precise search.
After the reporter posted a post on a social platform asking for recommendations for interview coaching institutions, six institutions sent private messages to the reporter in less than half an hour.
After adding the contact information of the other party, the reporter found that most of these interview coaching classes are divided into non-agreement classes and agreement classes (divided into No. 1 agreement and non-No. 1 agreement) according to the type of agreement.
The former is to pay the full amount directly without refund; the latter is to pay part of the money first, and depending on whether the interview is passed, the fee will be paid or refunded according to the agreement.
Bai Ling's payment method fell into the latter category. "I applied for a special position in a public institution and a full-course written course with three branches and one support. The price was 7,000 yuan. If I passed the interview, I would have to pay additional money. The public institution required I paid a supplementary payment of 23,333 yuan. I took the three-branch and one-support exam to get ashore, so I paid a supplementary payment of 12,123 yuan."
However, the price of about 30,000 yuan for "landing" public institutions' contracted classes is not the "ceiling."
In the course forms received by reporters from each institution, interview class pricing varies depending on the interview position, length and type of agreement.
Among them, the prices of non-agreement classes are lower than those of contract classes, ranging from 7,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan.
The reporter made a comparison and found that the price of contracted classes varies greatly between different institutions. For example, in a high-quality online class for interviews launched by a large tutoring institution, the fees for contracted classes ranged from 9,800 yuan to 58,800 yuan.
"Generally speaking, offline national exam interview coaching is the most expensive because it is more difficult, followed by other exams such as provincial exams, business exams, and state-owned enterprises." A staff member of an interview coaching agency told reporters.
In addition to these organization-themed interview coachings, there are also many so-called online paid interview training contents and products on social platforms and second-hand trading platforms.
In order to attract consumers, many accounts will mark their posts and homepages with slogans such as "Senior HR with × Years", "Offer Harvester from Big Factory", "No. 1 in Structured Interviews", etc.
After randomly consulting several bloggers who sell these interview coaching products, the reporter found that the public examination business mainly provides one-on-one coaching, coaching, job selection consultation, political examination and physical examination consultation and other services, with prices ranging from 35 yuan to 250 yuan.
Enterprise online services mainly focus on job search planning, resume production, resume optimization, interview coaching, offer consulting, etc. Some even package and merge these services and launch coaching packages ranging from 300 yuan to 1,500 yuan.
In addition, there are also one-to-one paid interview coaching products provided by individuals. Most of the advertising slogans are "many years of HR one-on-one resume coaching" and "1V1 interview coaching for veteran employees within the system".
Depending on the specific courses included in the product, the marked price ranges from a few yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.
However, the reporter's consultation found that many businesses did not provide valid proof such as business experience.
Strengthen supervision and standardize the industry
Investigate and deal with violations promptly
Can you receive quality service at a high price?
Not necessarily.
1,500 yuan an hour is the price paid by Zhao Kai (pseudonym), a white-collar worker in Shanghai who is currently working, to participate in interview coaching at an organization.
"The so-called mock interviews are just regular interview questions. These questions can even be searched on social platforms." Zhao Kai felt that this hour of tutoring was only of help to him. "It was just an hour's work." Counseling”.
He posted his experience on social platforms, which resonated with many people.
Under his post, someone said, "I spent 3,200 yuan for 45 minutes of tutoring, but it had no effect at all and I failed to pass the interview."
Some job seekers complained that they found an interview coach, "but that person thought that I didn't understand this and that I didn't know. When I asked a question, I said I would refute him, which made me speechless."
"Most businesses provide interview coaching quotes based on the quality of their resumes. The prices vary depending on the industry and position you are looking for. The pricing ranges from one to two hundred yuan per hour to several thousand yuan. But in fact, the content of many teachers' lectures is Integrate online information," complained Ling Fang (pseudonym), a white-collar worker in Beijing who has purchased online paid interview training products with his classmates many times.
During the interview, when asked about teacher qualifications, most institutions claimed: "Senior lecturers with many years of teaching experience." When reporters further asked where the teachers were from and whether they could prove it, staff from some institutions began to be vague. He used the excuse of "sensitive topic" and made this "guarantee": "What I can tell you is that you can absolutely rest assured that our handouts are all targeted, and we will upgrade the handouts every year according to the exam situation. It’s closer to the examiner’s criteria.”
Some interviewees who have participated in interview coaching said that some interview coaching teachers compressed various interview experiences and self-study interview skills searched online into one or two hours of one-on-one coaching, which was of little help in improving interview coping skills. , but often charge a lot of money.
Xiong Wei (pseudonym), who has won the first place in two interviews, said: "In fact, what some institutions sell is poor information, and this information can actually be found as long as you search carefully. I also signed up for online tutoring at the beginning. class, but the overall gain is not great, but it makes me more anxious.”
"If you sort through the complaints related to this aspect, you will find that looking for a job during the job hunting season has already consumed a lot of time and energy, and few job seekers turn to defending their rights after discovering that they have been deceived. And some training institutions or individuals, including interview coaching, When selling, they often exaggerate to induce job seekers." Chang Sha, a lawyer at Kyoto Law Firm, analyzed that if you must conduct this kind of interview coaching, you must understand whether the other party has formal qualifications, and also know about the training time, specific content of services and other matters. There is a clear agreement.
The huge group of job seekers has given rise to a huge employment service market. For obvious and typical illegal behaviors in the employment service market, relevant departments must promptly investigate and deal with them to better protect the rights and interests of job seekers.
Yang Xuan reminded that as a job seeker who has just graduated, on the one hand, you must pay attention to daily accumulation, on the other hand, you can collect relevant information through online platforms and prepare in a targeted manner.
According to Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, although the charging prices in the interview training market are market pricing behaviors, this training market should still be supervised, and the regulatory responsibilities of training institutions should be clearer.
At the same time, the training market should also introduce industry standards related to interviews to bid farewell to the "barbaric growth" stage of development.
Relevant regulatory authorities should strengthen coordination, eliminate regulatory blind spots, and strive to create a cross-regional, cross-departmental, information-sharing, fast, efficient, and seamless regulatory cooperation mechanism.
If the invisible hand of the market fails, the visible hand of the government should take responsibility and "repair the market" through administrative penalties, market access and other means to protect the legitimate rights and interests of job seekers.
(Source: Rule of Law Daily)