Thirty thousand yuan for an "internship"? Why do they pay

Zheng Wei first heard"Paid Internship"It was on a phone call.

At the other end of the phone is the teacher of the study abroad planning agency: "applyQS Top 100The master's degree institutions (the universities ranked 1st to 100 in the world in the "World University Rankings" released by the British QS company-reporter's note) must have at least one large factory internship and several small business internships."

Zheng Wei is a fourth-year finance major at a university in Beijing and plans to study abroad after completing her undergraduate degree. With the application period approaching, her resume remains completely blank.

The other party then introduced the company’s “paid internship” program: 30,000 yuan in exchange for an internship at a major corporation. Zheng Wei had never considered “paying to work” before, but this time she was really interested, so after discussing it with her parents, she paid the fee. One month later, she became an “industry research intern.”

During the interview with reporters, she had already been interning for nearly three weeks. The securities firm position she was originally promised was suddenly said to be “fully booked,” so she was reassigned to her current role. Her mentor went on a business trip just two days after starting, and she rarely sees her colleagues; her daily work mainly consists of “converting documents into PowerPoint presentations.”

The moment is at"Golden September and Silver OctoberRecruitment season. Under the double threat of employment pressure and resume anxiety, some college students begin to try "paid internship": students pay for it, and institutions or companies provide internship positions, internship certificates, project experience, and even"Internal referral"Opportunity.

When internships have become a purchasable service, why are students willing to pay for them? Can internships bought with money really lead to skills and opportunities? Faced with claims of “prestigious companies” and “inside referrals,” how can college students avoid falling into traps?

Internship Dilemma in the Cap

Zheng Wei has tried to find an internship on her own. During her sophomore year and the first semester of her junior year, she submitted her resume multiple times, but “it was mostly met with silence.” She found that companies expect recent graduates to have project experience and internship experience, but for undergraduates who lack internship experience, landing their first internship is the most challenging.

Zhang Yanyan, a fourth-year student majoring in telecommunications engineering at a university in Yunnan, has had a similar experience. He has no intention of pursuing graduate studies; since his junior year, he’s been widely applying for jobs, but the competition in his field is fierce, and most of his applications have gone unanswered. Later, a company invited him to an internship but required him to first pay about 4,000 yuan in training fees, promising that after the training they would arrange the internship and secure referrals to major companies.

He told his family about it, and his parents didn’t object. “In their view,” he said, “spending money to buy internship experience is like buying knowledge and experience.”

However, after joining the company, Zhang Yanyan learned from his fellow interns that there were very few internal referral slots—only one or two might be available for several batches of candidates. Moreover, some interns, after paying the training fees, were dismissed upon completion of the program on the grounds that their “training performance had yet to meet the required standard.” This is far from what he expected.

Wang An, a sophomore majoring in computer science at a university in Shandong, saw someone on social media sharing their experience of securing a paid internship and obtaining a certificate, so he decided to give it a try and sent the person a private message. She paid 10,000 yuan to join a software company as a “software development intern assistant.” The company commits to providing a stamped internship certificate, assigning a corporate mentor, enabling participation in real-world business projects, and issuing a letter of recommendation. While it does not guarantee an offer, it can facilitate resume referrals.

As her internship nears its end, Wang An says that some of the promises have been fulfilled—she has received an internship certificate. However, her level of “in-depth project involvement” did not match the advertised depth; most of her tasks involved data整理 and assisting with code testing, which “falls somewhat short of the pre-payment description.”

“Paid internships are, at their core, a gray‑area industry that warrants extreme vigilance.” Wang An believes that some institutions exploit students’ thirst for knowledge by overpromoting their programs, stoking anxiety, and exaggerating the value of their projects as well as the effectiveness of internal referrals and recommendation letters. Many promises do not match reality.

Why are they willing to "pay" internships

Associate Professor Gao Yan of the Student Career Development and Employment Guidance Center at Beijing Normal University’s Zhuhai Campus has long been focused on youth employment and career education. In her view, the demand behind paid internships cannot be simply attributed to students seeking shortcuts; rather, it is a structural issue.

“There are inherently few good positions, yet more and more students are eager to join top-tier companies.” Gao Yan said that some students from non-top-tier universities are even screened out during the resume‑evaluation stage, making it very difficult for them to secure internships at major companies.

When students see that their peers already have experience at major tech companies or renowned enterprises, while their own resumes remain blank, their anxiety is further amplified. As a result, some organizations have identified room for maneuver: certain companies outsource their screening process to headhunting firms or talent agencies, and by paying a fee, students can “bypass the initial hurdles and secure a seat in front of the interviewer.”

Gao Yan observed that paid internships were the first to spread from overseas study institutions. Applying for foreign schools requires volunteers and internship experience, but there is no such set in the domestic education system, so overseas study institutions are "arranged. Because the experience in the application for studying abroad is difficult to verify, the goal of the institution may become "optimizing the resume", rather than really improving the employment strength of students.

The deeper driving force is resume anxiety.

"The biggest anxiety of students is that there is nothing on their resumes when they graduate." Gao Yan said that paid internships can play a "pain relief" role. Even if you know that you have not improved your ability, you will be more steadfast if you can write a line on your resume.

Zheng Wei had a deep understanding. Application for studying abroad, graduation thesis and English examination are all counting down. She can't afford to wait.

This anxiety sometimes comes from the family. Gao Yan mentioned that "more parents than students" came to consult and take an examination of civil servants and internships ". Some parents like"Lawnmower parents", to flatten all the obstacles in front of the child, excessive intervention in growth," is actually distrust of his ability ".

Social platforms are also easy to create the illusion that everyone has gone to a big factory. Students often see people who successfully enter large factories and get good offer. People around them seem to have beautiful internships, competitions and projects. But in fact, this part of the people were a minority.

Can an internship bought with money really be exchanged for ability?

For people who just want a piece of paper, paid internships may be "useful". But for job seekers who really want to gain a foothold by ability, the answer is not optimistic.

Zheng Wei commented on her internship as "low cost performance". She had an internship, but did not really establish an understanding of the industry; after completing a lot of PPT, it is difficult to tell what new skills she has mastered, and repetitive and mechanical work cannot add glory to her resume. Zhang Yanyan found that the so-called big factory push is not a "pass" that can be directly exchanged for work ".

Nowadays, some college students who have purchased "expensive internships" have found that the experience of "buying" with a lot of money is not high. Some intermediaries verbally promise well-known enterprise positions, project experience that can be written into resumes, letters of recommendation from senior executives and other benefits, which can be seen by students only after joining the job: most of them are just doing odd jobs, simply sorting out materials, and have no access to core business. What's more, students pay high service fees, and finally their posts fall through, making it difficult to safeguard their rights.

Many well-known companies have publicly issued statements that they have never cooperated with any third-party intermediary agencies in recruitment. The official recruitment and job search process of the company is free of charge, and job seekers will not be charged any fees such as registration fees, internal promotion fees, and internship placement fees. The Ministry of Education also issued a reminder during the graduation season to remind college students to be alert to job hunting traps such as "paid push-in", "intern doll" and "false recruitment.

Jia Qi's agency has been recommending college students' internship matching and docking industry for 89 years. They came into contact with many employers and college students, and saw a real contradiction: enterprises always said that they could not recruit suitable interns, but college students did not know where to find real and reliable internship opportunities. "Our initial idea is to break through the information gap between enterprises and students, so that students can match real and effective internship opportunities."

However, Jia Qi also saw many chaos in the industry, such as false push-in, sky-high intermediary fees, water injection and registered internship, false posts, paid internship certificates, serious discrepancies between job descriptions and actual work, and collection of deposit deposits, etc. She told reporters that there are mainly three types of job sources for formal institutions: enterprise school recruitment, HR direct connection cooperation, and compliance internal promotion of interns in the enterprise's internal staff project team. Institutions need to do multi-layer verification in the process of docking internship for students. And the enterprise repeatedly confirm the internship work content, salary, internship duration, whether to provide internship certificate, whether to provide employment opportunities, etc. Before taking up the post, all the information of the post shall be synchronized with the students in all directions. At the same time, check the students' employment situation, whether they have received the offer issued by the official mail of the enterprise, and whether the actual work content is consistent with the post mark. After the internship, guide the students to obtain the internship certificate of the human resources chapter and the recommendation letter signed by the project team leader.

"We will refuse to register and only buy jobs that prove that there is no need to work, so as to prevent the inflow of false jobs." Jia Qi suggested that college students also need to keep their eyes open, plan ahead, and do not rush to the doctor near graduation. "Especially for overseas students, some institutions say that without local internships, there is no way to find a good full-time job back home. Don't be fooled by this and spend a large amount of money but get it.Water Injection Practice。”

Zhao Shuangshuang, a young lawyer from Sichuan Zhigao Law Firm, also paid attention to this kind of dispute: the students paid the money and started the "internship", only to find out later that the post was filled with water, proved to be filled with water, and even the "internship company" itself was an empty shell.

Some organizations may provide real services such as career planning, resume revision, interview counseling, etc. There are also some organizations that take advantage of the poor information of students to package the so-called "internship opportunities" into commodities. What's more, fictitious posts and fictitious cooperative enterprises cheat money in the name of "internship in famous enterprises", "internal promotion" and "guarantee admission.

Zhao Shuangshuang gave"Four check pit avoidance method": check the license, through the national enterprise credit information publicity system to see the scope of business and administrative punishment records, in the territorial human resources and social security bureau official website check the human resources service license and filing list; Check word of mouth, you can search the name of the organization and the litigation records of related companies on platforms such as the Judgment Document Network; Check the charges, only go to the public account, ask for invoices, payees are all vigilant; Check the commitment, in case of" guarantee offer "," guarantee famous enterprises "and" guarantee passing ", we should be more vigilant.

Zhao Shuangshuang reminded that the service contract between students and intermediaries is actually an opportunity to buy and sell jobs, which violatespublic order and good customsThe contract is invalid from the beginning, the cost can be claimed to be returned, fictitious positions, forged offer institutions, may be suspected of fraud.

She suggested giving priority to school employment guidance centers, school-enterprise cooperation projects, corporate official network school recruitment,National Platform for University Student EmploymentFree and safe official channels. "tens of thousands of yuan to buy a' background' is not as good as learning a hard skill and doing a real project that can tell the details."

If you have already stepped on the pit, Zhao Shuangshuang said that you should stop your loss and fix the evidence as soon as possible: keep chat records, transfer vouchers and contracts, complain to 12333 and 12315, and file a lawsuit or report a case when necessary.

"Don't stigmatize being cheated." Gao Yan said that for young people who have already suffered from paid internships, they should not be afraid or feel ashamed. "Ask for help from teachers, do not affect graduation and credit investigation, and try to recover the money that can be recovered".

Brisk the certainty on yourself.

Behind the chaos of paid internships is employment anxiety being harvested by business. How do young people get out of this situation?

National certificationCareer PlannerZhang Jin has been engaged in enterprise human resources for more than 30 years, served more than 10 different types of enterprises, and contacted many job-seeking college students.

When Zhang Jin judges students, he not only looks at the school and experience on the resume, but also looks at knowledge, skills and talents. "I ask students, why did you find this internship? What is your purpose? What have you learned?" She said that a few questions can often determine whether an internship actually happened and whether the skills a student has mastered match the job requirements.

This is also what Gao Yan wants to remind the students: even if they muddle through for a while, they cannot pass the later level. "If you enter a large enterprise under the guise, your employment strength is not enough, and it will gradually be exposed. When you really sit in front of countless HR readers for an interview, you will be exposed."

Zhang Jin does not completely deny the logic of the existence of paid internships. For students who need to standardize their writing practice experience and improve their personal portrait, formal institutions can indeed provide professional and technical support. But she also emphasized that there are very few truly responsible institutions, and more importantly, "return to the ability itself".

In Zhang Jin's view, there is a disconnect between school education and the employment needs of enterprises. "Schools often do not teach the skills that enterprises need". Therefore, both enterprises and schools should adjust: enterprises can directly contact relevant colleges and universities, and schools should also take the initiative to contact counterpart enterprises and positions to build bridges for graduates and achieve two-way choices.

"On the way from school to the workplace, what students really need to build is personal judgment ability, information retrieval ability and continuous learning ability." Zhang Jin suggested that even if you are undertaking basic work in the internship, you can take the initiative to do things well, look for opportunities to learn from experienced colleagues, and understand what capabilities the company really needs.

Zhang Jin gives a formula to young people in anxiety: anxiety = expectation-ability. "Anxiety is, to some extent, a driving force for progress; but when expectations are too high and abilities fail to keep up, people become anxious. To alleviate anxiety, one simply lowers one's expectations and does not set one's sights too high; if there is enough time, one focuses on improving one's abilities."

Gao Yan suggested that you should not stare at the "glittering" place as soon as you come up. She suggested that students start from small enterprises and alumni enterprises, "start from a small place, step by step, really learn something, increase their strength, and then go to a big factory".

Zheng Wei told the reporter that she was not sure whether her choice was wrong, but "it must not be the best solution". For younger students and younger sisters in the same situation, she suggested that they should send their resumes and look for opportunities first, and keep their eyes open as a last resort.

"Accepting yourself as an ordinary person does not mean giving up your efforts, but refusing to be coerced by the false inner volume, and refusing to give the anxiety to the intermediary who clearly marked the price. The road can be slower and the steps can be smaller, but each step is better to be true." Gao Yan said.

(At the request of the interviewees, Zheng Wei, Zhang Yanyan, Wang Eucalyptus and Jia Qi are pseudonyms)