Chinese Students Are Paying Agents $50,000 for Finance Jobs as Market Sours
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-0…
Have heard from several interns and analysts in NY and Toronto that this is extremely common - crazy to think that international students are literally paying their way into IB and PE internships. What's the most concerning is there are people working at these firms who will take a bribe and in return guarantee an interview with an extremely high offer success rate. I wonder how much these analysts / associates / VPs make off of this.
Sorry but if you think there's something wrong with this, you're just racist.
Could you please elaborate?
I refuse.
It's a troll account. It's like when someone puts a hit job on a school they don't like by pretending to be from that school and making a parody post about it.
As a chinese myself, how is arguing against pay to win racist??? the fact that IB full timers serve as external consultant for these agencies is definitely conflict of interests
Stop it with the internalized racism. I reported you to the head monkey and any future potential job offers have been revoked.
It's a troll account, if anything he is trying to parody Chinese people even more with what he said
Pay $160,000 for a prep school or $50,000 for a consultant? Which way western man
*Eastern man
Op why aren’t you capitalizing on this opportunity instead?
some of this is cultural, it is far more accepted to pay a fee in Asian countries to land certain roles or assignments. they don't call it a bribe, just something else.
but let's be honest - how many people in the West would pay to break into IB/BB? would you pay 20K to land a role at GS? more/less? There will always be more candidates than roles, especially with the advent of AI and elimination functions (teams that eliminate headcount permanently).
I am not advocating bribery or anything, but I understand where some of these ideas come from.
would never do this myself.
Bribes are bribes are bribes. Whether or not it is accepted by one culture does not change the essence of the thing, which is a bribe, and that is unacceptable and illegal in the West.
Yeah gonna agree with bobmarley22 on this one. If you are paying for a role instead of going through a tougher selection like everyone else, you are paying a bribe and that is wrong.
not asian countries, only china lollll.
An Indian friend made "a donation" to be placed in a certain company.
It is certainly not in all Asian countries, but it is far more commonplace than in the West.
Crazy thing is that a lot of them arent even getting the offers lol
It's a coaching service though? It's not even a bribe. These kids still have to get through the superdays. It's not too different from your school's finance club having an interview repository and asking upperclassmen how to network, mock interview, format your resume etc.
idts....you literally just paid to get internal information, chinese students didn't get return offers because they don't even know any technicals or basic finance/accounting....
“Against that backdrop, New York-based OfferBang, which has a team of ex-Wall Street bankers and analysts who graduated from Peking University and Ivy League schools, says new clients from China have doubled since 2020. It charges about $3,000 to $10,000 for different packages.”
- lol, yes, that’s a solid name to convey legitimacy.
“Take 23-year-old Jenny Li, a University of Pennsylvania student. She paid $50,000 to a company called UniCareer, which she says promised her an interview with global investment management firm Bridgewater Associates LP in their “VIP Luxury” contract. It also touted its ability to send internal referrals to companies including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which would give her a leg up in the interview process... Eight months on, she’s jobless and has consulted lawyers to demand a refund. She said she never got an offer.“
- While she’s at it, she can try suing UPenn for not teaching her critical thinking skills. (Though she’s probably a Chinese princeling type that thinks paying your way in is “how things work”).
Personally not a subscriber to services like this but just clarifying the original name is Offer帮. “Bang” here is actually not an onomatopoeia, it represents “help”.
Well well well
Well Well Well
,
I doubt anyone is going to risk their jobs for $50k. Too easily found out. These are like ex-IB people offering training courses. Test prep is huge in China given the high competition and resources dedicated to an only child. It's debatable how effective it is vs material you can study/mock yourself. People sign up more for the fear that not signing up will put them at a disadvantage rather than actually getting an advantage from these courses.
No joke, my school used to use a different job posting platform before handshake came into the picture, and there was practically no filter or vetting for the job postings on there. There was a posting for this tiny no-name "IB" shop I had to Google with just one guy running the whole thing offering summer internships that you had to PAY for to get "the experience". Surprise, surprise, the guy was also Chinese.
Where are the Chinese getting all this money
Selection bias, 90% of China is still dirt poor and take home less than your average public school teacher in the states. You only see the top 1% studying in the States and getting these top jobs. Wealth gap is immense there, makes the States look like child's play
Blatant unchecked speculation in the property market combined with rampant corruption/cronyism in their political system has manufactured a ton of wealth. Cracks have been appearing in their property system for a while now. It’s really fascinating if you read about it over the past few decades.
In India people pay 3-4k USD to get interviews for MO lmao
First I'm hearing about this, happens at IIM A/B/C?
Well, Chinese students are paying $200k for Master's degrees with the goal of getting finance jobs and end up with no interviews and go back home with nothing. If they could get an IB/PE job for $50k extra, that would be an amazing deal, but I doubt it actually happens like that.
two words: bot activities
To be honest, the current situation in China is quite poor. The competitive level (卷 juan ) has gotten totally out of hand. Everything is now a blood sport. As Wikipedia said: “One of the most popular buzzwords in China these days is “neijuan” (内卷). Often translated as “involution”, it matches Western ideas of the rat race, burnout and diminishing returns, when putting more into something only results in getting less back.”
Quite a lot of my 20 something-year-old friends are paying to be kept on the payroll somewhere, just a preserve their CVs. Paying for your job entry is not uncommon. And given the hypercompetitive environment kids get coaching to get into everything from high schools, college entrance exams, résumé assistance for graduate school, and pay to get shortlisted for jobs. That’s just what it takes.
That’s why an escape to US schools and careers is seen as worth paying for. Sure, $50k May seems egregious to pay to get a job, especially a sweaty finance one. But if $50k represents only six months of earnings, and the alternative is going back to China to do F-all in a miserable, broken, and hyper competitive economy, $50k seems like a bargain. You are buying your child a launching point into their career and can change their lives.
In other news, I myself, after 20 years post MBA in China and Hong Kong, I moved back to the US to look for opportunities. F-u Xinnie the Flu. LMK if any of you monkeys are in the Bay Area and want to get a coffee chat.
Hey man, this may be a bit more philosophical, so no worries if you don't care to respond.
Is the Chinese Industrial machine actually slowing down? I admit I've been reading sources from more a more pro BRICS vantage point, but it seems like the transition into high value add industries (EVs, Solar, Batteries, Robotics) is underway in China at a far higher degree than other markets. I keep hearing how by 2040 China will constitute 50% of the worlds manufacturing output, and other related points. I'm guessing a lot of this is smokes and mirrors?
Essentially, is the Chinese economic story over/on pause? Would love to hear your thoughts.
One of the worst things about working in China for a PE fund is that the parent company required us to get full physicals every year. That meant for men not only tons of blood work but a goddamn proctology exam. So in order to work for the Chinese, I literally had to have somebody put their finger in my bum and ask me to cough. say you will western i banks being terrible at least none of them forced me to do that
Being digitally probed rectally every year was quite literally a requirement for keeping my job in private equity.
Apparently, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund where my friend worked had all of the staff members – both men and women – do their physicals on the same day. So everyone had to disrobe together with their colleagues, separated only by a thin screen between the men and women.  
is this a troll or not? if not, what is the reason behind this?
I wish it was a troll. Sadly, no, the PE firm required health check. Normal in China. I just had no idea before I signed up. Chinese companies are required by law to set aside a small sum for annual health checks for employees. So, pretty standard unfortunately. The proctological exam - not sure if that's standard. It was not cool man. Not cool. And having to see my male co-workers naked when we were scheduled for the same time slot was, well, weird (secretary scheduled us in batches of 3).
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