What is with these "paid" internships??

A recent trend I've been seeing is a bunch of fishy looking companies charging ridiculous fees to place desperate students into internships at either fake firms or small firms, Into City Prep seems like a famous one. Another thing I've noticed are firms CHARGING interns to work for them (eg. Alpha Capital, Amplify Trading, plus other random firms I've seen on linkedin etc).

The costs for these "internships" aren't cheap either, costing from hundreds to thousands. What the hell is this?

EDIT: I've made a list of firms that charge money for those curious: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/beware-of-…

21 Comments
 

Agree, I highly doubt these are legitimate opportunities. Out of all places, believe it or not, my University sent out an email to all students advertising these paid "internships" a couple weeks back when it seemed like everybody's summer stint was getting pulled. It's a complete fucking joke.

 

What Amplify Trading offers is more along the lines of a course not an internship per se. But it does seem pretty expensive

 

Any place that you’d be proud to have on your resume will have OCR Any place that you would not be ashamed to have on your resume will have their own Careers page and legitimate LinkedIn job postings that will link back to said Career pages

That’s all you need to know

 
Most Helpful

Internships should pay you or, if unpaid and/or during an academic school year, give you college academic credit.

Please, students, consider broadening your horizons with internships earlier on. A summer internship at a Tier 2 accounting firm, to me, would be better for banking recruiting than slaving away at a firm you had to pay to work for just to practice DCF models.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

Illo expedita itaque perspiciatis. Aliquid et quae voluptatem sit magni ut. Autem quis aliquam quo. Architecto natus exercitationem magni harum aut fugiat. Nesciunt velit velit est iure dolore impedit accusantium et. Nihil molestiae fugit ea quos eos sunt.

Ea voluptate qui nihil et voluptatibus enim. Ullam sed dicta quisquam officiis. Incidunt est consequatur nisi est est et. Dolorem earum quisquam quod est.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (66) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”