The Chaotic Phenomenon of "Paid Internships" is First and Foremost A Legal Problem

Recently, media reports exposed a chaotic market phenomenon of "paid internships", concerning college students wanting to go to "Big Factories" (large-scale internet companies) and big companies for internships. Intermediary agencies take advantage of this need to weave a hidden web of paid internships. These agencies claim that after paying over thousands of dollars, one can "be exempt from interviews, guaranteed to pass", run long-distance errands; they also created fake mentors, fake projects, fake companies and through-and-through "fake internships".

The market for "paid internships" is increasingly intensifying, which harmed the rights of consumers, influenced the procedures for employee recruitment, disturbed market rules, eroded the workplace ecology, and brought along bad social morals, which is badly in need of regulation and standardization.

In recent years, following the professionalization of domestic human resources market, internships and resumes have become important factors to consider for job seekers. With an increase in the number of college graduates and the growing discrepancy among companies, the scenario which occurred in the movie "The Pursuit of Happiness", where the protagonist Will Smith spent six months without pay for an intern position appears to be replaying itself in our graduate internship market.

Societal development undergoes rapid changes, where the possibility to profit was first sensed by the market, the market regulators have evidently been unprepared. In addition, the situation of "one willing to hit, the other willing to take a hit" makes it difficult to collect evidence, protect one's rights, or find precedents, which causes the chaos to expand rapidly to the extent where many older people have never heard of this situation and find it hard to believe.

First and foremost, "paid internships" are a legal issue. Under their personal names, company employees using information to make profits off intern candidates is subject to suspicion of using company interests to make personal gains, even take bribes. Intermediary agencies who propagate that internships are guaranteed, concoct fake institutions, fake mentors, and fake internships are suspected of conducting false advertising and fraud. Students are undoubtedly victims of these illegal activities. To turn the tables, we must first enhance legal supervision of the market, use powerful means to restrain these illegal criminal activities.

Secondly, "paid internships" are an educational issue. Have colleges used these new cases to educate students to establish a proper outlook on employment, sharper risk awareness, and are more determined in seeking the protection of their rights? Are there more ways to help students understand the limits, risks, and boundaries of "paid internships"? If education and prevention get ahead, then this can prevent many criminals from taking advantage of a weak point.

Behind the "paid internships" is also a moral problem. When internships become a pure formality, when chasing for opportunities relies more and more on money, when a new market demand soon becomes fertile soil for falsehood, deceit, and funneling, it is hard to say that the moral constraining force did not go wrong. At least society still has public opinion, the law still has a bottom line, this chaotic phenomenon should alert us to the moral problems in our face.

After clearing up these issues, there need to be more ways to provide internship and job opportunities by using public welfare channels and reducing information asymmetry. Only then can we clear the mess, and safeguard the job market for college graduates.

Contributed by Xiao Luo, a researcher in education

Translated by Zhang Junye