Top Wall Street banks offer $400,000 referrals, sparking fierce competition among elite students.

The HSBC HSBC foreign exchange securities dealerreport indicates that competition for positions at Wall Street investment banks is extremely fierce. For example, Goldman Sachs' summer internship program this year received over 315,000 applications, but only admitted 2,600 people, resulting in an acceptance rate of just 0.8%.

With increasing job-seeking pressure, some consulting firms attract students by offering services such as resume optimization, one-on-one skill training, interview technique guidance, and even internal recommendations. They claim to help job seekers smoothly enter investment banks. Currently, there are at least a dozen such consulting firms active in the job counseling market.

The report also mentions that a 21-year-old non-finance major university student paid $35,000 (approximately HKD 273,000) to a job counseling firm, participated in 11 investment bank recruitment rounds (Superday), and ultimately received 3 job offers from major and boutique investment banks.

A Chinese student studying at the University of Pennsylvania spent $50,000 (about HKD 390,000) on a "VIP deluxe package" from a job counseling firm. According to the contract, the firm promised to secure an interview opportunity at the world's largest hedge fund for her and claimed they could provide an edge in interviews at top investment banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs through internal recommendations. However, eight months later, despite having internship experience, the student still had not received any offers and felt very desperate.

Spokespersons for Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan clarified that they have no affiliation with any career coaching companies. Additionally, several major investment banks, hedge funds, accounting firms, and advertising giants in mainland China have issued announcements reminding job seekers not to pay fees to third-party institutions or individuals.

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