BEIJING • Getting a shot at a coveted investment banking or finance job is a cut-throat, and sometimes controversial, business in China.
Career consulting firms have mushroomed in recent years, enlisting what they say are thousands of finance professionals to help open doors to students who can afford it.
Firms are charging US$12,000 (S$16,000) or more to help students land internships and eventually jobs at Wall Street powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup.
The programmes offer an inside track to students by pairing them with bankers to help with strategy, networking, drafting letters and even internal referrals, touting success in landing jobs from Shanghai to New York.
They also target Citadel and other hedge funds, as well as consulting firms such as McKinsey & Co and local heavyweights like Citic Securities.
Most of the companies, when contacted by Bloomberg, denied having any relationships with the coaching firms.
The practice has a growing number of detractors, who question whether it is fair or good for the industry to give the well heeled another leg-up. It also raises ethical concerns over bankers moonlighting on the side for fees, sometimes without informing their employers.
The phenomenon of Chinese bankers working as mentors with agencies and charging for internal referrals has become rampant in recent years, said Mr Sean Wang, a senior banker and author of How To Make It As An Investment Banker.
"It opens wide the question of fairness," he said. "If you pay to have someone else to write your cover letter, or get a first round interview, is it fair to those job seekers who don't have or can't afford such packages?"
The jostle for jobs comes as international and local banks are stepping up hiring in China as the nation opens its financial market. Goldman Sachs, UBS Group and Credit Suisse Group, for example, are seeking to double or even triple their workforces in a hunt for Chinese riches.
That push offers little comfort in a tough job market. Hit by the pandemic, openings in finance slumped 12 per cent last year, with candidates seeking roles in trust, securities firms and funds facing competition from about 40 applicants for each position, according to a report by recruitment website Zhaopin.com.
The wider job market is at its bleakest in decades for the record 9.1 million fresh Chinese graduates this year. Their ranks have been swelled by droves of overseas students returning home as tensions with the West rise and the nation successfully contains the coronavirus pandemic still plaguing many countries.
Job training and career counselling are, of course, not limited to China. These are also big business in the United States, with the industry hitting more than US$16 billion last year, according to IBISworld.
US firms are also saying they can provide finance professionals as mentors. Wall Street Oasis says it has over 1,000 professionals to choose from, offering packages ranging from US$79 to US$1,390.
Chengdu-based DreambigCareer, which was started in 2013 and helps Chinese studying abroad, had 4,000 clients last year, a fourfold increase over the past four years, according to Mr Joseph Guo, its co-founder and chief operating officer and a former banker at Credit Suisse.
The firm has enlisted more than 3,000 bankers and consultants from global firms in the effort, it claims.
BLOOMBERG
