Meaning:

“付费” means “paid,” “内推” means “referred by an insider,” and “实习” means “internship.” In Chinese companies, sometimes employees are encouraged to recommend candidates for a job vacancy or internship position, and those with an employee referral may have a better opportunity of getting the job or internship. As internships at prestigious companies are prized experiences to mention in one’s resumé and may help college graduates to locate a job in the industry, some job-seeking agencies are now offering the service of providing “paid employee referrals.” In short, one has to pay a certain amount of money to get the referral and then an internship opportunity at a prestigious firm. Unfortunately, many such services are scams and several top Chinese brokerage firms recently said that they never worked with job-seeking agencies on “paid employee referral programs” to hire interns.

Example:

A: 暑假你有什么计划？

Shǔjià nǐ yǒu shénme jìhuá？

What’s your plan for this summer vacation?

B: 我通过一家中介找了一个付费内推实习的机会。

Wǒ tōngguò yījiā zhōngjiè zhǎo le yīgè fùfèi nèituī shíxí de jīhuì。

I paid a job-seeking agency to get into an “employee referral internship program.”

A: 其实你可以自己给公司发简历试试，很多中介收了钱也就是帮你投简历而已。

Qíshí nǐ kěyǐ zìjǐ gěi gōngsī fā jiǎnlì shìshi，hěnduō zhōngjiè shōu le qián yě jiùshì bāngnǐ tóu jiǎnlì éryǐ。

In fact, you can try and submit your CV to the employer yourself. Many agencies take your money and do nothing more than submit your resumé.