Interns are making bank on Wall Street. At least, they’re raking in a sizable salary at a well-known trading firm, Jane Street Capital—the company has just listed the annual base salary for some of its internships at a whopping $250,000. The generous payday is up for grabs for fresh-faced college grads or current students who want to test the waters in qualitative research, trading, software, windows engineering and more. And there’s no prior experience in the sector required. “If you’ve never thought about a career in finance, you’re in good company,” the job description reads.Jane Street can afford to pay its interns top dollar, it’s booming, after all. The firm is on track to end the year with record breaking revenue, according to Bloomberg. As the company soars, they’re seemingly looking to expand with 57 open positions in New York alone, as Financial Times, which first reported the news, wrote.That being said, these internships are not year-round. Working from May to August, a lucky intern will bring home nearly $21,000 monthly pre-tax.That’s about four times more what the average American made monthly in the last quarter of 2023–at, $4,949 according to USA Today. Jane Street isn’t the only firm offering interns a six figure salaryInternships have gained a reputation for often being unpaid grunt work. But swift backlash regarding how this system favors privileged individuals who can afford to take said positions has slowly changed the landscape. And companies have begun to pay up substantially to nab top talent: Median salaries for Glassdoor’s list of the best internships of 2024 range from $7,000 to $10,333. The ranking is dominated by tech companies, at 18 out of 25, but finance and consulting firms also remain competitiveRaises for interns is not only helping Gen Z out, it’s a way to build a better pipeline into attracting and retaining young employees. Fueled by a tight economy marred by inflation and often faced with debt from student loans, Gen Zers are pushing for a well-paying gig. That’s not all they want, though. Many (62%) Gen Zers would accept a lower salary for better work-life balance, according to a survey from Top Employers Institute of 1,700 respondents aged 18 to 27. In the case of Jane Street, the company is in search of “smart, ambitious people who enjoy solving challenging problems,” and is “more interested in how you think and learn than what you currently know” than your background,” per one of their listings.But bagging an internship has never been harderEven if the landscape of internships has changed, young adults are facing an uphill battle to get a job. Over half (57%) of the class of 2025 reports feeling pessimistic about starting their careers, according to a survey for 1,925 members of the cohort from job platform Handshake. That’s an increase from 49% the prior year.Indeed, reports of an elongated and frustratingly callous and complicated application process have cropped up lately. The rise of using AI in the hiring process and layoffs are factors in this bleak landscape, Hillary Hoffower wrote for Fast Company. Even starter roles are often listed as needing prior experience. It’s a trend that indicates a desire to not foster talent but to just poach it, Wharton’s Peter Cappelli said on Harvard Business School’s podcast.“We’re not helping people learn how to get proficient in their jobs, and for sure we’re not helping them develop. We’re focused entirely on talent acquisition,” he said.Some aspiring interns have been forced to entrepreneurial new methods to get their entry-level jobs. Basant Shenouda told Fortune that she used LinkedIn to get her job, just not in the conventional sense of the website. Looking to see which conferences recruiters were posting, Shenouda would hand out her résumé during the break. It landed her a gig at LinkedIn itself. “The market is so saturated with such incredible talent that it takes some creativity in order to stand out from the crowd,” said Ayala Ossowski, a Gen Zer who pitched herself to pizza companies while wearing her university merch on her daily job. It got her her first internship after a month, she said.“Success in this market requires a strategic and intentional approach and seniors are already taking proactive steps to stand out,” Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake told Fortune in August, noting that “number of applications per job has been significantly higher than in any of the past five years.Are you an intern at Jane Street or another Wall Street employer that wants to share your story? Reach out to chloe.berger@fortune.com.
