Reality show to bank on

Character of Generation Z

Su Junxin, 25, was an offer winner in season one who officially started his career at Huatai Innovation Investment in March, working as an analyst under Qin Qin's team. Qin was one of the four senior supervisors on the first season.

Su thinks besides gaining a job offer and peer friendship, joining the first season gave him a chance to learn more about himself from a different perspective. "When I looked back at the tasks I did, I saw certain things that I could have done better," he says.

Su says working full time feels quite different. "When I was an intern, I was tasked with helping others, while working full time brings more responsibility and ownership," he says.

After a successful first season, the second attracted tens of thousands of applications. Bai says they did five rounds of selection, from written examinations to face-to-face interviews, in order to nail down the final candidates. "The nine finalists are from a variety of backgrounds, as we want more young people to be seen instead of being judged purely on educational background," Bai says.

The background of the candidates is another highlight of the show, as the competition, cooperation and friendship between them showcase the characteristics of Generation Z.

"Unlike in a TV drama, where there are leading actors and supporting actors, in our show, each intern is the hero," Bai says, adding that each intern is representing a certain type of person, such as Liu Kunniang, who has a medical background, or Pan Junbin, who majored in actuarial science and statistics.

He Bailiangge graduated from Renmin University of China in June with a master's degree in modern Chinese history. During her bachelor study, she gained a dual degree in the history of the Communist Party of China and finance.

She recalled that, during most of her time as an undergraduate, she was working on over a dozen courses in two majors each semester. With a plan to join the finance industry, He started to look for internships in the field.

"I couldn't find an internship opportunity in investment banking, as my master major was not finance-related, so the show was a unique opportunity for me to meet my peers and get some finance-related experience at an excellent company," she says.

While competition with peers can sometimes crush a person, it can push others to excel.

He thinks that the level of stress on the show was much higher than at her previous internships, as the tasks were difficult and assigned to them at a hectic pace. With strong ability to adapt, however, she gradually found her confidence as the tasks progressed.

Jia has witnessed the personal growth of the interns during the internship."He's performance is beyond our expectation in each task and she impressed us so much. Wang Rui enhanced his leadership abilities, and he is going to grow into an elite investment banking professional," she notes.

Jia thinks that those born after 1995 are not afraid to express their opinions, and they are very active and passionate about all types of tasks at work. "Also, they are all versatile. As well as their professional skills, they can dance, rap and play musical instruments."