Students say summer internships are harder to get, so what’s working?

CHARLOTTE — It’s the end of the school year across the Carolinas, and for college kids, that means it’s time for usmmer internships.

But as with many other opportunities for young people these days, internships are harder to come by.

Data from Inc.com shows that some firms have staggeringly low internship acceptance rates. United Airlines hired 300 interns out of 40,000 applications -- at a 0.75% acceptance rate, that’s more competitive than top-notch Wall Street firms. Goldman Sachs took fewer than 3,000 interns from 315,000 applications; JP Morgan hired about 4,000 interns out of nearly 500,000 applicants.

Tech industries were a little better for prospective interns -- Google and NASA were at 4% and 5%, respectively.

UNC Charlotte student Katheryn Morris isn’t looking for an internship just yet, but she thinks it’s all about who you know.

“That is such a cliché but it’s very true. It’s cliché for a reason, I think it’s very difficult to get a job or an internship at all if you don’t know somebody,” Morris told Channel 9′s Evan Donovan.

Nick Patch told a similar story about his friend’s recent internship.

“There was like maybe 17 people who got the job - 15 of them were people who knew people within that business. The other two were regular people who just kind of applied,” Patch told Donovan.

It’s a new standard of competition for today’s future workers.

“As far as internships go, I think they are very competitive. They should be, just maybe not to the degree that they are,” Morris said.

A search on Indeed showed at least 100 openings for internships available in the Charlotte area, as of Friday.

(WATCH: Summer jobs keep teens away from crime. This program is helping Charlotte’s youth get them.)

Summer jobs keep teens away from crime. This program is helping Charlotte’s youth get them.

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