Think getting into the Ivy League is difficult? Try vying for an internship at United.
The airline giant has a highly competitive internship program. In 2024, it received 40,000 applications for just 300 slots—a 0.75% acceptance rate. That’s more selective than Goldman Sachs’ prestigious internship program, which accepted 0.85% of all applicants last year.
This year, United plans again to hire some 250 to 300 interns for its 12-week summer internship—a departure from competitors like Southwest that have paused hiring for some such roles.
“Some of our competitors have decided to put their programs on hold. But our internship program is a strategic pipeline of talent for us,” Kate Gebo, United’s EVP of HR and labor relations, told HR Brew. “As our interns come in, that curiosity…and the enthusiasm they bring to our workforce at the same time is really important to our culture.”
Finding the crème de la crème. Finding top talent, however, may be trickier: Internship interest is broadly outpacing opportunities, a recent Handshake report found. To identify the best candidates, United matches by expertise, recruits from a large, diverse group of schools, and relies on word-of-mouth recommendations from previous interns. (More than 95% of United’s interns would recommend the program, according to Handshake’s report.) Though the biggest deciding factor is the in-person interview, Gebo said.
Over the last two years, United has hired 200 interns into full-time roles. It sees a high conversion rate among finance, tech, and engineering interns in particular, Gebo said.
Ethan Gerst, a Central Missouri University senior, accepted a full-time, post-grad role as an associate analyst following his financial planning and analysis internship last year. When asked if he’d consider other job offers or opportunities before graduation, he said no—his sights were set on United. (Plus, it’s a weight off his shoulders to not have to worry about finding a job, he said.)
“I knew that my passion lies within finance and aviation, [and] that’s what I wanted to do whenever I furthered my career,” he told HR Brew. “I knew that I wanted to return to United, and I did express that to my team that I was working with, that there was nothing short of an excellent experience, and I would absolutely love to come back to United and continue my early career there.”
What interns get in return. Interns get to contribute to high-impact projects, such as developing facial-recognition tech, setting flight prices, and engineering planes. They also get access to United’s business resource groups and professional development, like headshots and advice on their LinkedIn profiles. Top leaders, including president Brett Hart and CEO Scott Kirby, also meet with interns.
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“Those are unscripted events that I think give access in a different way, and really give them an idea about what our executives are thinking about and also what the culture is like here at United,” Gebo said.
Interns are also paired with mentors outside of their direct team, but ideally in an area of interest. Mentors are trained to ensure that they are building relationships with and making positive impressions on mentees.
“[We’re] making sure that the mentor knows that it may be a connection every two weeks, but these are really important to our recruiting strategy,” Gebo said.
Gerst called the mentorship impactful. He was paired with an employee in another area of financial planning and analysis who was previously an intern.
“With this being my first internship, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Having that opportunity…I was able to get some professional development from outside my core group, and get tips and tricks on how to make this the best experience possible, and what I can learn from to help me in my future career opportunities, whether it was with United or if it wasn't.”
Making it stick. Gebo’s team has several ways of assessing the program. One such method involves frequent check-ins with interns and their managers about how their project is going, or whether their manager is involving them in business trips.
Her team also sources feedback from its own interns, because “what interns tell us and what they tell each other can be different.” This strategy, for example, made them aware that interns, who on the company-wide pay schedule (every two weeks in arrears) had to wait longer than expected to get paid, were missing rent or bill payments. As a result, they changed the timing.
“We actually use them [the HR interns] while they’re with us to tell us about what’s working, what’s not working, and also get a pulse of what’s going on with the other interns,” Gebo said.