Internships are one way to enter the workforce. And more often than not, people take the temporary and frequently unpaid position with the hopes of being hired full time by the company they intern for.

While the vast majority of interns are college students, it's not unheard of for the older generation to take them up in order to navigate a career change—especially in today's tight job market.

But which companies and industries are really good at turning their interns into full-time workers? The business networking website Linkedin.com did a first-time survey of its 3.5 million members that held internships at some point, according to their LinkedIn profile.

The findings were less than encouraging, said Nicole Williams, LinkedIn's career expert.

"The conversion number isn't particularly surprising, but on a whole it is low," Williams said in an email to CNBC.

"Ten years ago an internship was the golden key to employment whereas in this competitive landscape only the strongest survive with a job offer," she explained.



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