Nick Wetterling lands AI internship by pitching dad’s business partner

“‘She’s applied to 32 companies and has been struggling to get an interview.’”

Nick Wetterling said that about his twin sister. He, on the other hand, was already building AI agents at Iterate.ai, a Denver developer of private artificial intelligence software. He was 17, a rising senior at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, and he had just landed an engineering internship that the company didn’t even know it was hiring for.

The difference wasn’t luck, exactly. It was leverage. Wetterling’s father, Jon Nordmark, is a co-founder of Iterate. Nick didn’t wait for a job posting. He sent his LinkedIn profile to his dad’s business partner, met him at Lost Coffee, and pitched a weapons detection system he’d built for a capstone class. A week later, he had the job.

It’s a good story. But it’s also a reminder of how hard it is to get a job if you don’t know someone who knows someone.

While Wetterling was closing deals over coffee, the broader summer job market for teenagers in Colorado was hitting its lowest point since records began in 1948. According to employment agency Challenger Gray & Christmas, hiring for 16- to 19-year-olds is expected to dip to 790,000 this year. That’s less than half the number of teens hired in 2019.

The participation rate for this age group has fallen to 39.1%. It used to stay above 50%.

Employers aren’t hiring teens because the math doesn’t work for them anymore. High gas prices and inflation-driven costs mean businesses are hesitant to bring on temporary help for just a few months. They’re burning cash. During the pandemic recovery, they shifted to hiring longer-term, more experienced staff. Now, with current economic factors keeping the job market dismal for all ages, the entry-level rung has been pulled out of the ladder.

For neighbors around here, this isn’t just a national statistic. It’s about whether the kids working at the local Ace Hardware store or the grocery store downtown are still there next summer. It’s about whether the summer job that used to fund a car or college savings is becoming a luxury item reserved for those with connections.

Wetterling’s story highlights the new path: networking and entrepreneurship. He didn’t apply to 32 companies like his sister. He used his technical background and his family name to bypass the application pile entirely. He’s creating AI agents now. His sister is still waiting for a call.

“The data backs that up,” as the saying goes, though in this case, the numbers are stark. The 39.1% participation rate is a sharp decline from previous years. Employers have decided that training a teenager for a few months isn’t worth the overhead when they can hire someone more experienced who might stay longer.

This isn’t just about teenagers. It’s about the structure of the local economy. When entry-level jobs vanish, it changes how young people learn to work. It alters their savings habits. It shifts how they view their own value in the marketplace.

Wetterling feels fortunate. He admits it. “I kind of got lucky because I’m at a high school and I’m friends with the CEO’s son and I happen to have this technical background.”

But luck is only half the equation. The other half is knowing where to go. He went to Lost Coffee. He brought his work. He made his case.

As the summer job market tightens further, the question for local families isn’t just where the jobs are. It’s who knows whom. And whether the kids without the CEO connections are going to be left behind.

“We’re seeing a shift,” Wetterling said, reflecting on his own experience. “People are realizing that just applying online isn’t enough anymore. You have to go out and find the opportunity.”

The verdict is still out on whether that advice holds for the rest of us. But for now, Nick Wetterling is busy building AI. And his sister is still applying.