Pretty much, yeah. You need to know someone who knows someone who‘s a higher up at the place you want to work at. Especially for internships.

I get why it is like that. Companies want someone who actually is interested in doing good work and socially connecting with their coworkers.

Especially in tech where there‘s hella competition it pays to have those extra few % of productivity. Also, a hostile environment in IT can go very wrong very fast (remember the guy deleting all data after being let go)