Compelled by the pandemic to restrict our movements, digitization has become a new-age phenomenon of our lives. As the whole world shifted its physical presence over to internet, the distance of interaction has been limited to a single touch for our flexibility and convenience. Like every other domain, internships have also evolved with the time and now is the era of online internships which can be done effectively from home as well. These remote internships usually have their own advantages and students or budding professionals can research a bit to yield better results from them
This article focuses on emphasizing some of the key points which are essential for those students who want to make the most out of it.
- Creating Boundaries: Even if the working hours are flexible in virtual internships, it is always proper and professional to create boundaries with fix hours of working and a proper place to work to ensure best results. As remote internships are often project-based instead of hourly tasks, it can be easy to treat them like homework, squeezing in a few minutes of work here and there between other commitments. Similarly, it is also necessary to ensure a professional-looking space, as sometimes there might be video calls or zoom meetings.
- Connect well with Mentors: In a virtual internship, interns might not get the opportunities to interact with their mentors continuously. Although this is convenient in a general working environment, the interns can connect with their mentors either through texts, calls, and video calls to address their queries. Operating in a virtual environment, consider requesting a video meeting with your manager, or 15-minute phone calls to get to know people in different functions. Just like casual coffee chats in traditional office environments, interns can accomplish the same relationship by connecting with peers and mentors. By connecting effectively with their mentors, young professionals can build connections within your desired industry and learn about their path ahead.
- Ensure Proper Communication: When you don’t have the benefit of working physical environment, it can be hard to feel associated to your management and peers during an internship. Ensuring a regular interaction with the manager about various updates related to your work and performance, interns should make sure to follow-up the interactions either through emails, phones, and texts or through video check-ins prepared with notes, questions, and ideas. Proper communication can generate a clarity about the work and ensure smooth execution of projects without any obstacles.
- Ask for Feedback: It is important for interns to ask regular feedbacks to their employers so that they can keep a track of their performances and formulate strategies to work better. The major advantage for any internship is to get realistic experience in the workplace, which can help shaping the future plans of the employees. Accordingly, the interns can mould their skillset to suit their career goals. To enhance your remote internship experience, maintain clarity while interacting with your manager that their feedbacks are important as they can enable you to continue growing as a professional.
- Seek Letter of Recommendation: Asking for a letter of recommendation or to use your manager as a future professional reference will definitely increase the probability of getting your dream job. An influential professional commendation from a past internship can prove to be tremendously convenient when applying for full-time work right after graduation.
