A remote or virtual internship is a lot more challenging than people assume. You have no one hovering over you or the pressure that someone may walk by to see what you are – or aren’t – doing at work.
If you want to make your internship (or that of a new intern) successful, you need to start off with a clear definition of “success.”
What Defines a Successful Remote Internship Program?
Success in any remote internship program is defined by:
- Work that helps a person achieve their goals and hone their skills
- Opportunities after the program’s conclusion
- Feedback that helps you grow in the field
Interns want to engage in meaningful work and learn more about the industry hands-on. If you can exit an internship learning more than when you entered and have new networking connections, it’s been a “good” experience and a success.
If you’re in an industry where success may mean landing a position with the company, you may view getting a job offer as the only measurement of success.
Why Is Clear Communication the Backbone of Remote Internships?
Capital Placement, a company offering paid, international remote internships, states that clear communication is the backbone of success in remote internships.
Why?
Remote internships require you to be communicative to ensure that you’re doing the job adequately. You need to communicate with your team members and other workers, but the responsibility of communication sits heavily on team leaders.
Team leaders must ensure that all interns:
- Understand goals that must be met
- Know what tasks are dedicated to them
- Know the deadlines that must be met
If interns have questions or concerns, they should feel free to contact the lead as soon as possible. It’s always better to ask questions and for clarification, than it is to not know what’s expected of you.
How to Foster Engagement and Inclusion Remotely?
Virtual internships are complex because it’s easy to not include certain team members or interns. Team leaders must focus on fostering two main things:
- Engagement
- Inclusion
Collaboration tools can help make the experience much easier and streamline some of the process. You can do quite a few things to facilitate engagement:
- Virtual meetings and hangouts: You can and should host virtual meetings. Zoom, or any of the other livestreaming solutions, allows you to talk directly to all interns and make everyone feel included.
- Team projects: Every project cannot be a team project, but the ones that can be, should be. Why? If you have a team project, it allows for deeper connections between interns and can help make the virtual experience feel a lot more personal.
A lot of your success, or failure, with having an internship falls on the technology that you have available. Lack of technology will make doing any form of work remotely a challenge – even for industry veterans.
What Technologies Facilitate a Smooth Remote Internship Experience?
An online internship for students will rely heavily on the technology that you incorporate into the workplace. Portals that offer the following are ideal:
- Video chat
- File sharing
- Collaboration on the desktop
- Live chat or something similar
You can offer a lot of standalone technologies, such as Slack or Zoom, but when everything is neatly integrated together, it will be much easier for the intern. Learning dozens of tools takes away from interning and it will be less successful.
Why Mentorship is Key in Remote Internships
Internships that have projects involved benefit greatly from mentorship. Why? A mentor can help learn each intern’s strengths and weaknesses to better assign them tasks that they will excel at or that will hone their skills.
Alternatively, the mentor can also help support the intern and ensure that they’re:
- Excelling in the program
- Learning from the mentor, who has experience
- Maximize the internship experience
Mentorship can help greatly with remote internships and is one of the ways to improve a program’s overall success.
How to Set and Achieve Goals During a Remote Internship?
Internship goals should be set to help measure how successful an internship was or wasn’t. You can choose multiple options:
- Define a goal for each intern or yourself
- Start the internship with measurable goals in place
- Review the goals and progress toward them
Achieving goals during a remote internship is up to the intern, mentor and leader of the program. Interns are encouraged to try something new, expand their skills and find ways to expand their skillset and reach their goals.
Interns should go into each program with personal and professional goals that will help move them toward their career objectives.
In Conclusion
Online internships for students can be successful. Follow the tips and recommendations above to help you better prepare for your internship or to help interns. If you know the goals of the internship and communicate effectively, the experience will be much easier.
