Being a student amidst the COVID-19 pandemic means you are most probably doing a work-from-home internship. Working remotely has become a positive trend and more and more people are now realizing it’s not only easy to do but is also economically and environmentally friendly. Although there are some setbacks to overcome when it comes to doing an internship from home, such as lack of interaction with the staff and relatively lesser hands-on experience, which can get frustrating sometimes, there are many ways to still have a successful internship to land a full-time job of your dreams!

Set Goals

If you are pursuing masters program and are about to begin your work from home internship, know that setting goals for yourself is extremely important. Think about what you aim to achieve through your role and what you would want to take away from it. Let it be any internship, you should make a list of goals, and particularly more when working from home. This will not only help you stay on track but also focused while interning. It won’t take long enough to slide by but a goals list will help in holding yourself accountable.

Connect with Mentors

In a remote internship setup, there’s no scope to encounter colleagues or have unplanned meetings and the only source that remains to stay in touch with others is via emails, zoom calls, or phone texts. To supplement this, request an introductory video meeting with your manager or a quick phone call with the team to get to know employees in different functions. You may even consider connecting with peers to learn about the path ahead and help build connections within your industry. Remember how proactively you’d approach your classmates when your lectures commenced? This goes the same way, except for the fact that it’s all virtual.

Practice Communication

It’s imperative to build connections with people you work along with while serving your internship. Usually, this is done by being at the workplace every day or gathering at the cafeteria for a cup of coffee or in meetings, but remote work setup calls for a different approach. The first step is to have consistent meetings with your mentor or supervisor. Line up a weekly, or daily, if possible, meeting to talk about the tasks you are working on as well as to establish a rapport with him/her. Besides, the way you’d participate in team projects take an initiative here, too, to know if you can contribute something meaningful or important. Since working from home has become the “new normal”, organizations are trying to introduce activities that help co-workers bond well virtually!

Ask for Feedback

The idea of an internship is to prepare yourself for finding a full-time job and gain experience. Ask your manager if they have feedback for you about your work, approach, or performance during your internship. Leverage this critical recommendation to improve your work and habits. There’s no harm in becoming aware of what you should work on.

If you look at the situation with the right attitude, there’s no reason why working remotely should hold you back from any of the perks of a traditional work environment!