When I first heard that we would have to do an internship as a part of our study programme, I had a very clear image of how it was going to look like. I thought I would wake up early in the morning, bike to an office, spend there 8 hours with a lunch break in between in a lovely cafe, and on Friday evenings, I would go for a beer with my colleagues. Little did I know that a global pandemic was about to happen and none of my expectations was going to be fulfilled.
Before I continue, I will quickly introduce the company I worked for to give a better idea of an internship I ended up doing. It started in September – I was an intern at Sapient – Social & Environmental Enterprises, a non-governmental environmental organisation. I worked in the Social Media & Promotion Department. My tasks included responsibilities such as creating posts for various social media platforms, improving training programmes for new interns and developing marketing strategies for the organisation’s partners.
It was not easy from the very beginning. Because it was fully online, I didn’t meet any of my colleagues in person and I felt like I was missing out on amazing, inspirational relations. Moreover, communication processes took longer and were more confusing, because of an overload of messages on our online channels. Furthermore, I have experienced plenty of Internet connection issues which didn’t allow me to work as efficiently as I would have liked to.
It was frustrating for me to work this way, so contrary to my expectations. However, I quickly understood that frustration will not get me anywhere. I decided to work on my positive attitude and try my best to gain as much as I can from this internship. I know that many students might have similar feelings in the future as the pandemic is still greatly influencing our lives. For this reason, I have decided to share some of my tips on how to stay motivated and get the most out of an online internship.
- Develop a routine
As we all know by now, it is really hard to separate time for work and time for yourself when you work and live at the same place. I find having an everyday routine very helpful with staying on track. You don’t stress that much because you know there is time planned for everything.
- Check in on your colleagues
This is probably not how you imagined networking at your internship. However, we all are people, we have our problems and checking in on your co-workers, even online, might help if someone is not feeling well. Thanks to this you can create safer workspace and bond with people.
- Come up with new initiatives / projects
Showing initiative is an amazing way of drawing attention to your person. Now, it’s not about being disturbing but about showing people that you are eager to work and they can count on you. Thanks to being proactive you can gain people’s trust and learn so much more that you would have if you were passive.