The Pros and Cons of a Remote Internship
I’ve interned several remote internships throughout my final two years in college. There were many things I have learned from working in remote internships that I would be using while entering my field of career. In this blog post, I will be discussing some of my pros and cons of remote internships. Hopefully, you will find it helpful to help you decide whether or not you want to do a remote internship yourself.
Pro
Location -Interns don't have to worry about the distance of the company location. They also don't need to worry about being late on their first day of work. Interns can be located anywhere while working on a remote internship. Most of the times on my internship, I spent doing my work assignments at my school library or comfort at my own home. I can be doing my assignments at any places as long as I have a wi-fi connection and a laptop with me at all times.
Flexible Time. When interning for a company, people have to work in a certain amount of time. They also have to work around their school schedules. The company’s schedule is usually from Monday through Friday and has Saturday and Sunday off. If they can’t finish the work on Friday, they will have to wait next Monday to finish the assignment. They have to worry about the school assignments while interning at a company. However, in a remote internship, there is no start and end time to do the assignments. I could be doing assignments at 8 pm on a Saturday and submit the assignment on Sunday. I don’t have to worry about not finishing the assignments on time or working around a school schedule.I am also able to have enough time to focus on intern assignments and my school assignments.
Con:
Not much social interaction - Working at a remote internship can be great sometimes if you can’t commit a set schedule time. When it comes to working at a remote internship, there won’t be anyone working with you but the person that assigned you the tasks to do at hand. At a company office, you’ll have co-workers there to have a conversation with and guidance. When you are on a lunch break, you will have time to network with co-workers and interns to talk about anything you want to know about them. On one of my remote internships I am currently interning, I met some of her interns during her company’s events. I also met them on one face to face meeting. Those were the only times I met with her other interns. So, I don’t have too much interaction with her other interns. The founder herself and I usually have a meeting online, so I don’t have much interaction with her as well.
Little Guidance - A remote internship can be located anywhere and can work any places you want. However, are doing the remote internship by yourself for most of the time. A company has full of staffs and employee that can assist you for help whenever you need it. They will tell you if you have done it correctly or incorrectly, then you will know how to do it the right way. When it comes to having assistance, I have to search online for assistance for most of the time. I suggested the founder that I want to help her to change her newsletter. I didn’t know much about MailChimp and how it works. So, she sent me a youtube video that shows a tutorial on how to use MailChimp. If I want to know about MailChimp, I have to search Youtube tutorials to learn to do it.
Although remote internship may sound fitting for people who have a tight schedule. However, there won’t be co-workers you can ask for help right away. It depends on your work styles and whether or not remote internships is right for you. In my case, I want to work any places I want without interfering school. But, I also want to work with other people. Working with other people will help me with my assignments I need help. I am also able to network with them. I would say overall, remote internship sound fitting for me.
About the author
Anita Yan is a senior at Brooklyn College. She is majoring in Business Administration with a Marketing Concentration.
