What should I do if the pandemic hinders my internship? This new form is in vogue

After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, online internships have attracted more and more attention from universities and students. How do students who have participated in an online internship feel? What can universities do to ensure the success of their online internships?

Morgan Peterson is a junior at North Carolina State University. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, she successfully interviewed for an internship in London and, if nothing else, spent her summer in London.

Unexpectedly, the outbreak of the epidemic broke out, and the London internship she was looking forward to was gone. Many college students who suffered similar to Peterson's experience fell into a "whirlpool" in the spring of 2020 due to the outbreak of the epidemic.

Many companies no longer offer internship positions, and even some internship programs that have been carried out online have been compressed or cancelled. Many college students who want to gain work experience, accumulate credits, increase vacation income, or get potential job opportunities are desperate.

However, after the outbreak of the epidemic, there has been an increasingly popular way of internship - online internship.

The so-called online internship refers to a way of working for employers to let students intern at home. During the online internship, interns can communicate with colleagues of the employer through a variety of real-time online communication software.

Online internship, it's not too late

Like many college students, Claire Jenso finished her junior year overseas, and while she was waiting for her summer internship, the COVID-19 outbreak broke out, and then she returned to the United States from Denmark and began quarantine.

Data links

For the internship of college students, the latest research data from Max shows that more than 60% (64%) of undergraduate graduates in the class of 2020 believe that internships and practice links are not enough. Not only that, but Max also conducted a study of university activities that the class of 2015 graduates found helpful for job promotion five years after graduation, and the relevant data showed that more than 30% (32%) believed that "vacation internships/extracurricular part-time jobs" helped the promotions.

By chance, Jenso discovered that the Washington-based Child Protection Fund was recruiting an online intern. After two rounds of phone interviews, she was offered an online internship from June to August 2020, just working from home.

Sydney Tower is a junior at Dartmouth College. She was very happy about her online internship at the courthouse, and she was very satisfied with the flexible working hours and environment [that the online internship brought] to, "I can work in a relaxed environment that I have set up, which is very good for me, a person with social phobia." ”

Higher Education Insights and University Pulse jointly surveyed about 2,000 college students in early March 2021.

The results showed that 38% of the college students surveyed were slightly interested in online internships during their studies, 18% of the college students surveyed had a strong interest, and 34% of the college students surveyed were slightly interested in working remotely for their first job after graduation.

An issue that cannot be ignored in online internships

The University of Virginia's Internship Placement Program (IPP) notes a phenomenon in which students have increasingly accepted online internships since the outbreak of COVID-19, and more employers have gradually embraced them – in the summer of 2020, the university's IPP offered 60 online internship positions; in the fall of 2020, the number of online internships increased to 83; in the spring of 2021, The number of online internship positions increased to 148.

Rebecca H. Coulter, deputy director of the University of Virginia's Career Center, said of the online internship that IPP organizes regular panels for students involved in the program to discuss their various experiences and difficulties encountered during the online internship. "The symposiums are basically held once a week. Students can share their feelings about online internships with career guidance teachers and classmates. The reason why online interns need some guidance and help, Kurt believes, is mainly because the process and final results of the (online) internship may be different from what students originally envisioned.

For example, how to arrange the specific working hours during the online internship, "If this student happens to be a big ha in terms of time management, it will be a big trouble." Kurt gave an example.

In addition, I have to admit that during the online internship, I always communicate through the Internet, which still has a certain impact on students.

David Labinski is the Director of the Office of Employer Relations and Experiential Learning at the University of Virginia's Career Guidance Center.

He has very high requirements for students with engineering backgrounds, artificial intelligence majors and data science majors to participate in online internships.

His research team found that project- and team-based online internships involving instructors were the most helpful to interns. "In this way, we can timely discover the difficulties and existing problems that students may face, and can guide and supervise according to the actual situation of students, promote students' continuous progress, and ensure that students submit a satisfactory internship report." he said.

Alexandra Arabio is an undergraduate student in forensic science and biology at CedarCrest College.

She is a prime example of an online internship with an engineering background. During her online internship at the school's Forensic Evidence Statistics and Application Center, the career center's teachers have been helping, especially when she feels that "work has become static." Arabio also mentioned that in addition to the regular online meetings, she and other interns often connect at any time to "brainstorm and move forward."

The Career Center at California State University, Fullerton, has revised its regulations on internship eligibility to include online internships in the assessment.

"If video work is done through Zoom, the intern must attend in a timely manner, comply with the relevant work regulations, and wear appropriate clothing." Jennifer Mojaro, director of the school's Career Guidance Center, said.

Colleges and universities must act

When it comes to online internships, Zhensuo believes that "when students apply for online internship positions, instructors should clarify to students whether they have the ability to do so," and she also suggested that schools organize more activities to let students who have participated in online internships share their internship experiences. "Our school has set up a practice group to deal with online internships, and this group has organized a lot of very good symposia." Jenso said.

When talking about online internships, Mojaro pointed out that the management of career guidance centers should also keep an eye on which industries will accept online work. "Some jobs may never go back to what they were before the pandemic," Mojaro said of the latest remote work policy at the head tech company, "Now we have to look ahead and see which companies have online and offline office forms, and which companies only need to work online." The online office method is very different from the traditional sitting office mode. Therefore, when guiding students, they should be treated differently and do a good job of training before online internships. ”

Mojaro and her team have witnessed a surge in the number of people working online, and in order to keep up with the times, she optimized a previous comprehensive career guidance program to better help the first generation of students who are transitioning from a traditional office environment to an online office environment.

"Now, the way we train students is going to change," she says, "and I think it's changing on the positive side." "Starting in March 2021, when it realized that offline internship opportunities were becoming less and less, Denison University was the first to find a way to change. With the support of some alumni and businesses, the school has launched a free 5-week training course that includes a 1-week online internship precautions training. It is reported that the program attracted nearly a third of the school's students to enroll, "it seems that most students are still willing to 'roll up their sleeves and work hard' in the summer," said Headmaster Adam Weinberg. ”

"What we've always stressed to our students is that now is not the time for you to be picky," said Andy Chen, vice chancellor for innovation and career development at Winston-Salem Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He urged his students to be in close contact with the school's career guidance center, always pay attention to new employment information, update their resumes, and become familiar with how to conduct interviews through the Internet.

"We've set up a dedicated working group to connect with alumni to identify more job opportunities and find those that students may have a hard time finding. In just a few months, the working group found more internships/jobs than a single student could find. We put these employment opportunities in front of students for them to choose from. He said.

Key References:

[1] Melissa Ezarik. Distant Existence: Virtual Internships and First Jobs [EB/OL]. Inside Higher Ed, 2021-04-02.

[2] Chloe Lane. Everything Students Need To Know About Virtual Internships [EB/OL]. Quacquarelli Symonds, 2021-06-05.

Author | Max Wang Hui