In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started rapidly spreading across the nation, everyone started taking precautionary measures to combat the situation. One such measure was to turn to remote working.
While the organisations and their employees and interns initially found this change challenging, work-from-home soon became the new normal for everyone. The trend of remote working is still on the rise and will continue even in the post-pandemic era.
Where To Find Work-From-Home Internships?
The aspiring interns were also not left untouched by this trend. In fact, 76% of students applied to work-from-home internships last year. So, if you are also aspiring to pursue an internship during these testing times, work-from-home internships are the opportunities for you.
The best possible way to find such opportunities and apply to them is through online internship platforms. For instance, on Internshala itself, 60% of employers hired virtual interns in the past year. Most employers who hired in-office interns conducted their hiring remotely and deferred the in-office joining of interns until the COVID situation improved.
As online internship platforms have thousands of opportunities in one place, you could apply for multiple remote internships based on your interest and skill-sets. For example, if you are a management student, you could apply to remote internships in profiles like business development, sales and marketing, digital marketing, finance, human resources, operations, etc.
How To Apply?
Now that you know where to find the best virtual internships for you, you could start applying to the same. The first step would be to register on the platform and build your resume. In your resume, you must highlight the details and achievements relevant to the internships you are applying to.
For example, if you are applying to a content writing internship, you could mention skills like proficiency in written English and highlight an experience from your school or college where you displayed good writing skills.
Once you have built your resume, you could start applying to internships. The online platforms have the provision of various filters like internship profile, work from home, stipend range, etc. Based on these filters, you could find the right fit opportunities for you and start applying.
What Skills Do You Need To Be Hired As A Virtual Intern?
In addition to having a computer system or laptop and a good internet connection, you need to have the following skills to grab a virtual internship successfully:
- High ownership skills: virtual internships require the interns to work remotely without constant supervision from their mentors and communication with fellow team members. In such a situation, it is extremely important for you interns to have high ownership skills to own your work and keep yourself motivated to complete your work with efficiency.
- Tech savviness: as virtual interns, you will be completely dependent on technology while working remotely, be it to communicate with your team, to reach out to new clients, to collaborate on projects, to have virtual meetings, and so on.
- Agility: if COVID has taught us something, it is that how dynamic everything is and how agile you need to be to adapt to the different circumstances like switching from working in offices to working remotely.
- Good communication skills: both verbal and written communication skills are extremely important to work remotely through email, video conferencing tools, and telephonic conversations. When working remotely, it is extremely important how professional and polite your communication is because, with a virtual presence, it can sometimes be challenging to present your ideas and inputs.
- Time management skills: as in the case of high ownership, your time management skills as an intern play an important role while working remotely. It is easy to get distracted while working from home. However, with good time management skills, you can perform your tasks ahead of time, attend meetings on time, and so on while respecting your as well as others’ time.
What Do You Earn While Doing A Remote Internship?
Initially, people were uncertain about the value remote internships have in a student’s career as compared to in-office internships. However, 2020 has proved that remote internships can add equal value to a student’s resume by providing them with equally full-time and good practical work experience and teach them new skills.
In addition to the learning experience, the work-from-home interns also receive certificates of completion, a letter of recommendation and a fixed stipend. A work-from-home intern stands a chance of earning a stipend ranging from ₹1000/month to ₹45,000/month. The average stipend provided in the last year was ₹5000/month.
Courtesy: Sarvesh Agrawal, founder and CEO of Internshala, the recruitment and training platform.