What 2020 Virtual Interns Want You to Know
Very early in 2020, when the word corona only conjured up an image of a nice cold beverage, many junior-year college students had already secured internships for the summer. They were looking forward to gaining valuable work experience, meeting professionals who could potentially help them land a job after graduation and having fun socializing with peers interested in the same line of work.
When Covid-19 concerns sent many workers home to work virtually, many of these students learned their internships were canceled. However, others received news that while they would still be able to have their internships, they would be working virtually. On their first day of work, each student logged into their laptops from the bedroom in the apartment they shared with friends or from their parents' home and went off to meet their new co-workers in the virtual world.
I connected with eight of these students recently. I wanted to learn what they thought of the whole experience and what could they offer leaders who are beginning to hire and onboard virtually again. Here's what they told me.
Virtual Working Tips for Leaders
Don't let the flat screen flatten your personality - Alden thought he was going to be dressed up every day, going "the whole nine yards in terms of business formal." That changed with COVID-19 - not just for interns, but for many employees at the investment bank, including his CEO. On his first day, during his first company-wide virtual meeting, his CEO surprised him. "The CEO is driving an RV on the Zoom call, across the plains of South Dakota, welcoming us (interns) and wearing a T-shirt," Alden said. "He's got the full beard and a hat on. I was like, this is so different that what I would have expected from an investment bank." Alden liked it. To him it showed both the company culture and personality of the CEO, including his comfort and confidence with the handling the circumstances.
Get the tech right - Kate worked for a Newsmagazine show and instead of interning on the set of the show, she did tasks from her apartment like transcribing audio from video footage. While she appreciated the importance of her tasks, she expressed extreme frustration with having to work with sub-par tech. "If I were in the office... I could just do my work, and I wouldn't be constantly annoyed by all this lag that I have to experience doing basic tasks like typing emails or reading emails, even clicking on an email that takes forever to finally load on the screen," Kate explained. "If you need to provide any kind of server access, find a good technology. When it comes to lagging technology, people my age cannot deal with that. It's really difficult. We're used to high speed, high def everything."
Don't keep workers in corners - Glenn thinks leaders of virtual workers should really try to "make sure they're not alienating workers by sending them off to their respective corners." Glenn had low expectations for his virtual internship in the accounting department of a global real estate company. "Going into it, I didn't know like what to expect," Glenn said "They sent me a laptop and I thought, they're just going to be like 'okay here's your project.' I thought it would just be my direct boss telling me what to do, I do it, and just go back to him. But it was way different than that." Instead Glenn found himself interacting not just with his boss, but a handful others in the accounting team plus engaging with them and the other interns and their supervisors through a Microsoft Teams group. When you are in an office, you can learn things from people that aren't your direct boss just by being around them. Glenn would like to see this replicated for the virtual worker somehow.
Find a way to be together real-time - Daniel explained to me, "We live in a world where news kind of breaks whenever. So if you were in an office with somebody and news broke, you kind of get a live reaction to that. That'd be a lot more interesting than just kind of talking to them later about it." Daniel interned for a political organization and had imagined himself in an office working side-by-side with others with similar passions. He had pictured his internship including moments where casual banter about real-time events would happen naturally. One way some leaders are creating the real-time-like moments with their virtual teams is to keep an active group IM chat going. Beside the friendly daily chatter, a group chat can also be for those moments when public or company news makes you want to drop everything and talk about it.
Give us ways to get to know people early on - Tim found he had the best relationships with the people that he met early on. He was able to have that personal connection, and this helped him be comfortable with his work and be more productive. "If I reached out to them it just wasn't asking them for a favor," Tim said. "I was able to have a good conversation with them and to reconnect and then tie in my favor and into the final ask." Conversely, with those he didn't really know or have a strong connection with "it kind of felt like I was just kind of using them, taking what I needed and then letting them be." He explained that he found that he had a lot of transactional type relationships with members of his large team at the Financial Security company. Since he hadn't met them early on and wasn't able to see them in person, he didn't feel he couldn't make those personal connections and grow the relationships.
Plan to touch base daily - Hannah appreciated the structure her supervisors provided. "I never felt like, 'I'm not sure what to do' because I started every day with a checklist of things. Plus, I always had couple of projects that were just kind of continuous that I could kind of provide anytime." Hannah interned for a Global Think Tank. At the beginning of her internship, she was asked what her workstyle was. When she explained she likes to have outline of her plan of action each day, her team members established regular check-ins with her each morning, mid-day and the end of the day.
Provide us a checklist for our virtual offices - Lauren found that little tech issues really started to get on her nerves and "while everyone gets that, it's still a bit frustrating." She worked in the engineering department of a national retailer and her team was large. Among other mishaps, often during meetings someone would have WiFi issues that would take away from the productivity of the meeting. Another intern said when he was sent his laptop he also received a checklist of suggestions for how to improve productivity at home along with $200 to go toward suggested remedies such as a WiFi booster, large monitor, headset or external mouse.
Use your video feature - Bailey and her manager and team were in different cities. "I felt very much a part of the team, even though I had quite literally never met anybody." She saw their faces only once when they welcomed her on a video call when she first started. After that, at the meetings no one put on their video camera to share their faces. She would have liked to have gotten to know her teammates a bit better and thinks if they'd used video it would have helped.
Use Instant Message "available" feature - Several interns expressed the importance of their team members to be available to them digitally like they would be if they were sharing office space in-person. It should come as no surprise since this "always-on" generation expects their friends to be available via text instantly, that they would be looking for the same from colleagues through IM or by video. One intern said she appreciated that her team used the "available" feature since it allowed her to see who she could reach out to for a conversation. She went on to say that "sometimes it's nice to just hop on video and just kind of look that person in the eye and have a conversation, rather than messaging."
These interns got a crash course in what it means for a business to adapt to an unforeseen situation. They and many of us participated in an exercise that tested how well our organization could operate virtually.
Leaders, consider these tips and others from your team as you both take stock in how to improve virtual work for your current team and as you prepare to onboard new employees to your organization.
Key Points:
- Virtual interns highlight how strong digital‑onboarding, regular check‑ins, and real‑time connection can determine early‑career success — something leaders must build into remote work strategies.
- Prioritizing tech readiness, human connection, and inclusive team culture helps remote young workers feel supported, engaged, and ready to perform.