Remote Internships – How they can work (and benefit both parties)

„We are sorry to inform you that we are not offering any internships due to the current situation.” “Your profile seems like a good match for our company but unfortunately we won’t be able to offer you an internship because we are currently working from home.”

These were the kind of responses I received when I applied for internships in the midst of a pandemic. Pre-COVID19 I had decided to gain some practical experience before starting my Master’s degree. Finding those, however, turned out to be much harder than anticipated.

After many refusals I got an invitation for an interview with the INPACS sustainability team and was very happy to receive an offer for a remote internship.

Taking on an intern and training him or her solely through video calls was not something the INPACS team had ever done, but they still decided to give it a try.

Looking back at the past six months, I can definitely say that remote internships are feasible and can work to the advantage of both the intern and its employer. During my time at INPACS I was able to assist the sustainability team in various projects and have learned a lot. For example, I helped in the scaling of a greenhouse gas accounting tool and personally held two training webinars for it, which is not something I had expected to do when starting the internship.

Weekly team meetings and coffee breaks with the colleagues I wasn’t regularly working with, made me feel included in the team and gave me a good overview of the company as a whole.

If your company is considering hiring an intern but you are unsure about a remote option: just give it a try! As José Del Pino, CEO of INPACS, says “extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.” There are many recent graduates like me who are looking for such opportunities.

It only took one person saying: “Sure, let’s have an intern who is working from home” to not only benefit me as an intern but also the company I was working for.

Maybe you can be that person in your company.

Carlotta Biege