Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

This internship program was my first-ever internship, and it was definitely an interesting experience.

Throughout these past six weeks, I have learned a lot about how to be a good intern and how to be productive during a virtual internship. One major key to success in a virtual class/job/internship is time management. Being able to manage your time wisely is the most important step, especially when you are free to complete your work on your own time. You have to learn how to ignore all the distractions at home and to focus on your tasks at hand. It is not easy at all, but once you find a good setup and good work space that is quiet and free of those distractions, it becomes much easier. 

Another tip for future virtual interns is to get out of bed to get your work done. If you work in bed, you are not going to be as focused and will be more likely to end up scrolling through TikTok.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t be comfortable in a virtual internship. Personally, I find that being in comfy clothes helps me get more work done. I dress professionally for Zoom calls, but if I am just working on my own, I love being comfortable.

Finally, I turn my phone on “do not disturb” during the workday. This helps me avoid getting distracted by the notifications. 

Being successful in a virtual internship is not as easy as it may seem. I feel like I just started getting into the groove of things not that long ago. I really learned to make it work by creating a schedule for myself — waking up at the same time and having the same schedule for each workday. The same patterns are really what helped me learn to be successful in this virtual internship. Everybody is different, but that is what helped me personally.