A virtual internship provides one with the opportunity to combine their university duties with paralleled international work experience. At Meiji we want you to succeed, so we would love to share 7 tips for your virtual interns.
#1 Get your schedule on point!
You need to bring your daily tasks in balance with your duties related to your degree and your social life! The first of our 7 tips for virtual interns is to organize your schedule. Check the times of the university courses you want to attend and leave some time to study, have fun and do your internship.
You need to keep in mind to check your emails and messages frequently as you are working with a company in Asia. For example, as part of a diversified project team. So another of our 7 tips for virtual interns is to bear in mind the time difference.
#2 Clean your workplace!
Have you ever heard “a clean soul houses within a clean body“? It is not a saying for nothing, that means keep your workplace clean! Just because you are working from home and nobody can control you does not mean you can collect trash around your workplace, you would not do the same at your office and it has a good reason for it.
#3 Don’t forget to eat and stay hydrated!
This point goes hand in hand with the first of our 7 tips for virtual interns. When you are organizing your schedule definitely plan a lunch break, just like you would do it when regularly working in your office.
You might even be able to order something to your home and start a little video chatting session with your colleagues or friends while eating together for lunch.
You will feel refreshed when you take your mind a little bit off from work and think about other important things in life!
#4 Aim to minimize sources of distraction!
Following our 7 tips for virtual interns, you need to choose your workplace wisely! You might be able to work from wherever you want – from a cafe in the morning, from a nice park in the noon or straight from a mountaintop in the evening! It is up to you!
But you will notice that some places are better suitable to work from than others – consider the number of sources of distraction! That means you can’t attend a home party with your friends and expect to work seriously productive on your virtual internship project tasks.
Instead, feed your cat or go out with your dog before you start to work, let your partner take care of the kids for a while and if you are living in a shared living let your mates know about your virtual internship schedule!
#5 Stay concentrated!
In today’s time and the growing focus on the internet, it is easy to fall into a passive consumer mode with social media and entertainment providers like youtube, Facebook, Instagram, or Netflix – especially since you require a computer with an internet connection to work on your project tasks and to communicate with your colleagues.
Even if you minimize your external sources of distraction you will notice you can’t remove them completely: some are intrinsic, which means you need to stay focused and concentrated through your own discipline!
Take our 7 tips for virtual interns to heart and make sure to mute your devices, you can even mute your social media accounts for the duration of your work on your virtual internship project tasks.
#6 Make a break and move!
Whether it’s healthy nor it is possible to remain multiple hours in a row focused on your work, especially since you are working on your computer and staring at a screen the whole time.
You need to take your eyes away from the screen to prevent headaches or dry eyes. Follow our 7 tips for virtual interns and consider taking a small break, just a few minutes!
Stand up, make a few stretch exercises to stimulate your muscles – why not walking over to the kitchen and drinking a glass of water? But get back to work afterward!
#7 Prioritize your tasks!
Our last of our 7 tips for virtual interns is about your actual work. Take care to organize your tasks in the best way possible by prioritizing your tasks. Break down your working package into more little tasks and differ between urgent and important.
Your urgent tasks you should finish as fast as possible because important tasks can wait since they are not urgent! If you establish this routine for your virtual internship you will have much easier and purposeful communication with your international project colleagues.
Now that you know how to make the best of your time during the virtual internship you are prepared to receive your first working package and to impress your host company and your project colleagues! If you don’t have a virtual internship placement yet and are just thinking about it, don’t hesitate to apply now.
