By: Elise Goldstein
For most students, internships are an integral part of navigating future career plans. This past summer, many students endured a new type of summer internship experience — at home. When I saw the job posting to work with SMAHRT this past May, I was ecstatic. I have always been passionate about working in a health-related field and combining it with my communications background has been the perfect intersection. Like most things in the world these days, when joining SMAHRT this summer as a remote promotions intern, I didn’t know what to expect on a day-to-day basis.
Although I’m not working in a traditional office setting, I still wanted to make the most of my experience worthwhile. From day one, I navigated the work from home environment and adapted to the remote lifestyle.
Here are three tips I’ve learned to stay engaged and succeed in my remote internship experience:
1. Set goals
Setting intentional goals is important for reminding yourself about why you do what you do each day. Goal setting is important to apply in a work environment so that you can hold yourself accountable each day and make sure your working towards new achievements and new strides.
At the start of my internship, I spoke with different members of the team about my goals for my experience, and it’s been helpful to center my work around my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. I knew I wanted to gain more experience in research, so I’ve been able to help with a few research projects in addition to my promotions work.
It’s been helpful to work with a mentor to ensure that I’m making progress on the tasks that I’ve been assigned. I also keep track of finished assignments or tasks so that I can look back and see what I’ve accomplished and what I’ve learned.
We’ve also split tasks based on my curated interests, and I’ve been able to take a lead on the blog, which has been a really enjoyable and educational experience for myself.
2. Manage your time
With a remote job or class, it’s easy to feel like you have all of this newfound free time. However, that isn’t the case if you don’t manage your time efficiently.
I’ve learned the importance of effectively managing my time and following content calendars and online schedules to get tasks done on a timely basis. Typically, I have 4-5 tasks to work on throughout the week. I’m able to set time out of my week during my working hours to get that done, and I follow that routine weekly. I’ve found it helpful to prioritize what’s due first and to plan ahead and know how long each task will take.
3. Focus on communicating with the team
To ensure success during your remote internship it is important to find efficient and effective ways to communicate with other team members.
I’ve found it really important to constantly communicate with the team and have weekly check-ins to see how my work is going. It enables me to see what my colleagues are working on and also share what I’ve been up to. Communicating with the team also allows me to meet everyone and learn more about the people that I’m working with.
Something that specifically sticks out to me about SMAHRT is from my onboarding process. My mentor set up meetings with me and each team member so that I was able to learn about them and their work, both in and outside of SMAHRT.
To make sure I don’t miss anything each week, I take notes during my weekly check-in meetings. Throughout the week, if we are not meeting on WebEx or Microsoft Teams, we chat over Teams or communicate via email about the specific tasks that I’m working on. It took a bit of time to get used to, but I’m comfortable sharing my ideas and incorporating any feedback into my work.
Overall, goal setting, time management and communication with the team are essential elements to succeeding in any work environment — especially from home. It’s crucial to implement these tips in an everyday working atmosphere so that the responsibilities and tasks can be completed in an efficient manner. Focusing on integrating these three tips into my experience at SMAHRT have enabled me to obtain the most exposure and takeaways from my remote internship.
Key Takeaways
1. Goal setting is important for reminding yourself about why you do what you do each day.
2. Time management skills help you set aside time to get tasks done and follow a weekly routine.
3. Communicating with the team is important to see what your colleagues are working on and also share what you’ve been up to.