A Day in the Life of a Virtual Intern
By: Bgrace Media Llc
Tags: Virtual Internship, Career Advice, Public Relations Agency, College Advice, Career Development

Have you ever thought about what being an intern consists of? What it’s like, what you’d do? I know I did before I started my internship. Honestly, I really had no clue what to expect. I mean how could you if you’ve never experienced that kind of opportunity before?

I think it would have been really insightful if I would have been able to get a sneak peek into what it would entail beforehand. It definitely would have put my anxiety to ease. So that’s what I want to do here in today’s blog!

The Stereotype

First, I want to clear the air. I think due to movies we all have pictured the common misconception of what it’s like to be an intern. Frantically running around, feeling overwhelmed, ordering coffees and other impossible orders.

Well, I’m here to tell you it is not common at all for your intern experience to resemble this.

Most employers hire for internships to allow an individual the opportunity to see what it looks like working in a certain environment. They want you to learn and expand your experience in their area of work.

Especially when it comes to college students, employers hire interns because they want to give you the kind of experience you’re looking for and need before entering the work field.

Resources

Personally, I work 10 hours each week for my internship at BGrace Media working two days of the week. I want to point out to any college student reading this that it has been completely manageable. I work a part-time job and am a full-time student, and have not been overwhelmed (beyond the typical stress of a student) by the workload.

I also want to mention that next semester I will be continuing my internship and have registered with my university to receive 3 credit hours for it! Which is super helpful.

I have a notebook completely dedicated to notes and logging everything I work on. I highly recommend this because it keeps you organized and on task, and it can even serve as a type of portfolio to show a future employer.

Since my internship is virtual, the most important resource I have is my laptop since I do all of my assigned work on it. I always leave open the following tabs:

My email

The platform BGrace Media uses to communicate and what is used to assign me tasks

Canva to work on creating content

Getting Started

The first thing I do when getting started is check-in.

This is important for virtual internships for a couple of reasons. One being it lets your employer know that you’re ready to get started for the day. Since you aren’t in person they have no other way of knowing. Second, this is when I am assigned something to get started working on.

It’s important that you value your employer’s time and especially with a virtual internship, that you do not waste any time. When you’re interning in-person you can’t really slack off, but it’s important you don’t do this virtually either. Employers hire interns for a reason and you don’t want to have them regret selecting you. Plus you want to still get all of the same experience as you would in-person.

The next thing I do, going back to using my notebook, I write down the work assigned to me for the day. I’m big on organization and to-do lists, so this really helps me stay on top of getting things done! And of course, it always feels good crossing things off your to-do list.

What My Work Consists Of

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’m an intern at BGrace Media! It’s a PR and marketing agency, which is exactly the type of company I am wanting to work for after graduation. Being a Communication major, specifically Multimedia Journalism, I really like creative work and writing. Luckily, I’m getting to do things that involve both of those.

Usually, I’m assigned to work on things like the following:

Create Instagram content for clients

Write blogs

Perform community engagement

Research for hashtags, etc.

Create captions for social media posts

Being able to gain experience in doing these types of things has genuinely helped me discover a passion of mine. Which is what internships are for!

Conclusion

If you’re interested in an internship or stressed about starting one, I hope this blog helps!

My day in the life as an intern consists of checking-in and keeping my employer updated on things, logging the things that I’m assigned to work on, and putting forth my best effort always. My experience has not been in any way like what is shown in movies and it’s really helped me plan for my future.

Personally, I think interning is one of the best ways to prepare for your career. It doesn’t have to be super overwhelming or intimidating.

You got this!