Securing a remote internship requires monumental effort. You need to create an excellent resume and portfolio that showcases your skills and highlights. Then, find your preferred internship from a plethora of opportunities worldwide, apply, and actually get to the virtual interview, and succeed in that interview. One might think that is the end of the grinding, but things just start there.
The entire process of finding a remote internship and securing one can be extremely demanding, especially for someone starting in their career. It is natural to place all focus on the task at hand, but it is also important to reflect on the internship.
Internship reflection provides the much-needed clarity on what has worked for you and what has not within the short duration of your internship. It can lead you to assess your realistic progress over the quantitative achievements you may have unlocked.
In this blog, we’re giving you the push to reflect on your recent remote internship, a framework to assess your goals and achievements, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and plan your next steps for a fruitful career ahead.
Reviewing Your Goals and Achievements
Internship reflection is all about tracing your steps and assessing your progress. Going into the remote internship, you might have had a few personal and professional goals in mind. We’re providing a 3-step framework to assess the completion of those goals and how you can identify the gaps.
Step 1: Revisit Your Initial Goals
Think deeply about the goals you set for yourself before the internship began. This could be growth precursors like skill expansion and knowledge acquisition, or experience-based, like securing an experience certificate or gaining expertise in project management.
Step 2: Measure Your Progress
Did you meet, exceed, or fall short on each goal? Document your progress by referring back to your remote internship experience. Take into account feedback from your supervisors, evaluation reports, and whatnot that can back your claims.
Step 3: Mind the Gaps
Identify if there are goals that remain incomplete. It is crucial to pinpoint the challenge that sets you back from completing your goals. Having established the gap, you can rectify it using the right solution. For example, if you struggled with time management to complete things on time, a good solution would be prioritising your daily tasks, setting clear internal deadlines, and constructing a work timetable.
Planning Your Next Steps
Now that you have reflected on your progress, it is time to determine your next steps using these takeaways.
What Next?
Having the perspective of doing a remote internship, how would you calculate the next step? Do you prefer pursuing further studies, doing another internship, or transitioning into full-time employment? People often spend way less time ensuring if their career path is right for them, over spending time to progress in that career. If your internship experience suggests that the industry isn’t suitable for you, you can simply decide to switch over to another industry of your preference.
Update Your Materials
Always be success-ready. Finishing up an internship is a great junction to update your CV and portfolio with your most recent and relevant experience, and showcase your accomplishments. These resources are an extension of your profile that plays a pivotal role in shaping your career and onward life.
Set an Action Plan
Depending on the pathway you choose to take, create an action plan. Set a finite time, like a plan for the next 30 days or 90 days, and include job/university applications, networking, courses and certification, and skill empowerment to your schedule.
Conclusion
Your remote internship may be over, but its impact is just beginning. This remote internship has revealed valuable professional and personal facts about yourself, your preferences, and your receptiveness towards a particular role and industry.
With the right career introspection, you can potentially realise something other people find through endless years of working or even career counseling. You will find the answer to the simple question, “Can I do this and excel at it for the next 20-30 years?”.
