08 Nov How to Elevate Your Resume w/ Virtual Internships
You have an incredible currency right at your fingertips. You’re Gen-Z, and by default are already prepped and primed for the current business climate. Companies are searching for people with technological skills, especially as we trend toward a more digital workplace. So if you already have thai advantage, you can simply relax and let the work come to you, right? You think that because of your youth, you’ll have less competition for eventual positions?
Wrong!
While you do have a major advantage in the workforce, you also need to maximize its potential in order to really see the benefits. Enter in: the virtual internship. Virtual internships are a budding opportunity as a result of many companies going remote after the pandemic. In order to continue to offer opportunities to young people, many companies have developed a virtual internship. These can be beneficial to interns for numerous reasons, but the biggest being widening of opportunity. Now, interns can gain experience almost anywhere for very low cost from the comfort of their home! Experiencing a virtual internship will help expand your resume and add in important digital skills that will leap from the page when a future company is reading your resume.
Adaptability and Flexibility
Perhaps one of the most useful traits now apparent on a resume post- virtual internship, is the individual’s adaptability and flexibility. In today’s work world, companies greatly value employees who can roll with punches and take accountability for their own work without getting stuck in one spot. By having participated in a virtual internship, you’ve already demonstrated that you can remain fluid in times of difficulty.
Virtual internships offer a plethora of benefits, but of course, they can require the intern to learn how to be flexible in finding solutions as well as in learning new things quickly without getting discouraged. You demonstrate on your resume that you have the ability to work independently, learn new technologies quickly, and thrive in all sorts of work environments. These qualities will stand out on your resume when applying for future opportunities. Your virtual internships will signal to potential employers that you can handle any and all challenges thrown at you by today’s workplaces.
Communication Skills
Many choose to put soft skills on their resumes such as effective communicator or perhaps, trustworthy. In modern day, this does absolutely nothing for your employer other than waste precious white space on your resume. Employers don’t want you to tell them you can communicate, they want to see it! A major benefit of a virtual internship is the development of various types of communication skills. Many virtual work settings rely on written communication to talk amongst themselves, and learning to send a proper email is an invaluable art! Not only this, but chat services such as Slack and Teams will already be familiar to you (more than familiar!) as someone who completed virtual internships.
You’ll also get plenty of experience collaborating with others through virtual internships. While it can be simple to collaborate in person because you are physically next to other people, being able to collaborate digitally speaks well… volumes. Using tools and video conferencing demonstrates the ability to learn new tech, implement it, and find new ways to work with and speak to your peers in order to accomplish an overall goal. As we see offices continue to utilize this tech even in person with video conferencing still remaining a factor of every day work regardless of in person or out of office status, it can set you apart massively to already be an expert there.
Time Management and Self Motivation
Virtual internships demand that the intern establish an effective time management ability as well as deep self discipline. Even the most tenured workers can struggle with managing the time they spend at work and making sure to remain productive, so having a young person with experience with this, is excellent. When you choose this option for an internship, you show future employers that read your resume that you have the ability to set your own schedule and meet deadlines effectively, because that is the nature of remote work. You can work without prodding! You also display an ability to work autonomously as well as to meet project deadlines all without the nags of your employer in order to do so. By having participated in virtual internships, your resume says to recruiters, “Pick me! I can juggle multiple tasks while also staying present and managing my own time. I won’t simply do nothing when there aren’t eyes on me! I take this seriously.” Perhaps the biggest fear for many around remote work, is how on earth people manage their time. By earning experience in this skill early on in your career, you can become a master when it comes time to put it to use.
Broader Perspective
In general, by experiencing virtual internships, you’ve already given yourself the gift of a new perspective, and that is something your future resume will thank you for. Not only will you stand out among the competition, but you also likely have better access to more opportunities as well as a global group of people to learn from and work with.Virtual internships usually involve collabing with individuals from various cultural backgrounds. This can demonstrate your capacity to work in diverse teams- a hugely important skill in today’s business climate. Compared to those who took internships local to their homes, you likely have been exposed to significantly more perspectives and people, seasoning your own.
Overall, virtual internships can reward you handsomely when reflected in a resume. Employers will see your experience online and deduce one thing: that you are very much worth hiring. The skills gained from virtual internships transfer beautifully to whatever it is you choose to do next, whether that be in person or remote. These skills are things that can take other candidates years to learn, and because of the added difficulty of working remotely, you’ve already mastered and displayed your skillset.
No Comments