4 Tips for a Successful Remote Internship
My MVW Communications story has been previously told here, but in short, I met Melissa in November of 2022 at the PRSSA ICON International conference in Dallas, Texas. I attend Northern Michigan University in Marquette, about 1,500 miles from San Antonio, Texas, where MVW Communications is located.
For the past year, I’ve been working remotely for MVW Communications, and here’s how I succeeded:
Learn how your colleagues prefer to communicate.
If they don’t tell you, ask! Knowing how your boss or colleagues like to be contacted during the workday is key to success. Since you’re remote, you can’t necessarily walk into your colleague’s office to ask questions, so you must know the best way to reach them. For pressing questions, I typically send a text unless there are multiple concerns that warrant a longer communication.
Keep in mind the time zones and time differences!
Marquette, Michigan, is in the Eastern time zone, while San Antonio is in the Central time zone, which means I am ahead by an hour. Going into my internship, I realized this would be important, but I didn’t realize quite how important. Yes, I did miss a webinar because of the time change, so I know from personal experience.
Through that unforgettable experience of having to text my boss and tell her I messed up, I learned to implement these things:
Read emails twice.
Check times twice.
Use your Google Calendar like your life depends on it. Set up all events in the time zone local to your company. They’ll show up on your calendar in Eastern time for when you’ll need to be online.
I eventually learned to start “speaking in the Central time zone” because that’s where the majority of the team is. Subtract the hour, do the math on your own time, and refer to meetings at the time they’ll happen for everyone else. It’s easier on everyone.
Use technology to your advantage.
As I mentioned before, put everything in your calendar. As Melissa says, “If it’s not on my calendar, it isn’t happening!”
Loom is a screen recording tool we use at MVW. It allows you to record your screen and audio in order to walk through an explanation or any sort of feedback you may need to give or receive.
Otter AI records meetings and makes a transcription. This tool is very helpful for creating meeting recaps or backtracking to double-check a detail from a meeting. Remember, the Otter AI will join meetings automatically, so make sure you turn that off in settings.
Texting
As I mentioned, learn how your colleagues like to communicate, but at MVW, we send text messages for immediate needs or quick questions.
Phone Calls
When email starts to get chatty back and forth, give your coworker a phone call if possible. It’s much easier to work out details by phone than to try to communicate these via text.
Zoom is what MVW uses for our team and client meetings. It’s easy to share screens and see each other's faces since we don’t often have that opportunity in person.
Raise your hand for “behind the scenes” assignments.
For example, working remotely means you can’t be on-site for video and photo shoot days, but there’s still work to be done. Raise your hand and volunteer to assist with creating a run of show doc ahead of time to ensure that the shoot days run smoothly and everyone knows when and where to be on-site.
Although working remotely takes away the opportunity to have in-person meetings and experiences, there are ways to make it work and get the most out of it. After the learning curve, success can be found.
I look forward to putting all I’ve learned into practice as an apprentice at MVW and my future career after graduation. MVW Communications has not only given me invaluable skills but has also prepared me well to work from anywhere in the future!