All You Need to Know About Virtual Internships
Get started with Virtual Internships using these amazing sites!
Are Online Internships a waste of time? Do they really teach you anything? Do they really prepare you for an actual job? These are all fair questions, yes, but I want you to ask yourself: Would online internships exist if it doesn’t answer these questions?
Let’s start with a use case: You recently got admission into Oxford University in the UK. You are currently studying banking and finance, and are looking forward to working for either an audit firm or an Investment Banking firm when you graduate.
During the course of your years in school, you come across many career/job fairs and events. These events get you excited about life after school, but you still have no experience or a levelled idea of what it’s like to work for KPMG or Barclays.
This is where virtual internships come in, to fill in the gap between curious but ignorant minds of young graduates and the desire for professionals familiar with the business or industry by firms. Before you make a google search on “virtual internships” and get sucked into several links and sites begging you to make use of their platform for your virtual experience, here’s the reason why you are reading this: I have been able to filter based on my experience and research, two virtual internship platform that can provide you with adequate tools necessary to get you ready for your job interest or career — Bright Network and Forage
So let’s get right into it…
About Bright Network
Bright Network is a free membership network designed to help university students and recent graduates (primarily across the UK) connect with employers and get the support they need to fulfil their potential. They have helped over 15,000+ members secure internships and graduate roles over the last five years and they can help you too. By becoming a member of Bright Network, you have the following benefits:
- Access to sought-after internships and graduate roles with over 300 selected employers such as Dyson, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, Teach First, Mars and Sky.
- Introductions to leading employers at their networking events across the year.
- Expert members-only content to help you submit stand out applications to these employers.
- Exclusive and personalised advice from recent graduates.
During the crazy pandemic period, I had my fair share of depression and obscurity as to what the future held for me. I had a clear plan as to what career I wanted to break into, made several applications but still no positive feedback from employers. In the first week of July 2020, a friend of mine sent me for a 3-day Consulting Internship experience with Bright Network UK and I didn’t hesitate to apply. I made an application via the link, sent in my personal details as well as the reason I wanted to participate in the internship. Few days later, I got an email qualifying me for this internship and I was introduced to their virtual meeting platform — Hopin.
The brief of this internship was that I would be spending 3 days with other young graduates and professionals to learn about the Consulting industry through experts from partner firms such as: Bain & Company, Alpha FMC, PwC, Elixirr, Accenture, Capital Group and PA Consulting. Each of these companies had their time schedule and based on the time zone you are in, spanned for a total of 8 hours (with short breaks in between).
On Day 1, interns made use of the Hopin platform to connect with other interns as a way to get to know each other and connect, and when the strain of over 1000+ students making use of the platform at the same time, others created WhatsApp groups to continue such conversations (I am on this table). In the later hours, we went through several sessions with the above firms, learning about the Consulting industry and how they did business. It can be overwhelming to gather all that valuable information in one virtual meeting, which makes this internship experience excellent. You are able to collaborate and connect with other interns who are excellent note takers to compare notes as both parties are looking to learn and grow. Also, another key benefit of such experience is that other interns can be able to ask questions that you didn’t know to ask which gives you in-depth knowledge about the industry as well.
On Day 2, we were taught about a typical consulting related work case study and how consultants work to find those answers suitable to meet their clients’ needs. After that session, we were given a deliverable to complete collaboratively. This task matches the case study that we were taught, but we had to do our own research in order to complete it. This is also another benefit of a collaborative internship experience — you could be able to draw insights from the knowledge and experience of other interns, which was what we did to complete the task. I would like to clearly state that the ideal answer was to be shared the next day, and there was no pressure to get the “right” answer, as the task was just a sample to get us to have a personal experience with understanding what it’s like to work as a consultant on a daily basis.
On Day 3(Final Day), we were informed about the model answer to the task (We failed with honors…..Lol) and it enabled us to fill in the gaps we had to our respective answers. After our questions regarding the model were answered, we then had a session where we met representatives of partner firms who briefed us on their companies and answered questions ranging from how to get an internship with the firm, making career choices, to how to write a CV, cover letter and send an application. Overall, I had an amazing 3-day virtual experience with Bright Network, and made lots of connections on LinkedIn with people who had shared career interests with me. I was also issued a certificate of participation, and I did a small post on LinkedIn about my experience here. If there’s any virtual internship experience to look out for, Bright Network is definitely the one. They also send out mails periodically for graduate job openings which can be very beneficial.
About Forage
Forage (Formerly Inside Sherpa) is an open access platform designed to unlock exciting careers for students by connecting them with company-endorsed Virtual Work Experience Programs. These Virtual Work Experience Programs are online programs built and endorsed by leading companies. They contain a series of resources and tasks designed to simulate the real-world experience of starting a career. By completing a Forage Virtual Internship you will:
- Better understand the diverse and exciting career pathways available to you; and
- Build the skills and confidence that will set you up for success as you move from the world of study to the world of work.
I stumbled on Forage in 2019 while I was in my final undergraduate year. It was recommended by a colleague who had recently graduated, and shared a link to a KPMG Data Analytics Virtual Internship program within Forage. As I navigated through the platform; I saw that it was free, and they were offering key details of a work-like experience with KPMG in 3 sections. Like the Bright Network Internship experience, every section had a model question with key background information to answer, and then the model answer would be released after you have submitted your own answer to the question. That way, you are being engaged to take initiative, and be creative enough to explore the answers yourself, before being fed with the ideal answer. This went on for the 3 different sections, each filled with 3 different tasks.
When that is done, you can equally announce your completion of the Internship and your certificate of participation would be generated which is definitely a booster for your vacant CV. Forage platform enables you to build a profile to your account which details out a portfolio of completed deliverables, add your CV and other relevant information which helps partner companies of Forage reach out to you for the right roles. Yes, Forage matches your skills and interests to the companies seeking for them. One key benefit of Forage is being able to learn at your own pace, not being pressured with time constraints like Bright Network, but what it lacked(like many online learning platform) was that sense of collaboration or willingness to finish a particular program by the individual, due to non-participation of other virtual interns like you. There is always something special about having interactions during learning or classes. Collaboration always brings about ideas and a different perspective to situations, which makes learning engaging and interesting.
While there are other platforms that are ideal to give you the virtual internship experience you desire, these two platforms can help you get started down that path and develop the right sets of interests, skills and career necessary for you to grow personally and professionally.
Thank you so much for reading this piece. If you fancy contents like these, feel free to give me a follow and clap for this article. I have lots of contents in store to help the young student/professional, so stay tuned!
