3 Strategies To Build Relationships During Your Virtual Internship

3 Strategies To Build Relationships During Your Virtual Internship Do you have a Virtual Internship coming up? Are you wanting to know h...

3 Strategies To Build Relationships During Your Virtual Internship

Do you have a Virtual Internship coming up? Are you wanting to know how you can network and still build those important professional relationships, even though you're not going to be in an office interacting with people every day since it's now a Virtual environment? Well, don't worry. It is doable. And I have three very specific tactics for you in this video, to give you the touch points that you need to make stronger professional connections and grow your network during a Virtual Internship. Hit that like button if you're excited to learn how to apply these tactics at your Internship, and don't forget to subscribe to get new articles every single week on this blog.

 

3 Strategies To Build Relationships During Your Virtual Internship

Let's do this! Quick, before I dive into my tips for networking at your Virtual Internship, I want to touch on a couple of other helpful resources. I focused on Zoom as the platform, since it is the most popular these days, but the tips will help you optimize your video call setup on any platform. Alright, let's go over the 3 Strategies that I recommend to help you build relationships at your Virtual Internship. And I encourage you to try all three of these, because each one will serve you differently. 

1. Connect With your Manager:

Connect with your manager in a weekly one-on-one. Don't have a manager at your Internship? That's okay. But you can find someone else to connect with consistently. This could be the internship program coordinator for the company, or a department lead that is mentoring you, or maybe it's the owner of a project that you've been assigned to work on. Figure out who this person is for you, and get confirmation of who this person is at the beginning of your Internship, and then make a point to connect with them consistently throughout your Internship. You should be meeting with this individual one-on-one, every week at a minimum. This gives you a regular touch point to make sure that everyone's on the same page and that you are moving in the right direction. So set up a video call for the same day and time each week, and don't drop this meeting or schedule over it. If a conflict does arise maybe your manager has another meeting that they need to attend instead - that's fine. But work with them to find a new day and time for your one-on-one that week. 

Now, these one-on-one meetings are crucial for your success at any internship, but even more so at a Virtual Internship where the consistent connection with someone in a mentorship or coaching relationship can provide you with the context. And confidence that you need to do a good job. It should be a meeting that you look forward to each week, because it gives you a platform to share your wins, and ask questions and build understanding. And if you do these meetings right, this person who you're meeting with should become a trusted advisor and an advocate for your professional development and success at this company. They will become an important part of your professional network. When you meet with this individual (weekly), you should use the time to present project updates for things that you'reworking on, get feedback from them, ask questions, pitch new ideas, and review progress towards any goals that you set when you started this Internship. 

I always recommend that the intern lead these one-on-one meetings. That means you create the agenda, and you keep the meetings productive and on track with a simple one-on-one meeting worksheet. And a one-on-one meeting worksheet is a standardized document for you and your manager to collaborate on. And it encourages communication and results. I will talk more about this one-on-one worksheet and what should be included in one in a future video about tracking your experience during your Virtual Internship, so make sure that you are subscribed to this so that you don't miss out on that future articles. 

2. Build Relationships:

Build relationships with even more people at the company outside of the manager you're having one-on-ones with, is to schedule virtual coffee chats with employees. I've talked about these virtual coffee chats before, because they're so valuable. One of the great benefits of an Internship is getting to interact with people who work in a variety of different departments and roles at the company. And these interactions allow you to expand your understanding of a company and an industry, and create connections that grow your professional network, and also explore new projects that you could potentially get involved with to add even more experience and skills to your resume. And I know I'm stating the obvious here, but at a Virtual Internship, you don't get to greet a new person by the coffee machine each morning and ask them questions about what they do at the company, or what projects they're currently working on. That's why I'm suggesting that you set up virtual coffee chats with people. 

Virtual coffee chats are 15 to 20-minutes phone or video calls that you initiate with employees at the company. And depending on how big the company is, I suggest going for two to five of these each week. Identify people that you would like to learn from, and then reach out to them introducing yourself and asking for 15 to 20 minutes of their time. Just like you would for an informational interview. I have an entire video on how to reach out for an informational interview, if you want to learn more and get a template. But reaching out to people at a company that you're currently an intern for should be even easier than if you were to reach out to someone for an informational interview who you have no connection to. So take advantage of this time as an intern, with the opportunity to connect with so many professionals, and schedule your virtual coffee chats. Don't like coffee? That's fine. That's not the point. That's just a cute name for connecting with someone, virtually. The important part is that you make the connection. 

Set a goal for yourself - how many people would you like to connect with at the company before your Internship is over? Then break that down by how many people you would need to connect with each week to meet your goal, and get to reaching out and building those relationships. Other benefits can come out of this virtual coffee chats as well. All of a sudden more people know who you are. You're not just the intern. They know you by name. They know what you're interested in. And maybe they even have a project or two that you could help out with. Plus, just think about how much more accomplished you're gonna feel at the end of each day(and each week), if you could look back at your calendar and see how many great conversations you've gotten to have with people. It could turn a slow week at a Virtual Internship into a very productive one. 

3. Focused on Your Peer Group:

Establish intern lunch and learns. Are there other interns going through this Internship Program at the same time as you? Are you part of an intern cohort? Think about how you could build relationships with other interns as well. You never know who they're going to go on to become in their careers, or who they may be able to introduce you to down the road that could lead to new professional opportunities for you. So take the time to get to know the other interns as well. Again, you don't have the luxury of going to lunch with your peers, because this is a Virtual Internship. But that doesn't mean that you can't schedule virtual lunch and learns over Zoom (once every couple weeks or once a month) to socialize and learn about what other people are working on. Chances are not every intern at the company is working on the same projects that you are. Oftentimes, interns are hired into a variety of different departments. Wouldn't it be great if you could learn about the projects that they're working on, and get a sense of the Internship experience through their lens? Good news! You can. Just schedule some lunch and learns with them. 

And how great would it look if you're the intern who takes the initiative to suggest and establish these lunch and learns? Come up with a consistent format, maybe a few questions that each intern presents on when it's their day to lead, and then set up a calendar invite to get all of the other interns involved. These informal, virtual sessions also give all of you interns an opportunity to practice your presentation skills to a group of people. That's a bonus! With all three of these tactics that I just shared to help you build relationships as a Virtual Intern, make sure that you are following up and keeping in touch with these people. Add them as connections on LinkedIn, and stay connected to them throughout the year. That's what it means to grow a professional network. Be in it for the long term and add value. Your connections will be a lot more inclined to do the same for you in return. 

Thanks for reading! If this article gave you some new insights today, please give it a like and share it with a friend or two. Hit that subscribe button, so that you don't miss out on future articles.