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There are a couple problems I see here: 1) The biggest one that jumps out is having an intern working remotely. First, I am surprised your school would even al

There are a couple problems I see here: 1) The biggest one that jumps out is having an intern working remotely. First, I am surprised your school would even allow this to happen. To be honest, this almost sounds like a favor from an alumni CEO to the school and he/she could really care less about having an intern. Internships are supposed to be learning experiences. You should be immersed in an environment to give you experience. In another post, you said something about the company is in Silicon Valley and you are in the midwest and that you can't spend any time with them. To be blunt, that is a lame excuse. You should ask them to fly you out, or even cover your own travel expenses if they won't, to even spend a day with the team. Meet them, work with them in person. 2) Most startups themselves don't always have a clear path and they still may be working on defining the tasks that need to be done. Are you the only one working remotely? If not, you should see if you can be involved in their meetings. See what they are working on, how their tasks are defined, and what their deliverables are. Find ways to work with them or emulate their delivery process. If you are the only one working remotely, the company probably could care less about you as an intern. I don't mean that rudely, just that they look at it as they will give you a project, if you get some done great, if not oh well nothing lost.

eddieroger 10y ago
I agree with #1 and was thinking basically the same thing. Most of what I did during my internship, and what I help foster in the inters today at the same company, is the idea of socializing with other coworkers and other areas of the company. An internship is a taste of moving away from college in to the corporate life, and help determine if that's something interesting to the intern (and it's sometimes not, admittedly). A remote internship sounds effectively like a class with no lecture sessions, which will make it feel effectively like college. It sounds like a neat opportunity, but also like they're definitely missing something by not being onsite. The OP should definitely try to spend a week onsite - I work remotely now, but didn't always, and the weeks onsite are invaluable to the interpersonal relationships that make working remotely possible.
- jeffmould 10y ago
  Absolutely. As much as working remotely can be rewarding, like you said, there is a need for some level of interpersonal relationships. A remote internship to me, would be like doing an online class without a syllabus or professor. Here's your book, figure out what you need to learn and how to learn it. If the company isn't willing to have the intern on-site, even for a day, that to me says more about the company.

eddieroger 10y ago

I agree with #1 and was thinking basically the same thing. Most of what I did during my internship, and what I help foster in the inters today at the same company, is the idea of socializing with other coworkers and other areas of the company. An internship is a taste of moving away from college in to the corporate life, and help determine if that's something interesting to the intern (and it's sometimes not, admittedly). A remote internship sounds effectively like a class with no lecture sessions, which will make it feel effectively like college. It sounds like a neat opportunity, but also like they're definitely missing something by not being onsite. The OP should definitely try to spend a week onsite - I work remotely now, but didn't always, and the weeks onsite are invaluable to the interpersonal relationships that make working remotely possible.

jeffmould 10y ago
Absolutely. As much as working remotely can be rewarding, like you said, there is a need for some level of interpersonal relationships. A remote internship to me, would be like doing an online class without a syllabus or professor. Here's your book, figure out what you need to learn and how to learn it. If the company isn't willing to have the intern on-site, even for a day, that to me says more about the company.