Exploring online internships amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: Results from case study #2: Mixed-methods study of 2 online internship networking platforms (OINP)

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In this section we report findings from analyses of both survey and interview data from the online
internship networking platforms (OINP) included in the study. When reviewing these results it is important
to recall that students who register on these vendors’ websites are not guaranteed an online internship
but instead gain access to employers’ position openings (as well as additional resources for their career
development) and must then apply for these positions in competition with other students on the website.
In addition, the survey data reported here only represent OINP-B’s student registrants, as the response rate
from students registered on OINP-A’s website was extremely low and thus did not warrant inclusion in this
report. However, interviews with students from both OINP-A and OINP-B are reported in this section.
First, survey results are reported for students who registered with OINP-B’s service (n=183), followed by
results from thematic analyses of interviews with students who registered with both OINP-A (n=24) and
OINP-B (n=21) are reported.

Data from surveys completed by students’ registered with OINP-B (n=183) are reported according to the
three Internship Scorecard categories: (1) prevalence, purpose and format, (2) program quality and (3)
equitable access.

Survey results: Prevalence, format and purpose of internships for OINP-B registrants

The first Internship Scorecard category pertains to some basic aspects of internship programming including
their prevalence among the study sample, their format, and then the reasons why students are pursuing them.

Prevalence of internship participation by student and institutional characteristics

Of the 183 students registered with OINP-B’s service who answered our survey, 120 (66%) had
successfully completed an internship with an employer features on OINP-B’s website. As will be reported
in the section outlining results from analyses of interview data, the actual participation rate for student
interviewees registered with both OINP’s is less than 50% (8% for OINP-A, 42% for OINP-B).

One explanation for this phenomenon from staff at one OINP is that demand from students was much
higher than available positions in 2020, and that successful students tended to be persistent and apply to
multiple positions before being selected. Further, we were told that some students simply did not present
well in terms of incomplete profiles and poor answers to questions on intake surveys, and that employers
were particularly sensitive to evidence of good communication skills and work ethic on these profiles.
In addition, this OINP provider noted that supply was likely constrained by the relative novelty (and thus
scarcity) of online internship for many employers that pre-dated the pandemic and was exacerbated by
the sudden shift from in-person to online modalities. Finally, some colleges were seen as being highly
successful in letting their students know about online internships, with active campaigns with employers
and alumni partners, while others were more passive and failed to engage these audiences.

The other OINP addressed this issue of relatively low participation by stating that in the early stages of
their company’s development, they realized that there were not enough internship opportunities from
employers, while there was considerable pent-up demand from students. This OINP recognized that
employers needed help in building their capacity to take on new interns, and so they prioritized efforts
to help employers develop new online internship programs. Further, representatives from this OINP
underscored the fact that they have a “platform for interns but do not place them in internships,” as they
also strive to help students with their professional development over time, with an important goal of
helping underrepresented students in particular achieve their career goals.

As a result of these findings of relatively low participation rates in the OINPs and the apparent causes, we
hope that future researchers examining the role of OINPs compare findings with 2020—a pandemic year
with potentially heightened demand amidst a low supply—and data from 2021 and onwards, while also
investigating the impacts of other non-internship services provided by these firms.

With respect to our survey data from OINP-B, the characteristics of the 183 students who responded to
our survey are depicted in Table 7, below, with a focus on certain demographic (i.e., gender, race, first generation status, international student status, caregivers’ income level and employment status) and
academic characteristics (i.e., enrollment status, major and GPA). Please note that among this entire study
sample, 18.6% were white and 46.5% Asian, which is different from the broader US population of college
students with 49% of white and 6.4% of Asian (IPEDS, 2019).

In addition, given the potential for online internships to “solve” the long-standing accessibility issue with
internships, where students face both financial and geographic obstacles to participation (see Hora et al.,
2020b), in Figure 8 below we depict the zip codes of the residences for the 183 students who answered
our survey.

As the figure indicates, a concentration of students who registered with OINP-B’s website were located in
the major metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City and Boston,
with others located throughout the rest of the country. It is also notable that 37 international students
were in our sample. These data indicate that students’ registering with OINP-B’s website certainly represented a wide range of states and countries, but that many of them tended to be clustered in major
metropolitan centers rather than non-urban or rural areas that are sometimes the focus of accessibility
efforts in higher education.

Next, we conducted statistical tests to examine if the differences between numbers of interns and
non-interns for specific groups (e.g., male or female students, first-generation or continuing-generation
students) were possibly due to chance, or if it is likely that the differences were not random and instead
indicate significant differences. While the results indicate differences between participation in online
internships on the basis of gender (37.3% male versus 62.7% female online interns), the differences were
not statistically significant. Similarly, despite differences in online internship participation on the basis of
race, first-generation status, international student status, caregivers’ income level, employment status,
major, and GPA, chi-square tests and independent T-tests on these variables shows that differences were
not statistically significant. For example, the mean GPA for those who participated in an online internship
was 3.5 (SD=0.5) and for those who did not was 3.6 (SD=0.3), and the analysis showed that the differences
in GPA between interns and non-interns were statistically insignificant.

In contrast, our analysis revealed that students’ participation rates in an online internship significantly
varied by their employment status (full-time, part-time or no job). Perhaps unsurprisingly, students who
had no current jobs or students working part-time had higher online internship participation rates (58.3%
(n=70) for the former; 40.8% (n=49) for the latter)—compared with 0.8% of students working full-time
(0.01 significance level). Given the potential for online internships to be more accessible than in-person
internships for working students, since an online position would ostensibly have more flexibility built-into
the work schedule, this finding is counter-intuitive and merits future research into the relationship between
online internships and student employment.

Finally, given the focus in this report on STEM disciplines (as this study was supported by the National
Science Foundation), here we delve more deeply into variations in online internship participation by majors
of the students. In Table 7, we report participation rates by 10 clusters of academic majors, but in Figure
10 below we depict online participation rates (among students registered with OINP-B) in three categories:
STEM, non-STEM and business due to the small sample size of some of the 10 clusters. The variation in
participation rates across these groups, however, was not statistically significant.

Next, we report key elements of the format of online internships with OINP-B, which aim to capture key
structural features of the design of these experiences. The indicators reported here are selected from the
Internship Scorecard framework (Hora et al., 2020a) and for this case study include the duration and sector
of students’ internships, along with the reasons why they sought these experiences. We include the latter indicator due to the fact that not all students have the same reasons for pursuing an online internship and
capturing variation in their intent is important to consider when interpreting other features (and outcomes)
of their experience.

Duration of online internships. Half of the student respondents who successfully completed an internship
with OINP-B (49%, n=47) reported that the duration of their online internship was 9-12 weeks, which is
different from traditional in-person internships as reported by NSCI respondents (26.5%, n=266).

As Figure 11 shows, approximately one in five online interns (22.9%, n=22) worked for 5 to 8 weeks and
one in ten (11.5%, n=11) for 13-16 weeks. The remaining categories for the duration of online internships
include: 17-20 weeks (6.3%, n=6); less than 4 weeks (5.2%, n=5); and more than 20 weeks (5.2%, n=5).
These results indicate that these online internships were decidedly not “micro-internships,” which tend to
last between 4-40 hours and are intended to be discrete, short-term projects.

Sector of online internship. Next, we report the organizational and industrial sectors represented by the
employer hosts of these online internships. For the students in our study sample who completed an
online internship, their positions were mostly at for-profit companies (63.5%, n=61), followed by nonprofit organizations (33.3%, n=32) and government agencies (3.1%, n=3). Online interns also worked in
17 categories out of 20 industry fields presented in the survey, with most interns working with employers
in the professional, scientific, and technical services fields (16.7%, n=16), educational services (15.6% or
n=15), other services (except public administration) (13.4%, n=13), and management of companies and
enterprises (11.5%, n=11). 33.4% (n=33) of online interns took an internship online hosted by STEMrelated employers including the health care field. Among students majoring in STEM and health care fields
(n=38), half of them (n=19) had an online internship experience in the STEM and health care-affiliated
fields.

Students’ reasons for seeking an online internship. Finally, nearly seven in ten students from OINP-B who
took our survey reported specific goals they hoped to gain during their online internship. These goals
included the development of “soft skills”2 (74.4%, n=99), adding to their resume to demonstrate experience
(73.7%, n=98), developing new technical skills (72.9%, n=97), growing their professional networks (69.2%,
n=92), exploring their career goals (69.9%, n=93), and applying coursework to real-world situations (53.4%,
n=71) answered that they hoped to apply coursework in real-world situations during the online internship.
In contrast, satisfying the requirements for graduation (11.35%, n=15) or getting a job at the internship
host (22.6%, n=30) were the two least chosen goals from survey respondents.

These results indicate that students in our study sample from OINP-B are less interested in getting a job
or satisfying institutional requirements, and are more focused on gaining skills, adding to their resume
or CV and expanding social networks. These motivations are important to consider for postsecondary
professionals and employers as these opportunities are designed, implemented and promoted.

Survey results: Features of online internship program quality for OINP-B registrants

As previously noted, in our survey for the two OINP’s some of the quality indicators for the Internship
Scorecard framework were excluded in the interests of survey length (e.g., presence of learning goals), and
here we report the indicators for internship quality that were included.

Supervisor support and mentoring. First, the literature indicates that supervisors’ active support of interns’
career development (i.e., supervisor support) is strongly associated with positive student outcomes
(McHugh, 2017), yet little is known about the nature of supervision in online internships. Questions for this
construct include four items that ask students about the extent to which they felt supervisors cared about
their well-being or respected them during the internship. The mean of the perceived support score was 3.8
(on a five-point Likert scale, with 1= not at all to 5=a great deal) with a standard deviation of 1, suggesting
a relatively high level of supervisor support, yet a somewhat lower level compared with 4.2 of all NSCI
interns. The average score of perceived mentoring quality is 3.2 with a standard deviation of 0.9, which is
lower compared to that of the supervisor support. This was a considerably lower score than those of NSCI
samples across three internship modalities (M=3.9 for NSCI in-person or hybrid interns; M=3.8 for NSCI
online interns).

Satisfaction with the internship. Next, we turn to the important question of whether students were satisfied
with their online internship. We find large majorities of online interns from OINP-B (86.5%, n=83) were
satisfied with their internship experience, including 12.5% (n=12) who were ‘Extremely satisfied,’ and
38.5% (n=37) who were ‘Very satisfied.’ By contrast, another 9.4% (n=9) reported that they are ‘A little
satisfied,’ and only 4.2% (n=4) expressed ‘Not at all satisfied’ with their online internship.

Developmental value of the internship. The final indicator for program quality that we report is students’
perceptions of how much their internship experiences have influenced their academic learning and career
development (i.e., developmental value). This scale consists of 10 items with two subscales using a fivepoint Likert scale (1 = none to 5 = a great deal). The five items comprising the developmental value for
students’ academics had an average score of 3.5 and standard deviation of 1.

The question receiving the highest level of academic developmental value pertained to the fact that
the online internship motivated students to look for more hands-on learning opportunities in the future
(M=3.8, SD=1.1), while the item in this scale receiving the lowest value asked students to rate how well
the internship enhanced their understanding of knowledge learned in their academic coursework (M=3.3,
SD=1.2).

In regard to the career developmental value of the online internship, the five items regarding
developmental value for students’ careers had an average score of 3.7 and a standard deviation of 0.9.
Roughly two thirds of respondents (63.5%, n=64) indicated that the online internship helps them clarify
their career goals ‘quite a deal’ (37.5%, n=36) or ‘a great deal.’ (26.0%, n=25), with a mean score of 3.8
(SD=1). In contrast, a relatively low score was reported for whether the online internship contributed to their identification of a specific organization to apply for a full-time job in the future (M=3.3, SD=1.4). In
fact, 28.2% rated this item as ‘None’ or ‘A little.’

We found the academic developmental value of OINP-B registrants was lower, compared with those of
NSCI online interns (M=3.6, SD=1) or NSCI in-person interns (M=3.9, SD=1)—those who had the lowest
and highest scores among NSCI interns. The career developmental value of the online internship continued
to be lower for OINP-B registrants than for the same NSCI comparison groups, that is, NSCI online interns
(M=3.8, SD=0.9) or NSCI in-person interns (M=4.0, SD=1).

Survey results: Equitable access

In this section we report findings regarding equitable access, which is not commonly considered an
indicator of internship quality or efficacy, but given findings regarding the financial burdens placed on lowincome students expected to work for low- or no-wages as well as the potential for unadvertised positions
to be solely pursued by well-connected students, here we report the compensation for online interns, how
they learned about their opportunities, and the obstacles keeping students from successfully taking an
online internship.

Compensation

For the 96 interns in our survey sample, 41.7% (n=40) of the students who took an online internship
were paid, while 58.3% (n=56) were unpaid (see Figure 14). In addition, for those students who received
compensation, their hourly wages were reported to range from $1.80/hour to $53.80/hour, with an
average of $17.90 (see Figure 15).

Source of online internship availability

Next, it is an open empirical question regarding how college students learn about internship opportunities,
with some concerns that employers, faculty and others may act as “gatekeepers” by restricting information
about internships to a select few students. In our study sample, we asked students how they learned
about openings, with the assertion that as open a process is desirable in order to democratize access
to internships. The largest number of survey respondents reported that they discovered their online
internship program (i.e., OINP-B) through a search engine (40.9%, n=54) or faculty or career advisors at their institution (34.9%, n=46). Friends or family were the least likely source for finding out about online
internship platforms or opportunities (11.4%, n=15).

Obstacles to accessing an online internship

Finally, one of the primary topics of interest in our various studies of college internships pertains to the
obstacles that keep students from successfully pursuing an internship, which may effectively represent a
form of “gatekeeping” that precludes students from pursuing these potentially transformative experiences
solely due to practical, financial or personal concerns or situations.

In the study sample of students registered with OINP-B, for the 50 students reported having not yet taken
an online internship, most (91.8%, n=45) still expressed interest in having an online internship experience.
These are students who signed up with OINP-B but hadn’t yet been successful in taking an internship
position. The most common obstacle keeping them from taking an online internship was simply not being
selected for internships they had applied to (77.8%, n=35), which underscores the competitive nature of
online internships via OINP’s in 2020. Other common obstacles reported by students include having a
heavy academic course load (66.7%, n=30), lack of internship opportunities in their field 55.6%, n=25),
and lack of knowledge on how to find an internship 53.3%, n=24). Less commonly reported challenges
were lack of time due to their current job (33.3%, n=15), lack of transportation (33.3%, n=15), and lack of
childcare (20%, n=9) (see Figure 16).

Survey results: Student experiences with COVID-19 and protests for racial justice

The final results we report from the survey of OINP-B student registrants pertains to the unique contexts
of 2020, especially the Black Lives Matter protests against anti-Black violence and the COVID-19
pandemic.

Observations about the Black Lives Matter protests in Summer 2020

A series of questions in our survey also inquired about the impacts of the protests against systemic racism
on students’ career goals and plans. Overall, 31.7% of respondents (n=58) indicated that their career goals
and plans were disrupted by the protests. Looking at the individual responses reporting the disruption
caused by the protests, we found that closer to one in ten (12%, n=22) answered they experienced
challenges in exploring new career opportunities in different fields or conditions. Further, 8.2% (n=15)
answered that career opportunities have disappeared (e.g., jobs, internships), followed by 7.1% (n=13) and
2.7% (n=5) reporting the difficulty of developing professional network professional skills, respectively.
Among Black students (n=25), about seven in ten (68%, n=17) indicated no impacts of the protests on
their career goals and plans. Twenty percent of Black respondent (n=5) acknowledged the protests led
to the limited opportunities to explore new career options in different fields or conditions, with 4% (n=1)
reporting the disappearance of jobs and challenges to strengthen professional network, respectively. Other
important impacts of the civil unrest and activism include: “made me consider deeply about company
culture”; “the civil unrest led to an internship program I am interested in to be created this year, which
focuses on underrepresented students.”; “It reminded me that all of this work has to be dedicated to
anti-racism.”; and “The protests affect the way in which I approach certain job interviews, based on the
company’s apparent political leaning.”

Students’ experiences with COVID-19

Survey respondents were also asked whether the pandemic impacted different aspects of their lives and
career plans. Nearly all the respondents (97.8%, n=179) shared that the pandemic reshaped their career
plans, with 93% (n=170) reporting a disruption in their career goals. Specifically, 50.3% (n=91) of the
students reported that career opportunities (e.g., jobs, internships) had disappeared, 17.5% (n=32) reported
a disruption in their exploration of new career opportunities in different fields or conditions, and 13.7%
(n=25) and 13.1% (n=24) felt that they were prevented from developing professional skills and professional
networks, respectively. It is also interesting to note, however, that some students reported some positive
experiences arising from the pandemic-induced changes to higher education and the labor market,
including changing schools and pursuing additional degrees, redirecting and re-strategizing career plans to
include online positions, and even being a full-time intern during the pandemic period.

Interview results: Students registered with Online Internship Networking Platforms

Next, we turn to the qualitative data collected for this study. First, we briefly report the number of student
interviewees who actually participated in an online internship with one of the two OINPs. In addition, given
the focus on STEM students in our study, we provide a breakdown of STEM majors in our sample (see
Table 8).

In our interviews with these 43 students we asked about a variety of issues that varied depending on
whether they had successfully taken an online internship with one of the OINPs. For the 11 students who
had taken an online internship, questions focused on the nature of their experience (e.g., duration, tasks,
type of supervision), their level of satisfaction (or not) with the internship, and whether the pandemic,
resulting economic challenges, or the anti-racism protests of 2020 had influenced their lives. For the 32
students who had not been able to pursue an internship, questions revolved around reasons why they
weren’t able to take an internship, general views on WBL, and their experiences in the summer of 2020.

The primary themes identified in these interviews are shown in Table 9, and are grouped into four
categories: challenges with pursuing an internship, reasons for pursuing an internship, perspectives on
internship quality, and student views on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the academic and professional pathways of many of the students
that we interviewed. Many students had to contend with cancelled classes and closed campuses, quickly
shifting from taking in-person to online classes, cancelled study abroad programs, and research projects
derailed due to closed field sites or laboratories. With respect to internships, students in our study spoke
about five themes that highlight how the pandemic disrupted not only internship programming but also the
lives, plans and well-being of many college students.

Cancelled internship opportunities. For several students in our study, their internships were cancelled as
soon as the COVID-19 pandemic forced a widespread shutdown in April and May of 2020. For these
students, amidst additional turmoil on campus with courses converting to online, campuses closing entirely
and students being sent home, this was an especially stressful period of time. In response, with the need
to gain professional experience, develop networks and hopefully earn money still intact, some students
turned to OINPs for internships, especially on campuses where their institutions were actively promoting
them as an ideal solution.

Failure to secure an internship via OINPs. For OINP-A only two of 24 (8.3%) students in our study
successfully completed an online internship, while for OINP-B nine of 21 (42.8%) students completed an
internship. As we discussed in a previous section, reasons for this relatively low participation rate provided
by the OINPs themselves included much greater student demand relative to the number of available
positions, students who were not strong applicants or pursued positions with insufficient energy, and a lack
of institutional support and promotion for these positions.

However, from the perspective of some students, it was not a matter of persistence or talent, but one of an
insufficient number of positions available for college students amidst the pandemic. As one student said:

“I was planning on signing up for something full-time or part-time after I graduated. However, I
applied for a lot of remote positions and did not receive any of them despite my extensive portfolio.
The fact that it was so competitive and I received so many rejection letters pushed me more and
more to consider going back to school to get my doctorate. Right now, going back to school is safer
than going into the job market during the coronavirus.”

Whether an online internship would have influenced this particular student’s trajectory is impossible to
know, but the competitive nature of the online internship market signaled to them that the labor market
writ large would also be competitive, which made graduate school a “safe” bet.

Limited support from campus Career Services Offices. One student described the response of the Career
Services Office (CSO) at his college as “grasping for straws,” as there was no coherent or effective effort
to serve students’ needs in a disruptive situation. For several students, they struck out on their own
to find information about internships, in some cases using social media, apps and the Internet to find
opportunities. As one student told us:

“I learned about (the internship) from TikTok. As a college student I barely have time to get a job. I
was just looking for little things to help me pay for college.”

At the same time, several students in our study mentioned that their CSOs did generate newsletters, emails
and social media postings about internship opportunities. As one student said, “I found out about the
internship through a career newsletter from my university.”

Financial issues and material hardship during pandemic. Students in our study also spoke about financial
hardship brought on by the pandemic, and how this added considerable stress to their lives and academic
pursuits. Students also mentioned being concerned about loved ones at home who were vulnerable to the
virus because of compromised health condition, and also the challenges of caring for children while schools
were closed and childcare scarce. Ultimately, many shared that they were making calculations on how to
balance critical obligations like school, employment, family, and finances, making internships in some cases
a secondary (and unimportant) consideration.

Consider one student we spoke with who described the challenging times her family was facing during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Her parents both lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, and she had moved
home to save the family the money it would have cost to keep her near her university. It was very tough
financially as her parents were supporting both their daughters, but the student was fortunate in landing an online internship that she did from home. Unfortunately, the power in the home was out during finals
and often during the workday due to problems with the local electrical system. The utility company would
not come out immediately because they needed to be sure the family wasn’t a COVID-19 risk, and during
those times she had to go to a neighbor’s home to use their power during her internship. She described it
as being “very scary because we didn’t know if it was safe to be near other people.”

Ultimately, students like this expressed that they were juggling a variety of tasks, responsibilities, and
concerns, not the least of which was the threat coronavirus posed to their safety and that of their loved
ones. This was especially the case for students from low-income and/or working-class backgrounds, where
family members were considered “essential” workers in retail or hospitality, and thus were at constant risk.
It is critical to understand that for many students in 2020, the prospect of an online internship was not
simply a matter of finding the right or best position, but instead was an intense struggle to advance their
career prospects while also dealing with the anxiety, stress and danger of a global pandemic.

Reasons for students to pursue an internship during the pandemic

Next, we turn to some of the reasons that students discussed regarding their reasons for pursuing an
online internship, which included the desire for new forms of capital, career exploration opportunities, and
to acquire remote working skills.

Acquiring capital for future career opportunities. Several students told us they were hoping that an
internship would translate into different types of capital, or resources in the form of social connections
or enhanced skills, later down the road. As one student shared, “It will help me find full-time employment
after graduation—it’s an opportunity to further my career,” primarily by helping the student to develop
new contacts in their chosen profession. For other students, new skills and aptitudes obtained via a “realworld” experience were seen as a valuable type of commodity or resource that could help them get a job
in the future. For instance, on student said, “Any internship experience contributes to your future success
by allowing you to build a deeper foundation and basically take the skills you learned in the classroom and
apply them to a real-life situation which is very important for applying for full-time work.”

Exploring different career options and occupations. Among the students that we interviewed were also those
that admitted they were uncertain of their future career paths and hoped that an internship could help
them decide what they wanted to do with their careers. One of these students told us, “I’m trying new
things in different sectors to understand better what I’m interested in.” These students saw doing short
term internships in a variety of industries as a way to learn more about professional opportunities that they
may want to pursue in the future.

Develop remote working skills, commonly seen as the future of work. Finally, several students commented on
the importance of remote working skills, which one student called “the future of work.” Given the growing
demand for remote workers amidst the pandemic, these students saw an online internship as a particularly
effective way to develop these skills, which included becoming adept at Zoom, remote team participation
and management, and engaging in multi-party projects with other remote workers. In this way, a remote or
online internship was seen as an experience uniquely well suited for developing this new skillset that some
students saw as essential to getting a job in a post-pandemic economy.

Student perspectives on the quality of their online internship

Next, we briefly report what students had to say about the quality (or lack thereof) of their online
internship experiences. These observations pertain to the nature of online work, the nature of contract
labor, supervision, and other indicators of the quality of the experience.

Nature of online internships tasks. While students did not speak extensively about the specific tasks that
they performed during their online internships, some did mention the fact that an online experience
necessarily eliminated the “hands-on” component of an internship. For positions in administrative or
managerial positions, this may not be an issue as in-person internships may in those cases involve
considerable amounts of computer work. But for students in fields that require or benefit from hands-on
tasks, such as nursing, archeology, bench chemistry, and so on, an online internship is simply not the same.
As one student said:

“I have no problem with online stuff but staring at a computer screen is not like hands on work done
working with somebody next to you to complete a project.”

Nature of contract work (OINP-A). For one of the OINPs in our study, the internships were primarily shortterm contracts or projects that students worked on for very short periods of time (e.g., 4-40 hours). In
these cases, the nature of the internship was decidedly different from one that lasted for weeks or months,
and where the relationship between intern and supervisor was not simply one of a single contract or task
being performed. With these in mind, some students in our study felt that these contractual arrangements
could lead to additional work. As one student said:

“I expected to put my foot in the door for some more exclusive companies that needed just very
quick contractual work.”

For other students, this type of internship was a good way to assess the nature of demand in the contractoriented labor market. For instance, one student remarked that:

“I had hoped that (OINP-A) would be a good way for me to write down multiple types of experiences
on my resume. However, now I’d say it’s a good way to see what types of things people are looking
for just to gauge the market to see what you can offer as a contractual person.”

For these types of internships, it is important to note that some observers are concerned that these
contractual projects are essentially “gig” labor, with potentially low pay and no benefits, and that these
experiences may be normalizing college students to these less-than-optimal types of labor arrangements
(Fisher, 2019).

Convenient and accessible. Next, many students spoke very positively about the convenience and
flexibilities of working remotely. One student spoke of the convenience of skipping a time-consuming
commute by working remotely from home, stating that, “Remote online internships offer conveniences,
they are more flexible, there’s no transportation time, and that makes things more simplified.” Another
student spoke about the power of technology connecting people for work, saying that, “I like online
internships, and technology is connecting people to get work done without having to come into the office
every day.”

Besides the conveniences of not commuting, students also spoke to the value of being able to work in
organizations away from their home, but without having to incur the expenses of relocating. One student
who had his dream for a summer internship dashed when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted his travel
plans, spoke enthusiastically about his online internship assignment, saying that:

“I got an internship in Dallas but couldn’t go because of the COVID pandemic, and was finally able to
get an online internship in California, and being online I saved lots of money not having to relocate to
the West Coast. The cost of living was too much and would have prevented me from participating.”

Problems with supervisor feedback and personal interactions. Students expressed concerns about their
engagement with their supervisors, and the generally poor communication with and lack of feedback from
them. One student explained that although he contacted his supervisor with questions about his project
work, he felt as though he was the at the bottom of her list of concerns. For this student, the frustrating
part was waiting around to get direction so that he could continue with his project. Another student said,
“One of the disadvantages of an online internship is not having a supervisor that you can interact with
regularly.”

For another student who otherwise gave a mostly favorable review of the online internship experience,
“Interactions online aren’t as potent as they would be face to face, and you don’t get the same dynamics
of working in-person with different people and reporting back to someone.” Another student also voiced
concern about the lack of supervisor interaction, sharing that some of this time during the online internship
was keeping busy while waiting for feedback from their supervisors. These observations are not unusual
for remote work in general, and aren’t surprising given the challenges facing both employers and workers
during the pandemic, but they should raise red flags about the online internship experience, which may
need more scrutiny and attention regarding the quality of supervision and task management.

Limited networking & connecting. Another concern among students regarding the online internship
experience was the issue of limited opportunities to network and engage socially with new co-workers.
Students lamented the loss of an in-person workplace experience where they could engage with peers
and mentors and craved the experience of getting to know colleagues and connecting with them over
work and around the proverbial water cooler. Networking, several students explained, was a way to make
an impression on regular staffers at the site of employment, a great way to learn more about the industry,
rising trends, and to cultivate letters of recommendation for future internship or job opportunities. As one
student said, “Not meeting people and not being in some sort of office situation stifles my networking
opportunities.”

However, not all students had negative views of the networking opportunities available while working
online. Students reported other ways in which they connected with colleagues and supervisors, such
as meetings with organizational leaders and other employees via Zoom and scheduled social hours. In
addition, being part of a remote, multi-party teams was a valuable experience for some interns, who
gained experience working on an increasingly common type of workplace arrangement. One student said,
“Because I served on a cross-functional team, I was able to meet people in different areas of the company
through my work.”

Technology challenges. We also highlight challenges that students had with internet access, connectivity
and overall technology issues during their online internships. One student described a persistent issue
with connecting to her employer’s remote servers, stating that, “It is harder to access IT support if you
have any tech problems when working remotely.” Another student explained that being quarantined in a
house where more than one person was using the internet led to slower internet service and even more
inconvenient disruptions. “With everyone being home there were issues with many people using the
Internet server at the same times, so there were times when I would have trouble having meetings online.”
These observations highlight that while some technology challenges may be ameliorated by employers via
better IT support, subsidies for internet access, and even company provided laptops, during the pandemic
there were other obstacles facing students that were beyond anyone’s control.

Student perspectives on diversity, equity and inclusion

Finally, we report observations made by students in our study about issues related to online internships
and diversity, equity, and inclusion. First, several students observed that online internships had the
potential to open access for people from groups that have not traditionally participated in internships. One
student mentioned that online internships should mitigate the costs of things like travel and renting a new
place in another town that may prevent low-income students from taking an internship. Another student
who previously shared that he faced barriers to participating in internships said,

“I really feel that online internships are giving opportunities to people who wouldn’t traditionally
go for these internships either out of financial obligations or financial hardships. It really does open
doors for people who traditionally aren’t represented in corporate America.”

Another student, however, shared a more negative side of the online internship experience. For this
student in an online internship cohort of 30, she was the only woman and person of color with a financial
services firm on Wall Street. As a first-generation, low-income student, and in an industry where being
personable and creating conversations are key to success, she recognized that she had to figure out a way
to engage and break through to her non-minority, white male internship colleagues. The most difficult
part of her job was participating in conversations with her colleagues who were different from her, not
so much about the technical languages or issues of mathematics and economics, but in the informal side
conversations that happened between or even during meetings, which often revolved around sports. After
her long internship days of working on a Bloomberg financial console, she would study the way people
spoke about sports by watching the sports streaming platform ESPN.

But even with these efforts, the student reported feeling tokenized, where people would look to her to be
a spokesman for issues regarding women or people of color. While this experience is likely not solely due
to it being an online internship, as such tokenization and discrimination is certainly present in in-person
internships, the lack of in-person conversations and opportunities for collegial interactions may exacerbate
differences while inhibiting chances for interns to forge connections with one another and their new
colleagues. In any case, research on internships in general and online internships in particular, needs to pay
much more attention to these issues of diversity, equity and inclusion than has been done in the past.

— This is the sixth of eight articles in this series. Click here to go to next article in this series. This series of articles is courtesy of the University of Wisconsin (Madison) Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT). To download the full report, go to http://ccwt.wceruw.org/research/technicalreports.html