What Happens on a Remote Internship in Bali
Rhiannon Osborne — Tonner
You open up Instagram, have a quick scroll, does it seem like everyone you know is in Bali?
A bunch of them are on holiday, but nestled amongst the bikini beach photos and images of smoothie bowls there are a collection of people who seem to be working.
Perched in front of their laptop, they are claiming to be doing an internship and alleging that work is taking place.
If you’re like most people you’ve probably dismissed their claims as lies and think the laptop pictures are staged.
But you’d be wrong.
I think I know the reason why so many people on your feed appear to be interning in Bali this summer.
Enter, Start Me Up. Specializing in remote startup internships, Start Me Up runs a travel internship program — mainly out of Bali.
If you’re feeling skeptical right now, you’re not alone. It can take a while to wrap your head around the concept. It took me a while to get on board. It can take even more time for your parents to wrap their heads around it.
It seems fake right? Interning for a startup in Bali, that can’t be real? But it is. Start Me Up is 100% real. And 100% real work experience.
I first heard about Start Me Up early last year. And after inspecting the website thoroughly, I saw that Start Me Up was hosting an event at my university (UCL) so thought it probably wasn’t a shell company in the Cayman islands.
I was still a little skeptical, the whole thing seemed too good to be true. In the end I was convinced it was real and I joined a cohort last summer and I spent one month interning for an app development project working in UX. An area I barely knew existed, let alone even considered working in.
A year later I’m back in Bali as a member of the Start Me Up team, posting more photos of instagrams of me with my laptop and annoying my friends.
We have quite a big support team of project managers and mentors helping to manage the program.
With many of our interns working remotely for the first time, providing support and direction is often needed while they find their feet.
We also have a network of mentors and instructors who deliver workshops on a range of topics such a startup ideation and UX design.
So what actually happens on an internship in Bali?
We’ve had interns working on projects ranging from data analysis and marketing analytics to video editing programming and even electric vehicle battery design.
Interns from over 15 countries have collaborated with startups from over 10 countries across a range of sectors from social enterprise to artificial intelligence.
Bali isn’t just the current ‘it’ holiday destination, it’s a major hub for many of the world’s remote workers and digital nomads. The island’s home to about 14 co-working spaces, which are often voted among the best in the world.
It’s a great place to get inspiration from others who are already forging their own, often remote, careers. And a far cry from the dreary options touted at most university careers fairs.
Therefore next time you see someone you know alleging they’re interning for a startup in Bali, don’t dismiss their claims out of hand.
They just might be.
Find out more about Start Me Up here.
