How to Make the Most of Your Remote Internship
By Michelle Quin and Anjali Devakumar, UX Research Interns @ Chewy
Chances are, if you had an internship this past Summer 2020, you spent the entire time sitting at home glued to your screen. That’s what happened for the two of us, who expected 10 weeks of working in Boston at Chewy, but instead found ourselves adjusting to an entirely remote UX Research internship. Like countless other companies, Chewy was forced to move their summer internship to a remote capacity due to the evolving nature of COVID-19.
For both of us, this was not only our first remote internship but also our first corporate UX internship. We didn’t know what to expect and wondered if we’d be able to feel fully embedded in our team, contribute effectively to our projects and make meaningful connections while avoiding Webex fatigue. And how were we supposed to wrap our heads around the fact that we may never get to see our coworkers beyond their floating heads?
Although the adjustment period was jarring, and at times we wondered if any of this was even real, we feel that we received tangible value from our virtual experience.
Looking back now after our 10-week internship, we wanted to give a candid glimpse into our work-from-home (WFH) summers and provide tips that personally helped us make the most out of our time at Chewy.
1. Establish communication styles ASAP.
During the first week, we saw our calendars quickly fill up as we met our team, read up on existing documentation and got started on our projects. In the midst of everything happening that first week, our mentors made sure to establish communication styles that suited our needs and dynamics. We both appreciated that our mentors brought this up in our first meetings, as it set the tone for the entire internship.
Michelle: My mentor set up a daily morning call with me in addition to a longer weekly 1-on-1 “discuss anything” chat. Being an extrovert who loves talking through ideas and updates, my mentor’s approach worked well for me and the calls gave me the energy to start my day.
Anjali: I set up a weekly call with my manager and sent her a daily end-of-day update of what I worked on. As I’m more introverted and would feel burnt out by a daily call, sending quick email updates to communicate my progress and directly state issues to my manager worked best for me.
💡 Figure out your work communication style with your manager as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary miscommunication and stress. Our summer was more effective because we were able to convey our thoughts and progress effectively.
2. This is real!
Make sure to remind yourself that this experience is “real” and that the people you’re working alongside are also humans going through similar experiences as you.
When everything takes place on a screen and you’ve never met your coworkers in person, it’s easy to feel like everything is detached and intangible.
What helped the two of us was to ask each other seemingly obvious questions, such as how tall we are and what our fashion senses are like. While these types of conversations might sound strange, we laughed and bonded over the absurdity and awkwardness of it all. We were able to paint a fuller picture of each other and formed a very real and substantial connection (and established that Michelle is 5'4" and Anjali is 5'1").
💡 If you’re working with other interns, be real with each other and get past the fact that you may not ever meet in person. Who knows, this may even lead to you cowriting Medium articles with each other by the end of the internship!
3. Reach out to the team and beyond.
A few weeks into the internship, we found ourselves becoming more and more ingrained into Chewy’s culture and working on multiple research projects at a rigorous yet fulfilling pace. At this point, we had already reached out to members on the research team for 1-on-1 introduction chats, and were starting to reach out to members outside our team (designers, product managers and content strategists) to broaden our view of Chewy as a company.
💡 Schedule 1-on-1s with people inside and outside your team to understand how different roles interact and to solidify your career path. Be sure to give yourself enough time to establish a network without the organic interactions you’d get in person (coffee breaks, grabbing lunch, etc.).
4. Being personally mindful with your WFH routine.
Towards the end of the internship, we found ourselves entirely immersed in our projects, team and virtual workplace. However, we found work-life balance more challenging than prior weeks due to the increasing workload and the fact that the internship was nearing the end. Although we felt that we were accomplishing a lot with our work, we needed to be more mindful of taking breaks and knowing when to call it a day. Our managers and HR were also proactive in telling us to make sure we take screen breaks, but it was really up to us to synthesize their advice.
💡 You’ll hear this a lot if you haven’t already, but do take mindfulness and work-life balance to heart! There is no “correct” approach to this. We both found ways to fit mindfulness strategies to our situations and needs.
Anjali: I spent the summer at my parent’s house in Texas and had space to fully separate my office environment from my bedroom and my family. I kept a yoga mat by my desk to do short stretches, walked my dog with my family every evening, walked downstairs when I was ready to call it a day, and even used a blue light filter on my computer to reduce eye strain.
Michelle: I was based in a small Manhattan apartment this summer where my work desk is also my kitchen table (complete with a microwave and my sourdough starter). Having to work from a common space right by the kitchen meant that I had to be more creative with how I achieved work-life balance. While I couldn’t physically distance myself from my work area, I made sure I had a clear separation in my mind between work and personal life, and would set aside time for baking sweets, taking walks and calling friends.
5. The internship is over. What now?
In our last week, we finished our final presentations and had our final 1-on-1s with our mentors/managers. In our surreal, sentimental last moments, we wanted to reflect on our overall experience.
While we feel we gained the most from our Chewy internship and received more clarity into our future career paths, it was not a perfect experience. There was no way it could have been given the unprecedented nature of this situation, and everyone in the company is still currently learning to adjust to a fully remote world on a day-to-day basis.
On the other hand, there were also many aspects of the remote internship programming and Chewy’s culture that helped make us feel like a welcome member of the company.
Top Summer Highlights
- Being included on the team: We felt that we were treated like full-time members of the UX Research team in terms of responsibilities and being included in all team communications. We got a solid firsthand understanding of what being a UX researcher at a company is like and were assigned engaging and impactful work.
- Recreating the in-person office perks: The Campus Recruiting team made sure that we still had as much of the full internship experience as we could through free Grubhub lunches, weekly socials, and surprise snacks and swag boxes (including custom paintings of our pets!).
- Having a fellow UX Research intern: We were really glad to have had each other throughout this internship! Sharing that unique experience of completing a remote internship on the same team was invaluable, and our time really wouldn’t have been the same without having each other for support. We made a lasting human connection that was much needed in a screen-based, physically-isolated work environment.
Overall, our experience obviously was not the same as an in-person summer in Boston would have been, and we couldn’t help but constantly think about how the summer would have been even better if we’d been able to work alongside everyone in the office. But for the way it had to be, we enjoyed our summer and it was genuinely a positive and fulfilling experience that we’re grateful for. We hope you’re able to get something out of us sharing our experience!
by Michelle Quin and Anjali Devakumar
UX Research Interns @ Chewy
If you have any questions about careers at Chewy, please visit https://www.chewy.com/jobs
