Doing an internship from home in the time of COVID
Before travel restrictions came in, there were plenty of IAESTE trainees happily undertaking their internships around the world. Some returned home as COVID spread and some decided to stay and are working from home. It's still 'work. experience. discover.' but slightly different than usual. We asked some of those doing it to tell us how it is for them.
Silviu from Spain is currently doing his internship at Electrolux in Italy.
"Working from home has been challenging, you can easily lose the notion of time, lose the connection in the middle of an important meeting or having to cook like a professional with 2 pans and a pot at the same time trying not to burn anything.
From everything we learn, and some of my recommendations are to prepare lunch the day before, from time to time make a break, get yourself a coffee/tea/water, respect the eating times you have on a normal daily basis, and keep in touch with those colleagues you usually talk with, by saying good morning when starting the day or spending 5 minutes talking about how was your day before turning off the computer.
Best regards
Silviu
Kristýna from the Czech Republic is currently doing her internship at Nestlé in Switzerland.
I started my IAESTE internship at Nestlé in Switzerland at the beginning of March but as the COVID situation accelerated I am now working from my home office. My home office is basically 1 km away from my actual office and it seems like I won't see it for some time.
Even though we can't meet with my colleagues in person, we still keep meeting virtually even if just for coffee. I still keep my daily routine, just instead of going to work, I stay in my pyjamas and work from the kitchen table and attend meetings virtually. I was a bit struggling working with the small screen on my laptop but now whenever I need a bigger screen I just connect the TV.
Currently, we can't meet with the other trainees or IAESTE members but we still keep in touch over WhatsApp or via online meetings. So even though I live alone, I don't feel alone.
It's a new situation for everyone, but we are all doing what we can to adapt.
Regards
Kristýna
Eva from Poland is currently doing her internship in Switzerland
Hi, I’m Ewa from Poland and currently I’m doing an internship in machine learning in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. As I started at the beginning of March, it was probably the very last moment to come here – on my 4th day at work, home office was introduced. However, it is not bad at all! I’m in touch with my supervisor and other team members all the time, so I can work on my project and still learn a lot! In my free time I work on improving my Spanish and German skills, practice yoga or cook together with my half-Indian, half-Italian flatmate. I hope to start discovering Switzerland when life gets back to normal!
Regards
Eva
It seems our trainees are making the most of a difficult situation and we're proud of them for being such great representatives for IAESTE.
