🔒Internships, both virtual and in person, make a comeback as pandemic recedes

West Hartford native Clare Porter, a junior at the College of the Holy Cross, is a summer intern at Nassau Financial Group in Hartford. She works three days a week in the office and two days at home.

The English major is interning in the chief of staff’s office to get real-world work experience.

A year after many programs were scaled back or canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic, Greater Hartford internships are making a comeback. But most still aren’t what they used to be.

Porter is part of a growing number of college students, both in Greater Hartford and nationally, who are participating in hybrid internships this summer that take place both in a traditional office and remotely.

The mixed model mirrors the way many workplaces are operating as more people get vaccinated and employers increasingly ask workers to come back to the office, at least a few days a week.

More than 40% of the 300-plus employers surveyed this spring by the National Association of Colleges and Employers said they plan to hold a hybrid internship program this summer.

However, many other companies, particularly those still operating a mostly remote workforce, including Bloomfield health insurer Cigna, are still hosting virtual internships, taking advantage of new digital tools that have become common use during the pandemic.

Nassau currently has 15 interns; eight are hybrid between Nassau’s Hartford and Darien offices. The others are working virtually.

“Obviously we have all of our meetings via Zoom or [Microsoft] Teams,” Porter said “It’s a lot of independent work, which has been really good for me because I still have the resources to reach out to people. I’ve been working on my own, figuring out the website on my own, taking the opportunity to navigate everything and trying to gain some kind of independent experience.”

In the past, Nassau’s program has emphasized team bonding. Baseball games, scavenger hunts and a company gym are now pre-COVID relics, not useful to remote interns who live as far away as Michigan.

Yet, Nassau has tried to recreate the office experience. During in-person meetings, for example, a small camera turns and faces speakers around the table to give virtual partners a more nuanced experience. Chief People Officer Jacqueline Bamman said that technology has also helped facilitate the types of meetings interns have.

“They meet with the CEO, they’ll meet with our chief marketing officer, I’ll meet with them,” Bamnan said. “All the members of the C-suite will have a chance to meet with everyone and being remote won’t affect anybody for that because we’ve got all the technology to bring them in.”

Different pace

Other Hartford-area businesses and colleges are working to address new challenges for interns as a hybrid work environment becomes more common.

Michael Sabol, an audit partner at Glastonbury accounting firm MahoneySabol, said the hybrid work approach has made handling interns different.

“Pre-COVID, like everybody else, they were either in the office or they were at a client’s office every day,” Sabol said. “Last year was canceled and this year they’re basically home unless they’re at a client.”

Sabol said that when an intern works virtually, the dynamic changes. Interns who are remote do not get to see the hustle and bustle of an office.

“It’s not going to be the same pace that it would have been if we were pre-COVID and in the office every day,” he said. “When people are in front of you, you’re able to come up with ideas of things to do. You can always go over and help them or give them something.”

Meantime, Cigna has 283 interns this year who are all working virtually.

“We have been able to apply a lot of our lessons learned from the past year to support our interns in this virtual work environment,” a Cigna spokesperson said. “We know that it’s important to interns to make meaningful personal and professional connections – especially in this remote environment. We’ve built in opportunities for interns to meet and network with one another, and have personal and professional development opportunities with leadership across the organization (including a session with our CEO). We’ve also built in a community service project for our summer interns.”

Cigna plans to reopen several of its larger offices, including its Bloomfield headquarters, around Labor Day. Although plans are not fully clear yet, Cigna plans to keep an eye on flexibility in the future.

Higher-ed’s perspective

Local colleges have found ways to replicate the internship experience during the pandemic. The University of Connecticut created the Career Leadership Experience (CLE) Certificate program, which started last year to assist students who had their internships canceled, said Lisa McGuire, UConn’s associate director of the Center for Career Development.

The program lasts nine weeks and offers students career-preparation skills, like how to make elevator pitches and build a professional brand. UConn expected about 100 students to sign up last year. Nearly 600 did and over 300 completed the program. Around 200 students signed up this year.

The University of Hartford is also seeing a lot of changes. Stephen Mulready, dean of the Barney School of Business, said many interns are taking on more projects to help companies solve issues, rather than full internships. In one program, interns researched the healthcare needs of the Hartford area and then presented the findings to local industry executives.

“What I love about the projects is that you’re going in with an assignment and you’re going to be operating typically in a team environment,” Mulready said. “You’re going to get a broader experience of what’s going on in that environment and get exposed to more people. You’re going to actually then have to demonstrate not just what you learned in this internship but a little bit about the theory you learned in the courses you had.”

Mulready said the projects increase engagement even during a virtual experience.

Colleges are hoping to return to in-person events soon, but aren’t necessarily abandoning virtual options either. Uncertainty about the future remains. UConn wants to hold an in-person career fair but rules on travel, on-campus visitors and more are up in the air.

Businesses are also unsure of what is next for internships. Hybrid and virtual work are being embraced by many places.

“I don’t know,” said McGuire about the future of internships. “I just see such a variable from company to company. And I think a lot of them are working that out right now.”