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Omaha Magazine

Interns Go Virtual

Sep 30, 2020 12:22PM ● By Scott Stewart
two hands on computer mouses, pastels

Design by Matt Wieczorek

Kate Nouhan had the perfect summer planned to wrap up her junior year of college.

Nouhan arranged an internship with the Television Academy Foundation—the organization that presents the Emmy Awards—where the Creighton University marketing student would have the opportunity to shadow professionals working in a Los Angeles casting office as actors audition for projects.

Those who have not been hiding in the wilderness since early March should know where this story is going.

“I’ve been trying to go out to LA to do an internship there since I was a freshman,” Nouhan said. “It’s really competitive to find something paid so you’re not working for free out there. Obviously, I was crushed when I found out it was canceled.”

The foundation instead offered a summer fellows program that included virtual one-on-one visits with TV industry professionals, professional development sessions, and remote networking opportunities—but not the hands-on experience of the traditional internship. 

“There’s still some great stuff happening,” Nouhan said.

She also found a second internship working remotely at Marketing Mission, a marketing agency based in Phoenix that offers discounted and free services to nonprofit organizations. The agency recruited nationally for the opening, and Nouhan connected with the organization through a posting with Creighton’s career center.

“It is really cool that I get to work at an organization that directly helps people who are hurting due to COVID,” Nouhan said.

Many students found themselves in a similar position to Nouhan this past summer, as they saw their plans evaporate once companies and organizations began sending workers home when the pandemic hit the United States. Some of those internships and summer jobs shifted to being conducted remotely, while others were postponed or outright canceled. 

The National Association of Colleges and Employers found in May that more than one-fifth of employers nationally revoked offers to summer interns, and about half moved their internships to a virtual environment. About 41% shortened their internships, according to the association.

“With the uncertainty that continues to surround the economy and the job market during this pandemic, employers are cutting budgets, which may result in internship programs being scaled back or temporarily suspended,” Shawn VanDerziel, NACE’s executive director, said. “Fortunately, the more common response we are seeing is that many employers are moving their summer internship program to the virtual space or reducing the length of internships by delaying their start date.”

Jeremy Fisher, director of John P. Fahey Career Center at Creighton University, said he believes Omaha interns fared better than others. Many companies adapted to a new reality as the coronavirus blew up on the coasts before cases began swelling in Nebraska.

Nevertheless, there are fewer internship opportunities in Omaha now than before the pandemic, Fisher said. Postings for job and internship openings were down about half at the end of the summer for the fall, and some employers were waiting to see what health guidelines and economic conditions were in place before committing to bringing on new people.

Fortunately, recent graduates were largely able to find jobs. Fisher said normally about 70% of Creighton alumni report having confirmed plans at graduation. This year, it was 66%.

“That, to me, was way better than we were anticipating with a pandemic,” Fisher said. “It is taking longer, though, for students to find jobs, because many companies did go on hiring freezes or they furloughed employees—they’re trying to wait it out a bit financially. They’re not hiring as actively or as much as they typically would.”

Fisher said a lot of jobs were lost in the service and retail sectors, which hurt Creighton and other college students looking for part-time jobs to supplement their incomes. The university prioritized helping juniors and seniors find those all-important internships this summer, and Fisher said a lot of younger students struggled to land any internship.

“The weird silver lining of this whole situation is that it’s actually forcing employers to focus more on virtual recruiting, virtual interviewing, and virtual experiences,” Fisher said. “Making things more virtual is going to provide more access to opportunity, but it is also going to make the job market more competitive.”

Fisher said virtual internships have largely been worthwhile, and they cut out some of the coffee running, photocopying, and other menial tasks sometimes assigned to interns.

“Students are still gaining valuable learning experiences,” Fisher said. “If anything, they’re probably getting just as good or even better higher-level experiences just because they’re not in person to do the little administrative stuff that typically an internship would come with.”

Of course, not every internship is able to be conducted remotely. Some work has to be done in person, whether that’s making deliveries, providing direct services, or harvesting mushrooms.

Claire Gillespie is a Metropolitan Community College student who spent her summer tending to mushrooms at Flavor Country Farm in Honey Creek, Iowa. She learned how to cut mushrooms off a block and how to grow them on substrate. She also learned about greenhouse production.

Flavor Country sells directly to consumers at farmers markets, Wenninghoff Farm’s retail market, a roadside farm stand, and a subscription box. It also sells mushrooms, microgreens, and other produce to restaurants, but that side of the business has taken a hit during the pandemic.

Gillespie said her experience hasn’t changed much as a result of the coronavirus. She has, however, learned important lessons working for her boss as he figures out how to navigate keeping his small operation afloat while many farmers have debated whether to even plant vegetables this year amid all the uncertainty surrounding getting them to market.

“I definitely know not to put your eggs all in one basket,” Gillespie said. “If he was just doing one thing, he would have been in a lot of trouble or set back quite a bit. I think it’s good to have a variety.” 

Gillespie studies horticulture at MCC, which she said provides mostly theoretical knowledge of how to care for plants. The hands-on experience she gets with her internship is crucial, as she hopes to assist others in getting their operations off the ground after she graduates.

“I really like to travel, so in some sort of way I’d like to coordinate traveling with helping people starting their own small farms or small gardens,” she said. “I am very thankful that I’m still working and especially working at a job that I love. I feel very grateful for that.”

While agriculture faces its own challenges, the pandemic has put a spotlight on the importance of local producers to the area’s food chain.

“It does show that people maybe need to buy more locally and [buy] more fresh things, especially since we do live in a farm state,” Gillespie said.

Valmont Industries, a global leader in infrastructure products and irrigation systems based in Omaha, has demonstrated the importance of adaptability in the face of the coronavirus. The company has about 45 summer interns spread across engineering, manufacturing, technology, and business support. At the onset of the pandemic, it shifted those interns to a virtual environment, providing the same tools that it gave to its permanent employees. 

Many activities were conducted virtually, while striving to preserve the company’s culture, said Pat Groves, Valmont’s senior director of talent management.

“We have learned that we are still able to connect effectively with our partner campuses and students in a virtual environment and that our intern [population], much like the rest of our administrative employee population, is highly adaptable and has been able to continue working effectively and delivering results for our customers,” Groves said.

Internships are an important pathway to find future employees, and that’s even more true when a pandemic erects barriers to recruiting. Valmont, for example, retains more than three-fourths of its interns in some capacity after their programs conclude.

“While the pandemic has changed some of the mechanics of our intern experience, the program itself remains just as valuable,” Groves said.

Jorden Hansen has been a global marketing intern at Valmont for the past year and a half. She said the internship provides an opportunity to own her projects from start to finish. 

“I am extremely happy with my internship experience,” Hansen said. “I have gained tremendous exposure to marketing and project management at Valmont. I am very impressed with the caliber of work that I was assigned.”

Hansen said the past several months have improved her adaptability and critical thinking skills. Those skills are just as important for employers, who can find opportunities to grow their bottom lines while less agile competitors struggle.

The Berry Law Firm saw an opportunity to show leadership when the pandemic hit. Many major law firms began postponing or canceling clerkships. The Lincoln-based firm instead opted to invest more in its clerk program, adding nine additional law clerks to its team this summer, many of whom had lost other opportunities to the pandemic.

Those clerks worked remotely for part of the summer before returning to the office for the conclusion of their full clerkship experience—complete with social distancing and other safety protocols, according to the law firm. Meanwhile, the firm has continued to hire and grow its business in Lincoln and Omaha.

“You go on defense only long enough to go back on offense,” managing partner and CEO John S. Berry Jr. said.

Abbie Morlock, a second-year law student at the University of Nebraska College of Law, said that working from home provided a chance to develop stronger communication skills while developing the same legal skills available from a traditional summer clerkship.

“I was able to work as if there was no COVID-19,” Morlock said.

Haley Herzberg found the shift to remote work afforded more opportunity than a traditional internship had offered at Metropolitan Community College, where she works on the school’s literary magazine, The Metropolitan.

Herzberg, a senior studying English and creative writing at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, started the final edits on the magazine last spring. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she shifted her focus to the website for the next edition of the magazine and began meeting with her internship coordinator weekly via Zoom.

At first, she was intimidated by the idea of working remotely, but it turned out to be a lot easier than she expected.

“While I miss meeting people in person, and I would much prefer it, I don’t feel like I’m missing out,” Herzberg said. “I don’t feel like my experience is any less because I’m meeting online. If anything, it feels like I have a lot more independence.”

Herzberg said she hopes that remote internships are here to stay, even once the pandemic has subsided, because they allow for greater flexibility and provide important lessons on how to manage time and prioritize tasks.

“If opportunities were to shift in favor of online internships, online meetings, that would definitely be something I would continue to be interested in,” Herzberg said. “Some people who previously had an aversion to online meetings are going to change their minds or the people who are in favor of them will have a lot louder voices.”

Nouhan said that despite losing her in-person Hollywood experience, she wouldn’t have this summer go any other way.

“I have grown a lot as a person during this pandemic,” she said. “I don’t think I would trade that for the experience of having the internship and not going through this.”

Beyond the two internships, Nouhan said she’s also spent a lot of time networking virtually with Creighton alumni this summer. She plans to move to California after graduation to do marketing communications in either the technology or entertainment industries, and she has built her network by reaching out on LinkedIn and asking to talk on the phone.

Her self-determination paid dividends, and she was able to learn new skills and make a lot of connections despite the more informal environment of working from home.

“In general, you don’t need a formal internship to be able to grow a lot,” Nouhan said. “For any small businesses considering taking on remote interns, it doesn’t need to be anything fancy.”

Life is what you make of it, and that’s no less true during a pandemic. Work hard, look for opportunities, roll with the punches, and enjoy what you’re doing. Luck certainly helps, but it’s not everything.

“A lot of it is about making your own opportunity,” Nouhan said. 

Visit valmont.comjsberrylaw.com, and Flavor Country Farms on Facebook for more information.

This article was printed in the October 2020 edition of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

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