Advantages of a Virtual Internship: A Description From the Point of View of CLG Interns
Gregory Baranovsky, Queens College, NY; Stacey Hackett, University of North Texas; and Danielle Tittelbach, Queens College and the Graduate Center, NY

OBM Network members, it is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that we present this article to you.  What follows is a description of a 6-week virtual internship provided by Continuous Learning Group (CLG).  We will describe what a virtual internship is, how it works, what activities were included, lessons learned, as well as benefits to all parties involved, and recommendations for future internships.  The interns who participated in this internship are Gregory Baranovsky, Stacey Hackett, and Danielle Tittelbach.  All of us are currently graduate students in OBM-focused graduate programs.  Our mentors and internship facilitators at CLG were Judy Johnson and Manny Rodriguez.

The Purpose of This Article
We are writing this article not only to share our experiences, but also to highlight the benefits of a non-traditional internship model.  Doing an internship virtually saves time and money for the participating consultancy/organization, provides the interns with opportunities to learn and grow, and gives the consultancy a good vehicle for evaluating potential future hires.  It is our hope that this internship description will serve as a catalyst for other companies to explore non-traditional internship models like this one in the future.

Unlike a traditional internship where the intern is on site with the company they are working for, this internship was done “virtually.”  All participants, the three interns and the two consultants, were located in different parts of the country.  Each aspect of the internship utilized modern-day communication tools, such as strategy meetings, PowerPoint presentations, shadowing coaching phone calls, as well as extensive use of WebEx. When using Web Ex, participants log into the system by dialing into a specific phone line and entering a meeting code. Once the system has accepted the code, each participant is added to a conference call. At the same time, participants log into a web application, that allows all members of the virtual meeting to see on their own computer screen what happens on the host screen. Applications such as this one are very common ways for consultants in general to communicate.

Benefits of a Virtual Internship
The virtual internship simulates the way many of today’s consultants work.  With multiple clients and projects going on, consultants must make use of technology to conduct meetings with clients and colleagues.  From the intern’s standpoint, this was a great opportunity to acquire skills such as multitasking, communication skills, as well as working as a team to plan and execute strategy without being in the same room with one another.  From the company’s standpoint, in this specific case CLG, cost can be reduced by not having to provide housing or cover travel expenses for the interns.  The virtual internship provides a great opportunity for companies to build a bridge to the OBM academic community.

Description of An Effective Virtual Internship: How We Got Started
Although this internship lasted only 6 weeks, we were given many different assignments throughout.  We agreed on the amount of time we’d be expected to work for CLG in a given week, which was 15 hours. Consequently, all assignments were tailored according to this basic schedule.  On the first day of the internship, we were presented with a timeline, which included a basic description of assignments to be completed, as well as dates and times for activities that had been scheduled in advance.

Before starting the internship, we also received various literature on CLG’s own methods and background, and completed an online training that was developed by CLG to teach ABA (ABS) to their clients.  At our initial phone/web meeting, we established what each of us expected to get out of the internship, and our mentors told us what they’d be expecting from us in the next 6 weeks.

Our Assignments and Activities
The various activities we were expected to engage in were explained to us right at the beginning. These activities included:

• Opportunities to shadow our mentors on regular consulting calls
• Virtual meetings with actual clients
• Reading current literature on developments in the business consulting industry in general
• One-hour conversation calls with CLG senior consultants, in which their experiences in the industry were discussed
• Two business challenges, which consisted of the presentation of a problematic client situation, based upon which we interns were asked to design our own proposal describing the next steps necessary to improve the situation.  After presenting our solutions to our mentors, we received feedback on how we completed the assignment.

In addition, we were given regular feedback opportunities:

• Weekly group meetings were conducted with the three interns and the mentors, which were focused on enhancing our individual consulting skills.
• At the end of each week we scheduled individual feedback sessions with one of the mentors.  During this time we discussed the progress of the internship as well as received feedback on areas in which we might improve.

To make it easier for the consultants to keep up with the various assignments we engaged in, and to further our own understanding of our abilities, each of us completed a log that included a description of the activities, time spent on each activity, key learnings, and areas of improvement.

Aside from the activities that had been scheduled in advance, our mentors
spontaneously let us know whenever there was an additional opportunity to talk to a senior consultant, shadow a consulting call with a CLG team or an outside client, or read additional relevant material.  These additional opportunities were often presented as optional/additional learning sessions.

What We Got Out Of The Internship  
The unique combination of activities presented throughout the internship allowed the interns to learn a new array of skills:

• Collaborating ideas with partners miles away
• Developing systematic processes for problem analysis within a team
• Delegating team responsibilities utilizing team strengths
• Designing presentations for virtual presentation
• Translating business “hot” topics into the language of Applied Behavioral Science
• Mastering the techniques necessary for Executive Summaries
• Becoming experts in the areas of time management and constructive feedback

When developing the plans for this six-week internship, CLG wanted the experience to be a “glimpse for students to learn the ‘day in the life’ of a CLG consultant,” as well as an opportunity to “stay true to adult learning techniques, which means providing an opportunity for the interns to learn, practice, apply, and get feedback.”  We can all vouch for the fact that both of these objectives were met.  We learned the basic structure of a consultant’s schedule, appropriate consultant/client collaboration techniques, the importance of being familiar with business management and business applications, and how to effectively use feedback to improve individual and team performance.

Potential Areas for Improvement For Future Internships      
The interns and CLG agreed that it would have been beneficial if client collaboration had allowed for site visits and participation in client projects.  This would have not only allowed the interns to have “hands on” practice on site, but would have allowed both CLG and their clients to have some value-added work hours free of contract charge.  However, CLG introduced us to a “strong non-client focusing component…allowing the interns to learn and explore without the additional demands of client-facing work and the internal focus of this internship.”  This meant that we had the flexibility to continue to teach classes within our graduate departments, collect and analyze thesis data, and continue our own part-time consulting work in our respective hometowns.

Take-Away Message
CLG members and the authors of this article are strongly advocating and encouraging others to consider a similar model for their own organization.  Not only did we walk away from the experience with a fresh consulting repertoire, but CLG also got some value out of having this internship:  we wrote first draft marketing write ups that are currently in the process of being edited and prepared for submission to appropriate literature sources.  The internship was a win-win situation for all – CLG has taken the first bold step in shaping graduate students to become savvy OBM practitioners.  They have also motivated three lucky graduate students to share with the rest of the OBM community exactly how valuable an ABS internship in an organizational environment really is.  We hope this article encourages other organizations within the OBM community to follow a similar virtual internship model in the future, to allow other graduate students to have the same exciting learning experience as we did.

Thank you CLG!