Remote before and remote now!

If someone would tell me that the remote internship will be extremely helpful and I will be able to gain a lot of experience, I would’ve laughed and not believe a word of it. However, due to the pandemic outbreak that happened in 2020 it became not just a norm, but more of a mandatory requirement for future employment overall. My experience with the asia internship program was very good and I am grateful for the help from their end. At the beginning of my application, I was applying for a face-to-face internship in Singapore and everything went well. First, my coordinator scheduled interviews with companies and my placement has been confirmed quite fast and smoothly. The company where my internship placement got confirmed was very friendly and I got all excited about going to Singapore when the COVID19 regulations became less strict. Unfortunately, the 3rd wave has happened, and it was devastating news for me since everything was going so far so good and crashed in a moment. At this point I want to say a big thank you to AIP and my coordinator on how he handled the situation. So once it became clear I was no longer able to travel to Singapore and conduct my internship in person there were two obvious options to completely withdraw from the program or postpone the start date. Since I had to go back to university in 3 months, the postponement would mean waiting a year and withdrawal would mean there will be nothing for me to do during these 3 months. Finally I’ve decided to withdraw from the program and informed AIP about it, and at this point AIP offered me a remote internship program with the same company on a discount. My first thought was quite hesitant because remote work has never been associated in my mind with “real work”, however, I’ve decided to give it a try since alternatives were not attractive at all. Here are my takeaways from it: remote internships are no longer remote internships as you would expect them to be a few years back. The system of communication, operations and collaboration have been developed drastically. All of my colleagues, those who were full time and present in Singapore were working from home as well. Distance work also helped me in developing self discipline. To sum up, I would say that my internship may not have given me cultural and travelling experiences, but I have no regrets in doing it since the amount of skills and practical knowledge I’ve gained is outstanding and in current circumstances that is what I would recommend.