The Story of a Virtual Intern
I would really love to be in Ireland and make Irish friends, feel the Irish culture and its constant rain and work in Ireland. But since I’m a Nigerian in Nigeria, this would not be so easy to achieve, but then as luck could have it, I got the next best thing. I found Career Training Internships. With Career Training Internships, I was given the opportunity to work as an intern with one of the best in the industry. This is no flatter. They are really the best. I was given an opportunity of a lifetime through virtual means…a Virtual Internship and I took it.
I never knew what a virtual internship was; some of their “competitors” don’t even know what a virtual internship means. This opportunity has helped me learn a whole lot. I’ve been able to harness new skills and explore new ways of reaching the market. Ways which I only interacted with from afar. I have been given the confidence through this internship to engage the market in ways I wouldn’t have thought…yes I would have thought but I never did venture. But with all the glory and promise of growth, being a virtual intern for me as a Nigerian has been tough.
Two jobs! I have two jobs or engagements if we would call it that, with the internship making it a third, so I am almost always exhausted that I forget little details of tasks assigned to me, therefore also have little time to do simple personal tasks. In order to survive in a tough society like Nigeria, I have a job as a Manager/Graphic Designer at a very…very little Business Center or a Cyber Café as some would call it and then I still double as a Freelance Graphic Designer. Adding this internship to the list has me running around the city of Lagos where I live. But the worse part of it all is, none of these jobs really pay. The Cyber Café is a really slow business, where I get paid based on each walk-in and the Freelance? It’s hard to come by a Nigerian who really values design, but funny enough, they always want it. Times are hard but I’m not cheap. But luckily, I am working on a brand packaging design for a Nigerian run company in Ireland (coincidence right?) while on the internship. The Virtual Internship is an unpaid Internship, but this is understandable since I gain more than I give. So technically, I’m being paid intellectually which is why I accepted the internship in the first place…to broaden my horizon and broaden it has.
How Do I Gain This Intellectual Growth?
Career Training Internships presents to me the opportunity to take part in real-life projects that affect real people by creating content they could resonate with, by undergoing research that bears new information on how to either tackle an existing problem or find new ones to solve. With Career Training Internships, I have been let loose to make decisions and to present ideas on how to better engage the market. For example; this piece for this blog was my idea and I was given reign to run with it. Amazing! I totally feel good. But I must revisit the fact that, sometimes, it gets so overwhelming like being constantly pressed for time.
With all my other engagements, I am forced to share my time and do so without injury to my commitment to any of them. This has me strategizing during the weekends, sacrificing activities – the scale of preference – and even sometimes having to put some duties on hold in my other jobs, because in my mind, my internship with Career Training Internships is most valued. Even though I intern for free, I wouldn’t have been able to learn all I’ve learnt already if not for them. In truth, they (Career Training Internships) might not really be able to ascertain all I’ve learnt since they can’t directly assess me while being thousands of miles away. This “Freedom – to – Roam” is very effective I have realised because it helps one learn all kinds of things that being in an office might limit. With the internet at your disposal and no one breathing down your neck, you would be surprised what one can learn. I have also been able to sense a certain amount of trust from the people at Career Training Internships, which have given me some peace to work effectively.
There is a stereotype about Nigerians as fraudsters – Internet Gangsters – but I’ve not for once, during this time I’ve interned, sensed any phoney impression from the people at Career Training Internships. I’m treated like a normal professional. It’s been refreshing. They grant me access to whatever company information I would need to work, not fearing what I might do with them. I feel as though I am on staff, that’s why I break my back to accomplish any tasks given to me. I expected that they would be suspicious of me, but I’ve been shamed. It’s such a beautiful thing to be wrong sometimes. I feel loved.
My passion and desire for business and design have also kept me going. If I didn’t like what I was doing, it would have been ten times harder to keep going. This love has helped me keep pushing not bothering about the sacrifices I have had to make;
- the money spent on internet bundles to be always online (that’s so difficult for an average Nigerian),
- the pain of learning a new skill or software (I’ve learnt two digital-based content creating tools so far; Canva and Filmora),
- the pressure to deliver without having electricity (I literally have to get on a bus to get to where I can get electricity…and some free internet)
- the time spent spending time,
- and the body rest omitted.
But I love it anyway because I am able to grow, to learn and to win. No one has ever become great by relaxing or lounging in self-pity. It takes effort to grow and I know that when it comes the time the internship draws to a close, I would be successful. Successful but sad. Sad with the fear that I won’t be able to work with such great Irish people any longer.
