Distance Internships

Think outside the box (and your zip code) with dedicated students with the acumen to work remotely for your company. Mold your interns’ skills to fit your company needs, with potentially lower pay scale and risk than hiring a new permanent employee.  

What we got was world class, full time employees…[after training became] just as good as everyone else that we have. If we compare this program and the [total] hourly costs of the interns with the annual cost of an experienced data scientist, the return is 4 or 5 to one

Ken Gardner, Co-founder & CEO, conDati Inc. (Silicon Valley, CA)
  • Interns are high-quality students currently enrolled in our MSBA program.
  • Students come from diverse technical backgrounds
    • Computer Science
    • Engineering
    • Mathematics
  • Interns function as conventional employees, working remotely during normal work hours, with full technological support from UofL’s College of Business, including Zoom and GoToMeeting. Our internal servers are secure and our students and faculty sign Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

Projects

Our students have worked on projects that are software projects/development and they have also

  • Built profile of clients on which services they consumed for an insurance company
  • Optimization for a bank on the best mix of human/machine tellers
  • Compiled the data from three casinos to identify the “high rollers”

Communication considerations

Communication is key to sustaining a remote internship.  Two main areas to focus on when hosting a remote intern:

  • Communication that includes check-in meetings a few times a week with their team leader via
    • Zoom
    • GoToMeeting
    • SLACK
    • Other
  • Onboarding process
    • Checklist of software to be used
    • Any software not familiar with, watch a tutorial to get up to speed

Safety and Security

One of our distance internship partner companies uses SLACK to communicate daily with their interns, which is company-dedicated.  They also use amazon web servers, which are highly secure and only provide those individuals who need data access.

To get the most out of an intern, be prepared to provide meaningful work and be specific on what the intern will be doing

Marielena Gardner, VP Finance & Administration, conDati Inc. (Silicon Valley, CA)