How to Hire the Right Candidate for a Remote Internship

With remote jobs now the norm, evaluating intern candidates for virtual work is crucial. Leading remote interns requires strong communication and self-motivation. In-person office environments are absent, making it challenging to gauge fit. Resumes and interviews may not suffice. Once you hire a right candidate for a remote internship, how do you ensure that they remain motivated and succeed? When selecting candidates, an employer should look for certain attributes and ask questions that reveal communicative, problem solving, organizational, and productive skills in a potential intern, while also taking on the responsibility to convey their company’s goals and how the candidates’ work will fit into this. 

Mission & Vision: 

While seeking skills and attributes in a potential intern, it is important for the employer to reiterate the goal and mission of the organization or company to the candidate. When in person office environments and norms are not there to provide motivation and structure, a company’s mission plays an even bigger role in motivating people to put in 100% every day. An employer should set out and verbalize their expectations to applicants before hiring for the job, in order to learn how the candidate will carry out these expectations in a virtual setting. 

Productivity, Proactiveness, and Self-Motivation: 

An employer should seek interns who can work well independently. Evidence of this trait should be provided in resumes, cover letters and interviews. Without colleagues in an in-person office setting, a remote intern may succumb to distractions at home or may lose motivation.

There are essential learning & development tips for remote teams that apply to interns as well as permanent team members. However, the right remote intern candidate is someone who does not require constant supervision to continue working momentum. An employer should ask candidates about previous school or extracurricular projects they have completed without assistance. 

Self-Awareness, Purpose & Time Management: 

A potential intern should know why they want the work experience and should be able to iterate this to the employer in an interview. To understand how the intern plans to manage their time without a structured in-person workday, the employer should ask them about their work styles and habits. An ideal candidate would have a strong understanding of when and how they manage assignments best during the day, and be able to explain this to the employer. 

Communication & Teamwork: 

How does this candidate work in a team setting? While this is important for an in-person job recruitment, it is even more so in a remote job, when colleagues are not physically together, requiring more streams of communication on various platforms. Does this candidate have experience in collaborative settings or assignments? An employer should ask the potential intern how they would plan on sharing their work progress, questions, and ideas with their colleagues and executives. The employer should also notice how promptly and concisely the candidate responds to emails during the recruitment process. 

Problem Solving: 

Because the remote intern will be working without immediate supervision, they will need to have the skills to think critically and solve problems that may arise on their own. To see whether someone fits these criteria, an employer should ask the candidate to describe a challenge they have previously faced and their method of solving it, or how they would handle a hypothetical obstacle / situation. This would allow the employer to understand how open minded and proactive the candidate is when faced with difficulties. 

Finally, make sure to choose a job board that is dedicated to remote roles. This not only allows you to target your candidate pool to those who are seeking remote internships, but it also allows you to build your employer brand in talent communities that are relevant for your company’s growth. Job search platforms for fully remote jobs, like Jobkast, help you leverage technology specifically designed to meet your remote recruitment needs while helping you expand your reach to relevant candidates.