Isabella Delgado
I was lucky enough to do two internships with Fort Worth Magazine's Editorial department. Due to the pandemic, though, both internships were fully remote. It was both strange and normal at the same time — normal, because everything else was remote as well, so I knew what to expect, but also strange, knowing I wouldn’t be in the office working or interviewing people in person. Nonetheless, it was a fun and positive experience. I can now say I survived two semesters of a remote internship. I’ll leave some tips here in case any future interns need it.
FaceTime, Zoom, and your email will be your best friends.
These will be your main sources of communication with your mentor/supervisor as well as those you interview. Get used to being glued on your phone because you’re always going to be checking for emails from sources.
If you’re interviewing people from home, make sure you have two electronic devices.
Interviews can get tricky when they’re not in person, so I recommend doing a phone call interview and using your voice memos/voice recorder app on your laptop to record. You can get a transcript of it through different apps, and they make it easy to share a voice memo to the app. I personally like Otter the best, and it was worth the price.
You can look the part and still be comfy.
Just because the internship is remote doesn’t mean you should be in pajamas all day. My advice is to look put together from the waist up. Put on a nice shirt, do your hair, and just look presentable for meetings and interviews — you can still be comfy in leggings or sweatpants.
If you didn’t know Fort Worth before, you’ll definitely know Fort Worth now.
After two semesters of working with Fort Worth Magazine, I discovered a lot of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and more. I made an entire list in my Notes app so I can explore over the summer. The best part is that every place I discovered is local.
Ask questions and communicate.
Some assignments will be harder and more time consuming than others, and it’s OK if you don’t completely understand the assignment on your first try. That’s where questions come in, and they will save you. A quick email explanation or a FaceTime call can make all the difference. It’s easy to get lazy, write a quick story, and not give it your all, but at the end of the day, that’s your name under the title, so I suggest you put in the work.
Think you have what it takes to intern with Fort Worth Magazine? We have positions open in Editorial, Marketing, and more. Apply here.
