“Out of Office” Assistants

As most of you probably know my technology pedigree is, to be kind, rather unspectacular. If you were to compare my IT knowledge, to say, a reading level, it would lie somewhere between “Fun with Dick and Jane,” and “Goodnight Moon.”

Nonetheless, no one involved with the accounting profession on any level – or for that matter any industry - has even the slightest doubt the major role that technology now plays in all facets of operations – whether cloud-based applications that help usher in a paperless practice, to smartphones and tablets that allow greater out-of-office reach and activity.

Which brings me to the topic de jour.

During my CPE presentations throughout the year I often include slides on the spike of CPAs now working remotely. For example, in 1995, there were roughly 9.5 million remote workers. As recently as 2012 that number had risen to 13.5 million and now just one year later, it’s estimated that as many as 30 million people work remotely at least once a week – including yours truly.

But until now I was never aware of the rising trend of virtual internships.

To me, one of the critical facets of securing an internship was to be on site, showing management your abilities your work ethic and getting to know the workplace and its culture. Somehow sitting at home in a pair of worn pajamas, coffee mug in hand doesn’t quite fit the traditional stereotype of a someone trying to make an impression.

But apparently virtual internships are on the rise according to a recent poll conducted by Internships.com, which indicated that at least one-third of more than 300 companies across a number of industries they surveyed currently offer virtual internships. In addition, they queried more than 7,000 students on whether they would consider a virtual internship and a full 71 percent responded with a resounding “Yes”!

But not to sound like a Luddite, I sort of made a checklist with the pros and cons of a virtual internship.

The pros include:

• As a student, you’d be more flexible in terms of scheduling classes and studying.
• If you happened to land an internship out of state, a remote gig would preclude the headaches of having to move.

On the flip side some of the negatives could be:

• Lack of networking opportunities: in fact isn’t one of the strategies of an internship to make connections for when you’re ready to make the leap to the job market?
• Lack of oversight: For many, it’s hard to get going without direction. As one article pointed out, not everyone is a self-starter.
• Lack of workplace camaraderie. One of the things that I missed immediately when I left my company to take my current position was interaction with my co-workers.
• The flexibility of working from home also means that you’re likely to be called on after office hours. This one came as a bit of a shock to me, especially after the first time I received a call at 10 pm. (And during “Person of Interest” no less!)

I’m not sure if I’m solidly behind this rising trend, but it would hardly be the first time I was slow to react to an opportunity in the technology sector. Back in the early 1980s, a broker friend of mine offered me the opportunity to buy shares of a growing tech company on the outskirts of Seattle that produced operating systems.

The rest, as they say, is history.