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My already accepted internship at an IT-company was canceled. The reason they mentioned to me were that almost all employees of the department I was supposed to work in are currently in home-office and there would be nobody around to tutor me.

They said they would be happy to repropose their offer once back to normal office-work, probably in 2021.

My question: Should I tell them that I would be willing to do my internship remotely as well in case the head of the department agrees, and ask them if they would consider such a scenario? Or should I remain silent, wait for next year and proceed as proposed? Would asking put them off somehow?

Update:

On Monday I suggested the option of a remote internship and as expected, they have already thought about it and had some concerns. But to my surprise after HR spoke with the head of the department and their concerns got resolved , they were willing to give it a try under additional regulations/requirements :) Thanks again for your thoughts on this one!

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    Trust me, they've already considered the remote option.
    – Karl Bielefeldt
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 22:39
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    Are you more concerned about the gap in resume experience, potential for 2021, lost income? You could say you're interested in having some experience on resume and ask can you scope a more limited, remote intern task (don't offer upfront to do it for free, but you might be prepared to). Or pick something open-source-related to work on that involves them or their favourite packages/tools/datasets.
    – smci
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 23:52

2 Answers 2

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Would asking put them off somehow?

There is very little/no harm in asking but expect a polite no after which either accept the next year opportunity or go and search for another internship (or do both).

As of why: training junior employees is just not something that generally works well remotely (at least in my 20 years of almost-exclusively remote experience) as it takes the already hard and expensive takes of training them and then cranks the difficulty up by few notches by removing the personal contact from the equation. It can be done, sure, but most companies are not equipped and trained to do it correctly.

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    @NullPointerException I honestly can't imagine anyone reasonable having a problem with someone asking that question. Of course not all people are reasonable, but then do you want to work with someone who flies off the handle over such nonsense?
    – Aida Paul
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 11:41
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    I agree but since this would be my first internship I want to be extra careful to prevent them rescinding their offer for next year.. But i guess it might be worth taking that risk.
    – NullPointerException
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 11:46
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    @NullPointerException then don't ask them? I cannot make the decision for you, only lay out that it's unlikely to cause any harm. Whether the unlikely is too much of a risk you have to figure that out for yourself.
    – Aida Paul
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 11:47
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    "Insistive" and "pushy" are not necessarily bad. As a business, I wouldn't want yes-sayers, I'd want people who can speak up for themselves. And if you don't ask, you don't get. Meanwhile look for internships elsewhere as well.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 13:44
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    @gnasher729 Interesting perspective - I will take that into consideration when confronting them with my proposal. Applying elsewhere is also something I'm planning to do!
    – NullPointerException
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 13:52
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Should I tell them that I would be willing to do my internship remotely as well in case the head of the department agrees, and ask them if they would consider such a scenario?

It's perfectly reasonable to suggest that option.

It's unlikely to succeed however, since if that was something the company would consider, they would have offered that choice to you first.

Still, if you don't ask you won't know, and I can't see how it would cause problems just to ask.

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  • I agree that they would have suggested that if that would be reasonable to the company - somehow I'm hoping that they haven't taken that into consideration though (my last straw sort of speaking).
    – NullPointerException
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 14:16
  • Thanks, I'll hope for the unlikely and contact them on Monday morning - will write an update on how it turned out.
    – NullPointerException
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 18:22
  • @JoeStrazzere sometimes someone may be impressed by the audacity. It's a trait I admire, and have given people chances because of it.
    – Old_Lamplighter
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 19:26
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    @JoeStrazzere Well, my reasoning is that on paper, I look terrible, and yet people took chances on me, I feel inclined to do the same thing. Perhaps not wise, but I can't be a cynic 100% of the time. I'll have to settle for the 99.9% I'm known for ;)
    – Old_Lamplighter
    Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 19:32

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