Virtual internship > traditional internship

When you have two college-age children, developments in internships gain new importance in your eyes. Add in the oddities brought to experiential learning by the pandemic and watching my kids and their peers prepare for their future careers led to my scouring the ground for internship programs that provide meaningful experience to the intern. Happily, this week I saw some good news, at least for those looking at the financial services industry.

As Jeff Benjamin wrote last Thursday, “Once seen as potential casualties of a pandemic-altered work environment, summer internship programs have emerged as one of the shining success stories across financial services.”

In his article, Jeff cites programs run by Wealthspire Advisors, City National Bank in Los Angeles and the Financial Planning Association as having seen particular success. But across the board, the feedback showed that interns got more attention, guidance and oversight under a virtual format than they might typically get through a traditional in-person work environment.

That internships continue to provide value to students speaks to the creativity of the best leaders in our market, and it extends hope that the work of BLX Internship, which was featured last week, can do great things. If you’re aware of other internship programs that deserve attention, please send them my way.