And how we took our LUMS Partnership virtual
Our (Misguided) Expectations for 2020
At the beginning of this year, we were so excited.
The Dil Internship Project started in 2019 as a one-person team in the UK organising internships with 8 companies in Pakistan. By the end of the year, we had grown to a team of over 30 people working worldwide to organise internships with 20 companies.
We had a new website. New partnerships. New media recognition. More applicants than ever. We had even managed to catch the eye of public institutions in Pakistan.
The thought of how much and in what ways the D.I.P’s potential could continue to unravel in 2020 was exhilarating.
After spending the winter advertising our internships, we began a rigorous interview season in February. We had hundreds of applicants to get through, each of them immensely talented, and decided to implement a 2-stage interview process — first a phone call, then a Skype interview — to ensure each individual applicant had a fair chance at success.
To be honest, the influx of applicants caught us off guard. We ended up having to reach out to trusted friends to take on the roles of interviewers, giving them each a list of questions and a scoring system, to ensure we were able to finish our interview season in good time. Juggling different timezones, applicants’ availabilities and our interviewers’ own commitments wasn’t easy. There were days where we would each conduct back-to-back interviews from 9 am to 7 pm.
But we genuinely enjoyed the process. Speaking to so many different applicants about their experiences and motivations was interesting and, at times, touching. When our interview season ended, we came up with a shortlist of the best applicants and couldn’t wait to start making arrangements for their internships in Pakistan.
Things Took a Different Turn
And then, 2020 happened.
News about the spread of coronavirus started picking up pace, and international borders began closing in quick succession. Our team, like everyone else, had to deal with their own personal disruptions. Mustafaen, the founder of the D.I.P, had to leave Oxford abruptly in the lead-up to his final exams. I had to pack up my apartment in London and fly home with only one day’s notice.
In the background, we collectively worried about the D.I.P’s future.
It was frustrating. We had worked so hard to make this year a success, but travelling to Pakistan for in-person internships was out of the question. And, whilst we would never compromise the safety of our interns, we didn’t want to let them down by cancelling internships outright.
LUMS Pioneers A Different Approach
So, we adapted. We reached out to our business partners to discuss the possibility of moving our internships online.
This was easier said than done.
Although Pakistan has made some great strides in the digital sphere over the past few years, a lot of businesses simply don’t have the infrastructure to support remote internships. As challenging as these discussions with partners were, most companies and organisations were more accomodating than we expected.
And, to our surprise, Pakistan’s biggest university — the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) — was the most enthusiastic. After weekly Zoom calls and discussions, the team at LUMS drafted an impressive framework for online internships.
Appreciating our dedication to networking and cultural experiences, the LUMS team came up with the idea of a Buddy Program to ensure remote work did not mean seclusion, and a virtual concert to incorporate a cultural event.
In addition to the social aspect, the LUMS team proposed two projects that interns could work on. The first, Project Shaur, aimed to provide entrepreneurial education to underprivileged children in Pakistan. The second, Project Zeest, involved launching LUMS’ first sign language campaign. Internship positions were also available at LUMS’ Co-Currucilar Activities Office.
What LUMS had done was impressive. They had pioneered an alternative internship model, where interns were more in contact with students their own age in LUMS than they were with principals or line-managers. This didn’t hinder, but rather helped, our interns’ ability to upskill and learn. LUMS had also simultaneously translated the cultural and social aspects of our internships to experiences that could be enjoyed remotely.
The internships at LUMS so far have been a success (we have testimonials you can read on our website!), and we’re incredibly grateful to the team at LUMS, and to Mehrose on the D.I.P team, for putting in so much work to make internships this year a reality.
We’re proud to be working with forward-thinking partners who can adapt to volatile situations so seamlessly. And, although our 2020 internships aren’t quite what we expected them to be at the beginning of this year, we’ve seen the D.I.P’s potential unravel in ways we never thought possible.