Zentern Online Internships in Japan

Because of COVID-19, my plans to study in Japan for this fall semester fell through and I needed to find an online internship to do instead so I applied to Zentern. They were brilliant! They found me a brilliant internship with a media and marketing agency based in Tokyo quickly, they provided support during the interview process and during the internship. My internship supervisor was very friendly and communicative. The work I was given helped me work on all aspects of the business. I could never get bored, and I was constantly learning. I even extended my internship and just finished, hoping to stay in touch! I do want to complete another internship with Zentern, and this time I would like to attend in person rather than remotely, once the travel restrictions are lifted.

I started my internship in the beginning of October at an international media company. The internship was all online and had flexible hours allowing me to combine my school work with my internship. At first I was not very convinced on how this would be a good work experience but after a quick meeting with Zentern and their staff, a virtual internship in Japan would be the best option for me and glad I did apply! Just a big shout out to Terry from Zentern who guided me through everything. Zentern offers the best value in terms of prices and what kind of experience you get. They check in with you and offer fun virtual events. I joined a Japanese tea ceremony and was amazed how much fun it was and how much I learned. Through my internship I learned more about video / audio editing, storytelling and marketing. Usually I would communicate with my supervisor Nakamura-san or Josh who would share all the video material with me to work on. I was confident with my Adobe Suite skills but learned more than I thought I would in a short time. Some weeks I was busy for many days and hours while other weeks were a bit quieter. For an online internship you need to be able to have fairly good time-management skills to plan in the work and finish by the given deadline. Luckily my internship was pretty relaxed and they made sure they didn't overwhelm me with too much workload so I could focus on school too. I am surprised how smooth it went and how much fun it was. In the end I extended it by 4-weeks so I will work until the end of this year hoping to be able to fly to Japan next Summer or Winter 2021 for a physical internship. I know it is hard to visualize an online internship and you might be worried on how to combine this with school or free time but trust me, it is super easy. Companies understand that this is a learning experience and will sit down with you to discuss a work method that is most efficient and time-friendly for both parties. I learned that this is a super valuable, cheap and easy-to-get experience. I feel more confident and as many, wish I did it earlier.

My university's program got cancelled due to COVID19 so was looking for other programs to join. At first I didn't think about Japan but found Zentern and thought their services fit what I was looking for. Doing something completely different felt very refreshing and worth it so I signed up. Within a week or so Zentern found me an online internship at a local Japanese import and export company. My boss was fluent in English and we met every other day or so through Zoom. She made sure I was given different types of tasks such as translation, contacting new clients or communicating with current clients. After some weeks she allowed me to run a few meetings with our clients because we were in the same timezone. I helped out with product preparations, creating brochures and learning more about how to work and communicate professionally. Of course I wish I could be in Fukuoka but even without being in the office, I felt I was given enough trust and responsibilities. I'm glad I could use my summer holiday to get some work experience through Zentern. The Zentern team responses very quickly, the people are very nice and understand what you're looking for. They'll check in with you to see how you're doing AND online Japanese lessons were included. We also had a few online seminars about how to utilize this internship experience, Japanese work culture and an e-meetup with other interns. All in all, I had a really good time and might do this again soon!