Graduating During a Pandemic
The graduating class of 2020 is experiencing something that the previous classes never experienced, graduating during a pandemic. This is an interesting and scary time that the mentors we look up to have never experienced before. The advancing technology makes it a completely different experience than any other pandemic in history which is why I’m able to share my experience as a 2020 college graduate with you.
Our Last Semester of College
We lost a lot of our lasts during our final semester. What I mean by this is our last months in class with our professors, last time going to the college bars with friends, graduation, countless celebrations, events that had been planned for months, just gone. We understand that when looking at the big picture for the world and our country the things we’ve lost are small and insignificant. But to us, they’re big. These experiences were our final opportunity to just be college students and have fun before we got our full time jobs and moved away from the friends we had been living next to for the last four years.
The Job Market
The pandemic affected more than just our final semester of college. It also completely changed the job market we graduated into. During the Fall semester, my professors were excited that the class of 2020 would be graduating into a great job market. But over the last few months I’ve watched many of my friends lose their jobs and internships before they even started. Looking for a job in your field has become more difficult than I’ve ever experienced before. Many of the jobs that are posted pre-date quarantine and may not still be viable options. The number of new jobs posted is slowly increasing, but I think all of us are still worried that we won’t end up in the field we spent four years or more obtaining a degree in.
Post-Graduation Plans
The plans we had for after graduation have been pushed back or canceled. I feel like my life is on pause. Many graduates had to adjust the living situation they had planned for or decided to move back in with their parents. In my own personal experience, I had planned to move in with a roommate at the beginning of summer, start a full time position, get settled, and start living independently from my parents for the first time in my life. But now I’m graduated, still looking for a job, my roommate’s job has been pushed back to a Fall start date, and I’ve moved back into my childhood bedroom at my parents house. While I feel blessed to have parents that have supported me through all of this, it still feels like a step backward.
Graduating during a pandemic has been an unexpected and difficult experience. The class of 2020 has had to navigate it without anyone else’s experience to use as a guide. The pandemic has changed the way businesses run and new graduates have to learn to adapt to that in order to be successful. Thank you for reading about my experience as a 2020 college graduate, comments are encouraged!
