Class of the Pandemic
I’m a September birthday. In grade school, I often wondered how my life would’ve been different if I wouldn’t have missed the cutoff for kindergarten by two weeks. That would’ve put me in the high school class of 2015 and the undergraduate class of 2019.
Well, I finally have my answer: I wouldn’t have graduated into a pandemic.
I always liked being one of the oldest in my grade. The first one to be visited by the tooth fairy, the first one to drag my friends around in my beater car, and one of the first to enter a bar legally. But right now? What I would give to have been the baby of the group. The class of 2019.
But nope, I’m in the class of 2020. The phrase sends shivers down my spine. When I say that out loud, people give me this look. It’s like a wince. Sheer pity washes over every cell in their bodies. I say, “No, really! It’s fine! That’s life, right? It’ll all work out eventually.” Throw in a nervous laugh and quickly change that subject to something like, “How’s your quarantine puppy doing?”
And this isn’t to say that life would be great if I were a grade older. It’s highly likely that I could have been laid off from my hypothetical job in this pandemic as an entry-level employee at a big corporation. Class of 2019, do not worry—I feel for you, too (sort of).
”This isn’t the first pandemic in history, but this is the first pandemic in history with such an interconnected economy and, more specifically, when so many women are in the workforce.
Ann Vrooman
Not to depress you further, but will it “all work itself out eventually”? To be frank, statistically, no. According to The American Economic Association, people who graduate into economic recessions make about 9 percent less in initial earnings, lasting for up to 10 years. Being unemployed, or even starting your career in a field you did not intend on, can set you back on years of earnings. In fact, 72% of 2020 graduates reported that the COVID-19 crisis impacted their post-graduation plans in some way.
This isn’t the first pandemic in history, but this is the first pandemic in history with such an interconnected economy and, more specifically, when so many women are in the workforce. Women, we feel like we’re unqualified in times when the economy is good with tons of companies hiring—the type of economy the world had when I started applying for jobs in February of this year. Now that job openings are few and far between? Forget about it.
Twenty-two-year-olds like me love saying things like, “Yeah, I’m definitely doing this after graduation,” but the reality checks have hit hard. No, you’re not doing that. Pivot, pivot, pivot.
In a time when you’re supposed to be planning and setting up your future, the best plan might be no plan. So, what do you do with that? Graduating college makes you have to grow up quickly in the first place, but this situation adds a new layer of realistic considerations to a generation that has long been depicted as entitled dreamers. Recent graduates are tackling this curveball in their own ways.
Like many graduates, Jorie Ernst has her full-time offer in New York revoked early on. Not knowing what her future was at the company, and after living with her parents a little longer than she liked, she signed a lease within driving distance of home for the upcoming year. As she was finalizing her new plans, the company renewed her original offer. She was excited but had some reservations.
“How do I move to New York, of all places, right now?” she asked me. New York would be a fashion merchandising major’s dream city, but she’s being realistic. The idea of signing a lease in one of the most expensive cities just to be stuck inside and far away from family is less than ideal. “I just don’t know if the cost of living there to not be fully living there is worth it for me,” she said. But at the same time, it doesn’t feel right to give up a full-time offer from a great company knowing she may be unemployed again for some time if she declines, she explained.
For others, this time has been a waiting game. Graduate Laura Oleson had always planned to teach abroad following graduation. Throughout undergrad, she capitalized on as many study abroad programs as she could and taught children and adults in several capacities. Taking a year to combine the two before grad school seemed like the obvious choice.
She was offered the prestigious Fulbright scholarship in May to teach English in Spain for the 2020-2021 school year, only to be informed days later that the program would start at the earliest in January of 2021, if at all. She’s stuck between staying optimistic and also worrying that she’s wasting valuable time when she could have been looking for full-time positions in her field. “As the year progresses, I’m less and less optimistic January is possible,” she said.
In another graduate’s case, this situation has taken her on a winding road of career detours, but she’s kept on the path to eventually land an offer as a marketing coordinator. After graduating in May, Kelly Colligan moved home to Long Island and began working at the front desk of a real estate company in her town. Through this job, she met a couple of people who owned a real estate production company in Brooklyn. After talking with them further, they hired her.
While her new job isn’t exactly what she went to school for, Kelly is grateful to be employed in times like these. “I feel lucky to have landed something even remotely related to what I want to eventually be doing,” she explained. Kelly hopes to one day end up in entertainment publicity but with studios on hiring freezes, she feels this is a great company to get started with in the meantime.
Every graduate’s situation is unique. At the same time, there’s a great sense of camaraderie amongst graduates (employed or not), because they’re the only other people that truly get it. And although Jorie, Laura, and Kelly have had their hardships, each of them has met their struggles with a profound sense of maturity and positivity. I’d say that’s representative for the class of 2020 as a whole. Laura said, “I don’t know anyone who feels like life is over. It’s refreshing to see how resilient people have been.” Each story holds a rolling-with-the-punches attitude. Sometimes things don’t go the way our optimistic, infallible 22-year-old brains think it will go. We don’t have it all figured out, and the hard truth is that we never will, either. I think we’re all learning that we’re okay with that, because we’ve handled so much already.
So here’s to the class of 2020. May we not be met with a wince or pity, but with the knowledge that we know how to handle shit and keep moving forward in a world that seems to be standing still. @PontentialEmployers, pretty impressive, no?
Ann Vrooman, Content Director