Unfortunately, There Was No 'Get A Job During A Pandemic 101' Course Taught At My University | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Student Life

Unfortunately, There Was No 'Get A Job During A Pandemic 101' Course Taught At My University

Diving into the unknown and just hoping I can swim a little.

Amelia Thomas
Apr 13, 2020
Mississippi State University
357
Unfortunately, There Was No 'Get A Job During A Pandemic 101' Course Taught At My University
Gregory Shamus / Getty Images

The future is scary. I want to place blame on the coronavirus and the fact that no one else is really prepared for what is to come either, but I can't. The truth is, I am preparing myself for a future I'm not even sure I know yet.

Search job postings, sending in my resume, emailing people I have never met. That is my new life. That is the life of thousands of college seniors, who quite frankly aren't ready for this new normal of job searching in the midst of a pandemic.

For a lot of us, we had a careers class, but none of those classes taught us what it would look like to find a job in the middle of COVID-19.

I know the basics. Online interviews mean perfect hair, plain background, good wifi, nice dress shirts, and sweatpants. Job searching is limited to Indeed, LinkedIn, and if you're lucky, previous connections. The things I don't know are, how do I get a job when hiring is paused? How do I know if I like the company if their website hasn't been updated since 2008? How do I finish getting my experience hours when the place I was job shadowing closed due to the pandemic?

My university didn't prepare me for this, but how could they?

We never would have guessed there would be an outbreak to this capacity and that is what is so scary. No one knew this would impact everyone the way it did, yet we hardly know how to control it. Our world has been shaken to its core, but for so many, that doesn't mean the world stops spinning.

There are millions of college seniors around the globe who are juggling online school and the job market that is hanging on by a thread. Trying to navigate all of this in the dark, with a flashlight that is about to run out of battery life. We are lost, we are scared, and we are under the pressure of a society that is understanding of everyone except us. We don't want to complain and we don't want to place blame, but it's hard.

Our life has become a nightmare we can't wake up from.

We are fighting a battle we simply won't win and still trying to manage to pay rent even though most of us don't have an income. This is our normal. This is our "wow your life sounds like a movie." This is COVID-19.

academics
Report this Content
Student Life

12 Things I Learned my Freshmen Year of College

When your capability of "adulting" is put to the test

Hempstead, New York
3358
friends

Whether you're commuting or dorming, your first year of college is a huge adjustment. The transition from living with parents to being on my own was an experience I couldn't have even imagined- both a good and a bad thing. Here's a personal archive of a few of the things I learned after going away for the first time.

Keep Reading...Show less
freshmen year
Featured

Economic Benefits of Higher Wages

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

Florida International University
302320
Illistrated image of people crowded with banners to support a cause
StableDiffusion

Raising the minimum wage to a livable wage would not only benefit workers and their families, it would also have positive impacts on the economy and society. Studies have shown that by increasing the minimum wage, poverty and inequality can be reduced by enabling workers to meet their basic needs and reducing income disparities.

I come from a low-income family. A family, like many others in the United States, which has lived paycheck to paycheck. My family and other families in my community have been trying to make ends meet by living on the minimum wage. We are proof that it doesn't work.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

11 Thoughts A Writer Has While Writing

Told through Parks & Recreation GIFs

Millennials of New England
1869
blank paper
Allena Tapia

As an English Major in college, I have a lot of writing and especially creative writing pieces that I work on throughout the semester and sometimes, I'll find it hard to get the motivation to type a few pages and the thought process that goes behind it. These are eleven thoughts that I have as a writer while writing my stories.

Keep Reading...Show less
writers
Entertainment

13 Times April Ludgate Perfectly Explained College

Because who understands your bitterness better than April?

Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
1767
April Ludgate

Every college student knows and understands the struggle of forcing themselves to continue to care about school. Between the piles of homework, the hours of studying and the painfully long lectures, the desire to dropout is something that is constantly weighing on each and every one of us, but the glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel helps to keep us motivated. While we are somehow managing to stay enrolled and (semi) alert, that does not mean that our inner-demons aren't telling us otherwise, and who is better to explain inner-demons than the beloved April Ludgate herself? Because of her dark-spirit and lack of filter, April has successfully been able to describe the emotional roller-coaster that is college on at least 13 different occasions and here they are.

Keep Reading...Show less
april ludgate
Adulting

Being A Senior: The Best And Worst Of It

Graduation is coming.

Loyola University Chicago
854
college
Pinterest

For many undergraduates across the nation, the home stretch has begun. Only one more semester remains in our undergraduate career. Oh, the places we will go! For the majority of college seniors, this is simultaneously the best and worst year out of the past four and here’s why.

1. The classes you are taking are actually difficult.

A schedule full of easy pottery throwing and film courses is merely a myth on the average campus. With all of those prerequisites for the upper-level courses and the never-ending battle you fight each year during registration for limited class seats, senior year brings with it the ability to register for the final courses you need to fulfill your major. Yet, these are not the easy entry level courses. These are the comprehensive, end of major, capstone courses designed to apply the knowledge from all your previous courses, usually in the form of an extensive research paper or engaged learning project. The upside is you actually probably really enjoy these classes but alas there is no room for slackers here.

Keep Reading...Show less
college seniors

Trending Topics

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments