While the pandemic isn’t “over,” I think we’ve reached a point where 2020 definitely is well behind us.
I’m interested in hearing how the circumstances of 2020 shaped your 2020 or 2021 grad’s current situation or goals. Or, any college grad!
I can honestly say that for my 2020 grad, that year definitely made her reassess what she wanted. She’s on a different path now (starting grad school in fall) than the one she thought she would be on and there have been some bumps in the road. Ultimately, I think it affected her positively (apart from the obvious terribleness), though it certainly wasn’t fun.
Mine moved to the city of her job but worked remotely, and is still only in twice a week. As a result, she didnt find her friend group at work, but made lots of other friends outside of work instead. I think any transition to FT in the office would be rough for her, and she might change jobs if that were required, as she likes WFH.
It wasnt the experience I expected, with her bonding with all the other new employees in her class, but she has made the best of it and has a good life. Perhaps she is better off having a clear demarcation between work and home, and separating her friends from her coworkers.
I think my 2020 grad benefited. He was living in an apartment with a couple of roommates at the time of graduation close to his office, 1 1/2 hours from home. The office went remote, so he came home. He rented office space with a bunch of high school friends who were in similar situations for about a year. He paid off loans. The guys tried to find a house to rent, in this market it appears many don’t want/need to rent to a bunch of young men, so they rented a house at the beach for the summer. He bought a kayak and goes out hiking/kayaking a lot. I would like my basement back, but enjoy having him.
D2 was well into her first year of her Doc of OT and one semester away from multiple clinicals when Covid 2020 hit. This was “fortunate” in that even that one semester gave her univ and health care in town some time to maneuver how to still accommodate learners in the health care setting (initially in March 2020 in-person clinicals were cancelled and the students a year ahead of her suffered more).
She got news this morning she passed her OTD boards with flying colors a relief after a good year of virtual classes but thankfully in-person clinicals to master her trade. But probably overall, less bonding with her cohort - for a third of their program they only knew each other through Zoom and their text group.
Mine still has another year of school but was told yesterday that she’ll have her full-time offer before she leaves this rotation in mid August, so I’m going to chime in ; )
There were a lot of positives for my D in pandemic. She was already hired for her co-op pre-pandemic and her first rotation was summer of '20. She was full time onsite in a plant where many of the “non essential” people were working from home. While it was tough socially being in a new part of the country with no friends, and limited interactions at work, she learned a TON and was given a crazy amount of responsibility. She also really appreciated being able to work in-person.
Her second rotation, school was technically back in person but most classes were hybrid and club activities were still very limited. Lots of things were still being done over zoom/teams. Despite being away at work, she was able to TA a class, tutor, participate in a zoom theater show, zoom in for meetings, and play DnD. Basically all her social stuff. That would never have happened without pandemic and it really helped the friend group stay connected.
And the virtual reality, that seems here to stay, is also making her long distance relationship much more doable. They FT every night and can see each other at least once/month.
Our son graduated in 2019 so normal graduation, but he spent the pandemic in a highly restricted Army bubble. He was confined to his house and post until two weeks after his second vaccine. All exercise was done on post. He was not allowed to walk around his neighborhood. He was allowed curbside pickup for groceries and that was it. Zero tolerance for any movement beyond those three places for a year and a half.
I know that when it was over for him, the first thing he wanted to do was go out to eat with friends, and I think that’s still his top activity. But, because his job is in the bowels of a secure facility where he codes the hours away and then repeats that process at home until the wee hours, I’m not sure he suffered from the pandemic’s forced isolation as much as others. His cohort does the same thing he does, and they communicate in an active Army chat space round the clock, so they are never away from each other. They are used to this virtualization. It’s just how they live, pandemic or no pandemic. I think he viewed the pandemic as an inconvenience that is now over. I don’t believe it’s had any lasting effect on him as he was already employed and his goals are unchanged.
Interesting that none in his bubble contracted Covid that they know of. They have just moved on.
My daughter is a 2020 grad and is doing fine. She had a job offer coming off her last internship so no effect there. Of course there were some covid related issues - graduation was virtual, her start date was delayed by a couple months and she has been virtual ever since. She still hasn’t been to her office in two years. But she is doing well professionally regardless, and has just learned she will be promoted effective Aug 1 with a substantial salary increase. She has a very serious boyfriend and things are going quite well in that regard. All in all, covid has been a pain, but life is still good.
I have a 2019 grad, so her college was normal, but she didn’t start her “real job” until February 2020. Got sent home to work remote for a couple months. Half of the already small staff was laid off but she got to stay. Now they are growing. She doesn’t make big money, but in our LCOL area she is thriving. Got into her apartment in 2019 with plenty of options to choose from and a much lower rate than her complex is currently advertising.
Other one is a 2022 grad. Her college wasn’t disrupted that much. She definitely benefitted financially between CARES Act, stimulus, housing refund, and being allowed to get her full Americorps money for Summer 2020 even though she wasn’t able to complete all hours. But she had a hard time acquiring an apartment for this summer (same suburb as other DD who found it easy in 2019). It remains to be seen how she will fare with a job following internship. Not too worried about finding some kind of work, whether in her field or not. More worried about finding a roommate to take over when her current one leaves. She can’t afford a 1 bedroom on her own, well maybe a crummy one but there are precious few of anything available so I want her to stay put in her nice 2 bedroom.
My 2020 grad had a job lined up before graduation. Started full-time remote so worked from his old bedroom most of the first year. It made the first few months a struggle to understand the culture and internal politics of the company but on the other hand he was making great money with virtually no expenses and built up a great nest egg. Finally moved to the city of the company’s HQ in late spring 2021 thinking they would go back to the office but they have mostly stayed remote, only needing to go in occasionally. He managed to aggregate a couple roommates from his college friends who also moved there and they are having a great time. He’s already had at least 4 raises in two years and has a good work/life balance. I worry more about the second one who is likely to graduate into a recession next year.
I have a separate thread about my Dec. 2020 son and his difficulty launching. He finished college remote from home which I think was isolating. He did not use career services, have career fairs, etc… he’s trying to adjust course and figure it all out now. My 2021 daughter also finished college remote. She feels a bit cheated by the college experience and the quality of online education, but she’s been able to get into the industry she wanted to work in and land her dream job. She’s truly thriving a year out of college.
Our 2020 grad is (thankfully) doing well. He stayed home through 2021 finishing his MS while working remotely as an intern. After graduating with his MS in 2021 we helped move him to Bay area where he made what turned out to be a couple of good decisions as he started full time employment. First, he locked in a fairly long-term lease in a brand new apartment, and second he purchased a new car while there was still good inventory and low rates. He now gets to go in to his office when we wants, which for him is every day and social activities are now picking up.
His attention now is on the price of gas and figuring out how to navigate the word of incentive stock options and restricted stock options while not incurring the dreaded AMT.
D was a 2019 and worked for a research institute at a university hospital. She got the benefit of early access to the vaccine since she worked at the hospital. The slower pace of 2020 did make it easier for her and her BF to apply to graduate schools in the back half of 2020 for the 2021 school year. They already had a pretty tight social group from college who were working in the same city so instead of going out together, they just had more at home movie nights, potlucks, Catan and some virtual app based games. D and BF were fortunate to get accepted into grad programs at the same university, so all in all, Covid was a relatively minor bump in the road.
S was Class of 2021 and he was affected more severely. He and his buddies were in Europe on Spring Break when Trump declared the national emergency. We had to scramble to find him a plane back to the States. The rest of Junior year was a major let down as the school went fully remote and he finished classes at home. He had a summer IB internship lined up with a BBB in NYC for the summer that he also had to do remotely. While he saved quite a bit of money by living at home, it just wasn’t the same experience vs working in person or living in NYC. Senior year was also not optimal. He was on campus the whole year as a first year counselor, but social activities were limited and many classes still remote. Thankfully things have gotten back to normal as his company (same one he interned for) was one that went back to in person work early and he is living in the heart of Manhattan, but he’ll never get back what probably would have been the best 3 semesters of his college experience.
My 2020 grad had job offer from her last internship that she started remotely. The remote start of the career was not a positive experience both professionally and in terms of making connections. She struggled with poor or no mentorship. She was benefiting financially though staying with us and paying no rent so she was able to save her entire paycheck and have enough for downpayment when she is ready to buy. A little over a year into her career she decided that she wants to change her professional route to management and switched jobs which I think would not have happened if not remote start of her career. Financially she make the same but it’s not direction she was originally going. While she is doing fine I think remote start of the career definitely didn’t help
My 2020 grad had his job lined up Dec 2019. The biggest worry in the beginning was that it would go away before he could start. It didn’t. He moved to new city with his roommate, and got an apartment right by the metro. But then, the return to office date got pushed back again and again. he never went into the office from in that apartment!
Two years later, and he is just now going into the office once a week. And he grumbles about that! The funny thing is that the glitzy building with the fancy gym, food, offices, etc. is what excited him about accepting the job in the first place. I think he might be starting to come around though. He sent us a bunch of pics of his food and the gym yesterday…
But in general, he’s doing really well. I’m thankful. I don’t think he was really that impacted from covid. They didn’t go remote until the end of March, and his term ended a month later. He had enough credits that he didn’t have to do the May term. His graduation was impacted. Cancelled twice. Had it 18 months later.
Summer of 2020, S said that those who had jobs lined up dec 2019 seemed to do very well. Those who waited to find a job in the spring had a very hard time and were floundering.
So my D was graduating early in Dec 2020. Before Covid her plans were to get an apartment and stay in DC in May , and would likely have found a job in DC and continued to live there (hopefully hillterning in the fall). She was still going to go back in the fall, but live in a hotel at first, until her school went 100 remote. She ended up staying here in Atl, did get an apartment with a friend to do remote school, and got a job that summer, and remade a life here in Atl. Once she graduated, not being in DC, she thought she wanted to pivot to teaching , and tried that , but it was not her calling. She has finally found something she wants to do (not politics), and has cemented her life back here in Atl. Without Covid I really think she would be living her life in DC and had worked there in non profit or similar. Really not sure which life would have made her happier, but she is happy and found her way.
Now S19 who is ASD , was finally figuring out how to do social things little by little when Covid hit. Came home and did ok at first, but it was much harder for him. His school returned in fall 2020, but it was pretty restrictive and only some classes that year were in person/hybrid. Not being social he got depressed in winter 2020/2021 and almost gave up. 2021/2022 was ok, but still not “back to normal”. He finished early this year and is now in his adult life. Without Covid he might have actually enjoyed college and flourished. College was/is now a means to a end to a career that he just started. He says that “when I have kids I will not push college on my kids; it was a big disappointment”. Being a programmer he was able to find a job, but rent is through the roof where he moved to! too many people want to work remote there, and no inventory. So for him, it fared worse. Would have still gotten a job/etc, but social/emotionally not good. His sister being more social and able to pivot as mentioned above did fine, but not what I had pictured her life before Covid came.
S graduated in 21 and moved to his work city. His previous summer was as an intern (remote from his bedroom). Although he did well with the internship and secured an offer, remote was not great. Very hard to network, make connections, make friends, etc. He did end up living with a kid from his internship class and that worked out well. Although they started summer '21 remote, they were in the office by October '21 and full time (5 days) shortly after new year. I’m sooo glad he’s in the office. He has met some great people, has been bale to network with some senior folks, goes to lots of impromptu happy hours and team dinners.
I don’t know how any young people are supposed to soar without the mentorship and culture that comes from the workplace. Even if you’re sitting in front of a computer all day (so yes you can do your work from home), are you really building a career beyond your job? Why would you want to (I hear so many saying they want to WFH)? I get the no commute, no professional attire thing, more control of your time, etc. What I don’t get is how do you expect to be recognized as a future leader if they don’t really know you? I think a ton of kids career growth will be stunted by the whole WFH craze.
I so agree. My S started his new job and going to the office is optional at this point. Some go in, some go in part of the time. They try to entice people back by free food. I get that folks “my age” prefer the WFH, but for new employees and grads going to the office is crutial. I heard too many stories from friends on how lonely their new grad was in their remote jobs. My H’s company is making everyone come back 3 days a week, and while he has to commute and grumble, for some it is likely welcome.
D had just finished her PhD programs applications and was waiting for the in-person admitted visits to decide where to go.
Meanwhile, as a celebration for all the hard work, she and a friend went to Europe, and got stuck in the general confusion when the flights were canceled. We had to figure out a convoluted route back home with airline points. She stayed with us while still having to pay her rent (landlord refused to let them off with any reduction or even return their deposit).
She had to decide on her university based on zoom campus tours. University of choice has turned out to be a positive!
Ended up with a crappy apartment with one crappy roommate for the first year, all decided via zoom. First year of classes was completely virtual and not every professor managed the transition well. The second year improved as the rest of her cohort came to campus. She is now done with classes and seminars, ready to start her thesis research. Long road to get there but things are looking up finally.
S, was in his junior year and was quite suddenly asked to move out of his fraternity housing while he was on spring break vacation in Florida. He wasn’t able to get back in time to retrieve everything from his room.
He was also in the preliminary stage of internship interviews with a few companies. The whole process was completely stopped as companies figured out their best strategy. He had a couple of return internship options and one in hand. The last company cut the internship short making it completely remote, and that’s what he decided to do.
He stayed with us for the next six months before going back to campus for senior year. Virtual classes seemed to work for him as he did well. Graduation ceremony last year was very basic but in person, for which we are very grateful.
He took the job offer from the company where he interned that summer and worked during senior year, has been since promoted and gotten a huge raise. He is happy and living his life.
2021 grad had a banking internship lined up for summer 2020 by Jan. 2020, with lots of application advice from friend’s father who is in that career. It went to half the number of weeks and remote; he shared an apartment with high school friends here back home while putting his best effort into the internship. Got a job offer at the end of it. Started the job last summer remote which he didn’t like at all. He’s a people person. He has an apartment 10 min walk from the city downtown where the job is so he was there and ready to go. This past year has been mostly remote, office a few days, back to remote, back to office a few days and now office M-Th with Friday remote, which I think it was even before Covid. He is thriving, taking up additional work as the Great Resignation has thinned his team. Very grateful for how it worked out for him.