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ATLANTA - “I don’t think we are hiring summer interns here after all”- said an email I received from an employer I have been in touch with at a major news network in Atlanta. Post college employment insecurity isn’t an alien concept for me. As an International student, it is a scenario we learn to live with as the college years pass. But this year, it is different; the pandemic has been an equalizer in a sense- the pause in recruitment, employment opportunities and rescinded offers plays out across the spectrum for the graduates of 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic has not only burdened public health systems and governments, but also stagnated economies as a whole; the job market is facing one of the most brutal periods in history. In order to lay off pressure on the healthcare industry, governments are asking people to stay home so that the curve can be flattened over a longer period of time. But, the longer the time frame, the larger the duration and consequently, intensity of the recession. It’s what is causing economically anxious groups to oppose longer lockdowns despite public health concerns.
As the world goes into quarantine, many companies are struggling to stay afloat, and the human cost to it is, well- about 7 million people filing for unemployment benefits. While this certainly is a grim picture, this is the current reality of a global superpower-the United States.
Sounds like the world is really falling down on our heads- right, Batch of 2020? Not so much. While this is a nerve-wracking, once-in-a-lifetime situation for us as a graduating class, we must understand that we are not the first to go through this. There has been a group of strong, resilient people that came before us and braved the recession-infected job market- and that was the Class of 2008.
In my interviews with them, they revealed harsh realities they had to live through and how those shaped their lives. Realities that we today need to understand, acknowledge and learn from. Here are snippets from stories so personal and currently pertinent that you would want to pay attention:
He had plans to work for a real estate company in Florida that his grandfather had operated for years. But, when recession struck the job market and businesses battled bankruptcy, Seth found himself in his final semester unable to go into his family business- “I just realized that the family business I was very comfortably going to go into was largely non-existent. Luckily, we weren’t holding onto too much real estate but it still was a jarring realization that there was nothing for me back home. I said to myself, ‘I need a job, I really need a job’”.
“As soon as the realization hit, I started leveraging the Career Centre like never before. I was going to every possible Career fair/ Networking event and handing in my resume to anyone who was even remotely interested”, said Seth. It was at a Career Fair that Seth met an employer and received an interview for a job at a trading firm in New York City. “My first job at a Trading Firm was going to be during an economic crisis”, said Seth as he narrated to me how he had moved to New York for the job in August 2008.
“Uncertainty was the name of the game. It all happened so fast. People were living with the thought that the level and scale of the recession wasn’t going to be too high or systemic, which is pretty similar to what’s going on right now”, he said. However, Seth also believes that it was an advantageous time to start trading, as it prepared him for a career in the field when things were at their worst.
“It’s very similar to how you would look at a junior doctor treating Covid-19 patients five years from now. If you survive the worst time in an industry at your youngest, it not only is a great learning experience for you but also gives people the impression that you can successfully work during hardship and survive.”, advises Seth.
He was ready to enter the consulting world when he started hearing from other students on campus that offers were being rescinded. Companies that certain students were going to work for were probably not going to survive this economic downturn. Word was that some of these companies were already closing down. All in all, it was a time bereft with confusion and unpredictability, just like the time we are living in today.
Luckily for Aditya, consulting jobs did not take as much of a hit as finance or marketing jobs. In fact, Aditya was one of the few whose offer was not rescinded. “I think Deloitte refused to rescind any offers that year in an effort to continue the influx of quality talent as they knew this was going to be over some day and also because they didn’t want to sabotage their relationships with various prestigious schools that they recruit from year after year”, he speculates.
For Ashley, the fact that she was graduating into a recession didn’t hit home until graduation. In fact, in my conversation with her she revealed that the culture on campus wasn’t as extreme about internships. She believes the pressure to land an internship has increased manifold over the years and crept into campus culture which was not so much the case in 2008.
Within a month of graduation, she got a job in clinical research but it wasn’t what she was looking for. She was looking at teaching jobs at Music studios which were obviously no longer available. This ignited her interest in graduate school. During graduation week, Ashley took an entrance exam for a certification program in French translation and interpretation at Georgia State. However, due to there being a lack of participants itself for the program, she never got to do it even though she did well in the entrance exam. To support her income, she even went as far as enrolling herself as a participant in clinical trials- such was the economic upheaval that the Batch of 2008 faced.
For some like Seth and Aditya, apart from their first couple of years working entry level jobs during a recession, their lives haven’t been bad. The financial industry suffered heavily but bounced back harder which has given them both extremely successful careers today. However, Seth added that starting one’s career during an economic downturn has some long-lasting impacts. He believes that going through that has made him more apprehensive about the economy as a whole and thus a conservative spender- “You just can’t forget what you saw around you and what you went through”, shared Kramer.
As for Ashley, she actually believes that the impact of the recession on her life has been largely positive except for the fact that her starting salary was low. “Today, I would have had a lower salary, wouldn’t have been financially responsible nor would I have gotten my masters that early. It’s the recession that played things out differently for me”. Ashley got creative and joined the evening MBA program at the Goizueta Business School so she could keep her salary and not come out of her Masters with a heavy debt on her shoulders. She even created her own blog post after receiving a request from me to interview.
