BLOG POST 22: How Nostradamus predicted Fresher's Jobs in 2020. No, Really!
Me to my connection - "I've just graduated and I'm looking for jobs."
My connection - "Hope for the best! Jobs are harder to get during this pandemic."
This leaves me wondering...
Were job hunts in actual fact easier prior to the pandemic? Was procuring a job much seamless than it is today?
2020 was like the sweet candy I had been craving for, all through six years of my study curriculum. Only to discover, the candy had been deceiving me and many others like me with its looks! Urrgh!
Freshers of 2020 are certainly having a bad time and let me not lie, some jolly good time too! ;-)
One year back, interviews were mostly dress-up, reach the destination on time, wait for your turn, walk-in, impress the panellists, get rejected, come back home, lament, try again, and the cycle repeats.
Today, it's gotten better. No dress-up! No hassles like having to reach on time! No waiting! Less tension as we don't have to see the million other candidates waiting for the same job!
We can now sit at the comfort of our own homes, apply, connect, expand our network, apply again, mail HRs, prepare, and if called for - put on a good dress, get ourselves seated there in front of the monitor, attend, get rejected, try again, try again, lament, try again, and it goes on...
Certainly, the cycle takes a different route for the ones who get selected. No worries about having to travel, as 'Work from Home' is the new way of operating today - at least for a while.
So, there we have the pros of being a graduate of 2020. Now, to the cons.
This year of the pandemic has also been a year where various industries have been suffering huge losses due to which many experienced professionals have been losing their jobs. This results in a tight competition between the experienced ones and the fledgeling freshers. Well! Who in their right mind would bother hiring an inexperienced candidate when they have a full-fledged, experienced candidate right before them, desperately seeking a job.
A handshake or look right into the eyes of the employer which could once have done the magic of winning us the job; is no more today. Human connections which we've been training ourselves for all our lives, seem to have no prospect today. Whatever you've got to do, bring it out virtually - and that feels like a whole new world! Now you are just putting on your best dress and looking into a computer screen - feeling lost.
.
.
.
With all this going about, what happens to be of some comfort is the very few positive and encouraging responses we get as we connect with people. Those connections who empathise with us and understand what it is like to be in our shoes.
Posts and feeds by career advisors and hiring managers who understand what it is like to be desperately applying for jobs. One such post by Kirsty Bonner I reckon is worth adding here.
I must assert our special thanks to those connections who genuinely open our CV and suggest where we could possibly improve and to those friends who reach out and use their influence to help us network better.
The pandemic has arrived with its own set of perks and pitfalls for us graduates of 2020.
Yet, let's just cling to the words of Sundar Pichai for now, which might poise as one stronghold during these difficult times - "Class of 2020, we shall prevail!"
"The reason I know you'll prevail is because so many others have done it before you. One hundred years ago, the class of 1920 graduated into the end of a deadly pandemic. Fifty years ago, the class of 1970 graduated in the midst of the Vietnam War. And nearly 20 years ago, the class of 2001 graduated just months before 9/11"
-Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
