1. Ishita Choubey, Psychology Major, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Batch of 2020.

In terms of further studies, I luckily haven’t had to alter my plans drastically since I had already planned to take a little break. Most of the post graduate courses for psychology in India are in January, so i had planned to take a 6 month break to study and explore my field a little more so that I could make a more informed decision about my post-graduate plans. I had planned to intern in these six months and even though I’m lucky to still have the internship, working online really takes away a large chunk of experience that I would have normally gained from this internship. 

I think in my batch universally there is also a sense of loss, in that a vital part of our college experience was taken from us, our last semester, our graduation, goodbyes. I have many friends who had jobs promised to them which have now been withdrawn. What makes it worse is that some of them also needed these jobs to provide for their families. Many of us had admissions in universities, in India and abroad, which we have no guarantee will be a possibility now.One thing that this pandemic has taught me is to have plans, and back up plans, because life can throw anything your way, and you have to be prepared to tackle it. It also shows us that most of the time, nothing actually goes according to plan, anything can happen anytime, so we should really live in the moment and enjoy each day we get to do the things we want. It’s a paradox, but maybe that’s the lesson- balance is key.

2. Maahir Tuli, Finance and Accounting, International Business Major, Symbiosis School of Management, Batch of 2020.

or our batch, we just graduated overnight. When the dust settled, we found ourselves unemployed and directionless. Students have to wait from three months to a whole year to actually start their further education. Navigating the employment scene, post COVID-19, was and still continues to be a strenuous experience so far in my academic career. Employment has been scarce, and has been a very stressful experience.

Furthermore, I have seen an increased amount of unpaid internships. I have actually started receiving remote job offers, so the situation seems hopeful in the coming months and I hope that the employment situation betters in the coming months for students like us. The new perspective I gained was that every trend, no matter how prevalent or how old, or how repetitive it has been; it can reverse itself. 

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket- don’t go after that one particular option that employment in this sector, be in investment banking or the commerce sector, do not rely on that alone. You need to diversify yourself, your skill set- you can’t rely on a single skill set. I am a student of accounting and finance but I also have a fair idea about graphic designing and also about the stock market and the marketing principles. That gave me a real edge in such desperate times.

3. Shruti Gupta, Economics Major, Lady Shri Ram College, Batch of 2020.

The situation is pretty stressful with uncertainty looming over our heads. Specially on the academic front where everything is so indecisive, it becomes confusing on which areas to focus. There is no clarity about the final semester exams which in turn does not let us divert our focus totally towards the professional prospects. Personally, I was fortunate enough to receive a placement offer in the month of January itself. It’s a company working in the industry of ad-tech and thus my position was retained. However, in a few other cases, placement offers of my friends which they received earlier were revoked. This leaves their future uncertain and vague.

Although the pandemic has brought a lot of hardships in our lives, we cannot ignore the fact that it also has given us a new perspective. We have become all the more concerned about cleanliness and hygiene. This is a learning which needs to be carried beyond the pandemic. Technology did play a vital role during the whole time. In today’s times, adaptability is the new constant. We need to adopt a fluid approach. We need to accept the fact that this is the new normal. Our lives have changed, our ways of working have changed but COVID-19 is here to stay and we need to learn to navigate through it both wisely and fruitfully.