COVID-19 brings uncertainty after graduation

Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER

With another semester ending during the pandemic, UTRGV students said the changes COVID-19 has brought to their lives has altered their post graduation expectations. 

Varesh Gorabi, a biomedical sciences senior, planned to take a gap year before applying to medical school, but then the pandemic struck. 

She said before the pandemic, she had stopped a lot of her face-to-face volunteering and shadowing to focus on studying for the Medical College Admission Test. 

“At the beginning, no one knew what was happening, and there was a lot of uncertainty,” Gorabi said. “And then, so, I kind of got left behind because for med school you need, like, volunteering and clinical hours.”

She said her original plan during her gap year was to get a job, move out of her parents’ house and possibly move to another city. 

“I wanted to kind of, like, explore the world, and I want to go to another city, meet a whole bunch of people, go out, you know, have the work … and make friends, and all of those things dissipated,” Gorabi said. “You can’t do that, really so,  if I do get a job in another city, I’ll go there, but I’ll probably not go out that much.” 

She said she wanted to work in a hospital during her gap year, but she does not know if that is possible during the pandemic.

Gorabi said even applying to medical school is different now because of COVID-19. 

“For med school, interviews are online now and before you used to go to the school to interview, and you would, like, have orientation, you would see the environment, but now you can’t,” she said. 

Asked how Gorabi will celebrate graduating, she replied that her family will probably just take pictures at a park. 

“I know they’ll be proud of me,” she said. “I know I’ll be happy, but I can’t really see my friends right now. So, I mean, hopefully, we could probably do a video call.” 

Gorabi said she accepted so much change and the fact that the virus is not going away any time soon, and she will try to apply where she can. 

“During the pandemic, we’ve had to change a lot of things, and there’s always going to be a measure of uncertainty in life, and you just have to be flexible,” she said. “So, whenever you want to find a way to do it, even though there’s … different obstacles, especially ones that weren’t there before, find a way to move around.”

Karina Espino, a mechanical engineering senior, said she is extremely nervous about graduating and going into her career field during the pandemic. 

She said her original plan was to work for a Mazda manufacturing plant in Alabama as a quality design engineer after graduating. 

While Espino is still going to apply at the plant, she said it will be harder to get hired due to COVID-19 limiting the amount of positions and hours.

She said prior to COVID-19, her classes were all in person and gave her a lot of hands-on experience, but with everything going online, that is not the case anymore. 

“I was supposed to get hands-on engineering experience there at school, utilizing all the machines that are there, you know, going out and getting other experience before I graduate,” Espino said. 

She said learning how a machine works through a screen is not the same as seeing it, touching it, working on it and operating it. 

“Because I didn’t get all that hands-on experience, I didn’t get to learn by that way, and I feel like I’m not as prepared as I should be,” Espino said. “So, I really missed out on a lot of hands-on experience that was going to benefit me and add to my set of engineering skills.” 

She said she has been a student all of her life and graduating is her stepping into the real world and becoming a full-on adult, but with the pandemic still raging, she feels nervous about the future. 

Lourdes Servantes, associate director of the Career Center, said the pandemic has presented a unique situation to students that will be graduating.

“The economy and the pandemic are tied together, and that’s very rare because we’ve never been in this type of situation,” Servantes said. “So we’re going through uncharted waters.” 

She said she has experienced various economic recessions while she has worked at the Career Center, but people come back more innovative and find opportunities that others would have never have thought of. 

The associate director recommends graduates be adaptable to the changes that the pandemic has brought. 

“[Students have] already shown they’re highly adaptable based on adapting these last two semesters,” she said.

Servantes said people should assess their job search and look for different jobs or areas in that career field, or even relocate to where there are more opportunities. 

“The typical job search would take, in a good economy, sometimes up to six months to nine months, but with students now, it’s taking longer,” she said. 

Servantes recommends three tips to keep in mind when looking for a job after graduation. 

One is to stay focused on what your overall career goals are. 

“Make sure that you have a goal in mind,” she said. “It’s not just good enough to say, ‘I want to get a job.’ … You have to plan out a career.”

Servantes said second is to be resilient when looking for a job.

“Rejection comes with any job search,” she said. 

Third is to understand job searches are unique to everyone.

“Do not compare your job search to anybody else’s,” she said. 

The associate director said people will compare their job search to others’ and ask themselves, “Why can’t I do that?”

“For some, it takes longer than others, and that doesn’t mean that that person is any better than anybody else,” Servantes said. 

She said the Career Center has adapted to the pandemic and offers all of their services virtually. The center has virtual meeting times, where students can get their resumes reviewed and have any questions answered.

For information on the services that the Career Center offers, click here.