The year of graduating dangerously

For most students, graduation day is when college life formally ends – the point of transition into adulthood, into the world of self-support and job markets, of entry into the “real world”. But this year, the pandemic has changed everything.
Dark Clouds
Dinesh Ramanathan, an engineering graduate, had to deal with the fact that the IT company that gave him a job offer was “going slow”.“When I got my letter, I was overjoyed. I was looking forward to the job, having a salary, having my own money to spend, and not being dependent on my parents anymore. Now, I don’t know. All kinds of rumours are floating around, it’s going to be very difficult to find a job during the lockdown,” he says. Ramnath Sujir, a computer science graduate at Mangaluru’s Canara Engineering College, was placed at both TCS and Infosys when they came to campus in 2019. For him, the lockdown initially came as a bit of relief. “The lockdown was a good break- we were all happy initially. I spent time playing games, watching shows etc.” But that soon palled, and there was bad news all around. “A lot of my friends have lost their jobs already. Some companies have put their on-boarding on hold saying it would take time for them to induct everyone. Everyone is worried. This vacation has been too long, we all want to start working,” he says.
Opportunities for Innovation
While the pandemic is cause for worry among students of state engineering colleges, the story is different at the elite institutions. Piyush Rath, student president of IIM Bangalore’s batch of 2020, says that while the pandemic has disrupted lives everywhere, it presents a unique set of opportunities. “It could be an opportunity for us to initiate and drive behavioural changes, both within the organization and with customers,” he says, pointing to the issues faced by employees and employers trying to maximise productivity while working from home. “These are challenging times, but they also present opportunities for us to make a difference in everything that we do at work and in life,” he says. The new paradigm has also been on the mind of Hamza Tariq, from NLSIU’s 2020 batch. Tariq, whose preferred field is litigation, wonders how a lawyer’s life will change in a pandemic and post-pandemic world. “Your work entails going to the court and enduring pushing and pulling through crowds to get the judge’s attention. The job involves interacting with a lot of people. Now, everything will be new,” he says.
Gap Years
Ankita Reddy was planning to take the GRE earlier this year. But the pandemic and the lockdown forced her to reconsider. Now, in the wake of Donald Trump’s announcement and proposed hardening of US H1 visa policy, coupled with the tidal wave of bad economic news – she quotes stories of college graduates having to work as stockers and delivery personnel -she has decided to take a gap year. “No one seems to know what’s going to happen, and I discussed this with my parents. They have been supportive, and suggested that I take a gap year, learn things on the internet. Given that that’s what students in top universities everywhere are doing – learning online, I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” she says.
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