As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the world, students and new grads lie hopeless in its wake of destruction. Although nothing is more important than the health and wellbeing of our fellow global citizens, the effect of the pandemic on the future careers of our rising STEM generation is not trivial.

I too, like many of you reading this, have had my internship cancelled as a result of the travel restrictions and border closures. From the conscious decision to actively cancel pending offers (ex. Airbnb & Uber) to the forced cancellation of foreign hires (ex. the cancellation of H1-B visas), companies around the globe are cutting ties with the rising generation.

Whether you’ve had your summer internship cancelled, or your new grad offer revoked — I want to share my own experience with the roadblocks introduced by COVID-19, and offer opportunities to continue your career development, no matter where you are.

But let me preface this by saying:

I am not some CS major from Stanford. I attend a mid-rank Canadian University with a major in Engineering Physics — which involves basically no computer science coursework.

I don’t have past internships from Facebook, Jane Street, and Google. But I am grateful to have gained valuable experience at a small startup and more recently, SAP Concur.

I am not conveniently located in the Bay Area. I am a first generation immigrant. My family relocated to Canada when I was eight, abandoning any existing degrees & certifications to start form scratch in a land of opportunity.

#covid19 #internships #software-development #careers #personal-development #go