With the semester coming to a close at LSU for students new and old, COVID-19 remains wide awake within the anxious minds of many – especially seniors.
As some students learn the routines of homework and exams for the first time in their college careers while navigating Zoom, others worry that Zoom sessions in class are just a practice for when they start their careers. Seniors graduating this year look at COVID-19 not as a hindrance to their education, but as a large roadblock in their path to become successful, working adults in society.
Caitlyn Kearns, a communication disorders senior graduating in December, expressed her concern for the future of her career as a speech therapist. Speech therapists have turned to a new form of speech therapy called teletherapy that allows them to reach patients virtually and asses their needs from the confines of their home. Although the job market for speech therapists has not dipped in necessity, the number of patients that these practitioners care for are disappearing at alarming rates. 
“We have so many immunocompromised patients,” Kearns said. “If teletherapy is not a good option for them, they [patients] just won’t show up to sessions at all.”
With a large demand in experienced practitioners to oversee the new teletherapy system, young college graduates in the field are forced to work in hospitals and nursing homes rather than private institutions to gain the necessary experience to obtain work elsewhere, according to Kearns. This was not the case prior to the pandemic.
“Its going to be a completely different experience than what you can normally get,” Kearns said.
Grace Millsap, a marketing senior graduating next spring, is less afraid of the outcome of her future career. She said she sees the marketing as an open field for her career, not leaning to one specific job over another.
“I don’t see the point in figuring out the details right now because things are so up in the air right now,” she said. 
Millsap works as a digital media student-worker at the Louisiana Office of State Parks and sees the transition from in-person to digital style of marketing as an already growing process in the field. Unlike speech therapy, marketing is a field already on the path of becoming an entirely virtual career, according to Millsap.
“Marketing is kind of a 24/7 job and the pandemic has assisted in making jobs 24/7,” she said.
The LSU Olinde Career Center offers a student career guide on their website and by appointment. In the career guide, a multitude of resources are accessible to seniors and others who worry about their impending careers. Handshake, a job-finding platform, is one of the resources offered as an assistant to seniors and other students for finding job listings in their respective fields. Other resources include building a resume, tips for an elevator pitch, utilizing linkedin and other guides.
However, guides and tips can only go so far when a job market has shifted online or has disappeared completely. Depending on the intended field, availabilities in a senior’s future career could be scarce or plentiful. All is up to the discretion of the student’s desire to go into a specified job market with more risk or a general option with greater stability.  
“It’s a tradeoff, but it doesn’t have to be all bad,” Millsap said.