To the class of 2020, [cough] congratulations. It is both a privilege and honor to graduate from Georgetown and I am reminded of that everyday as you will be in the future. It may not feel like it now in the current world we live in, but the memories, connections, and knowledge you’ve gained over four years will far outweigh the hours long ceremony sitting in the heat of the front lawn. Trust me I know, having sat through not only my own, but my sister’s in 2003.
I graduated in 2009, a year marked by similar financial turmoil and economic uncertainty. A professor of mine, Betsy Sigman, asked in one of my MIS classes, “Who all has a job after graduating?” Maybe 9 of us raised our hands out of 30. I had several friends with offers rescinded, or vanish, in thin air as the banks they interned for dried up and in some cases, dissolved all together. Several friends that I am still close with today took odds and end jobs until the economy rebounded. One was a concierge, one lived in Bolivia teaching english, another working as an administrator in an all boys catholic school in the bronx for $200 a week. Fortunate as I was to have a job in equity sales and trading after graduating, I learned early on that it was not for me. During my two year analyst program, I hated going to work everyday and tried everything to plot my course our of it, but the economic uncertainty remained all the way through 2011, when I was laid off. Both shocked and worried about not working while living in the most expensive city in the US, I had a sense of relief. Relief that I could now focus more of my time on reinventing myself and the path that I would rather been on than finance. As I look back on that moment 10 years later now, it was the best thing that could have happened to me, but at the time, there was no way I could have understood how it would all work out. I moved into the software and startup world after 5 months of being unemployed, and there were times when I questioned everything I had done in my life. But today I feel more fulfilled, challenged, and rewarded then I could have ever imagined in my professional career.
So here is my advice to the class of 2020. It will work out. You may not know how right this second, or today, or tomorrow, or next year, but you have the support of an amazing cohort of graduates in your class. You have earned a top education and learned values to support you in all your endeavors. These tools will equip you for what may come and for what you cannot see, but in the rearview mirror everything will start to come into focus. Congratulations.
-Todd C.