For the majority of young people studying in Ireland today, the financial crisis in 2008 and the subsequent recession led to them being affected in some way by the economic repercussions. Frankly, it’s difficult to find someone who wasn’t either directly or indirectly affected by the fallout. As a result, families lost incomes, friends and relatives emigrated in search of work, fewer holidays were taken abroad, and cuts in mental health services were made throughout the country.
“According to the United Nations Development Programme, the Covid-19 pandemic is the single greatest challenge we have faced since World War II.”
For many, the past few years have been defined by slight gains in the economy, a belief that things were finally on the up, and a gradual return to some of the prosperity we were privileged enough to experience. Yet, the unexpected emergence of Covid-19 and its likely enduring economic repercussions have led to an inevitable return to austerity and economic hardship. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the Covid-19 pandemic is the single greatest challenge we have faced since World War II. The biggest uncertainty for students today is the impact this global pandemic will have on the job market and the career world. On this subject, we spoke to two of our alumni who graduated from Trinity during the Great Recession of 2008 to ask them how they managed to begin and further their careers during an economic crisis.
Charles Larkin graduated from Trinity with a PhD in Economics in 2008. He recalls that “Dublin of 2008 was a place that was obviously ailing but not shut down, not in the throes of an absolute crisis that it would be in December 2009”. Ireland had a highly-educated population but also very high under-employment statistics due to a severe lack of professional jobs for those graduating from university. “The youth unemployment got to, in relative terms, scary numbers, but it never got to the point that it looked like Greece, Italy or Spain.” He explains that the defining response of his peers to this lack of job opportunities in Ireland was to emigrate abroad in search of a fresh start. As he puts it: “if you wanted to rapidly advance your career in 2008 or 2013 the answer was to get on a plane and go somewhere”, whether that be to “a still relatively active Canadian or Australian economy” or certain European countries that were still functioning to “a given level of function relative to Ireland”. He worries that the widespread shutdown of the world’s economies along with travel restrictions resulting from Covid-19 means that there will not be the same “emigration release valve.”
“The events of 2008 and the crises of the years that followed were far worse than we will see in the current crisis.”
Denis McCarthy similarly graduated from Trinity with a PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2007. He is hopeful that the fallout from Covid-19 will not be as severe as the one he experienced. He predicts that “from an economic perspective, the events of 2008 and the crises of the years that followed were far worse than we will see in the current crisis.” However, McCarthy expresses a much more pressing issue facing current graduates. He takes notice of an increasing “generational dimension to economic inequality” in Ireland, with young people feeling that “the ladder is being pulled up ahead of them, with good cause, and that this feeling among young people will be one of the main forces shaping our politics and our culture in the coming years”.
Given the economic similarities of both the 2008 crash and the outbreak of Covid-19, we wondered whether the alumni saw the current generation of graduates as better or more poorly equipped to enter into the current job market than their peers. Larkin empathises with today’s graduates: “Though they’ve received a very good education, the world of work has changed quite rapidly underneath their feet.” He states that “the whole areas of employment have fundamentally changed.” Many changes that only six months ago “would have been utterly dismissed out of hand” have instead been introduced out of necessity. The “courts system” for instance, “has suddenly realised that it’s the 20th century, not the 18th,” with court hearings taking place through Zoom amongst other adaptations.
“The business methods and all those different things that have been adapted will probably remain in place for quite a while as Covid is not going away anytime soon.”
Larkin views many of these changes as enduring beyond their initial reactionary purpose: “The business methods and all those different things that have been adapted due to Covid, and will probably remain in place for quite a while as Covid is not going away anytime soon.” He worries about the impact of changing workplace environments on employee training and integration. Established practices meant that “a large part of training new graduates was the fact that Seán and Mary were in the office, they hung around the older people and they learned stuff. It wasn’t necessarily structured, it was just sort of tacit knowledge that was passed on while being part of the company.” This natural process of learning the ropes on-the-job will be missed, with employees instead learning from a distance.
Speculating about what a post-Covid-19 working environment might look like, Larkin remarks that there won’t be a need for as much office space, bar the occasional meeting room for clients. Early on in lockdown, Twitter communicated to its employees that they were welcome to work from home indefinitely if it was more conducive to productivity. Larkin believes firms are likely to take a similar approach, realising that “they don’t necessarily need to perpetually be in the upstairs of a jumbo jet, travelling the globe, which is going to have a big knock-on effect for the aviation sector.” Going forward, he expects “an attempt to relieve some of the pressure on the central business district in Dublin.” Yet, within Ireland, he highlights the inadequacy of broadband services in many parts of the country as well as the more general problem of residences unsuitable to the demands of working from home for a considerable period. “Most of our houses are designed to be places we inhabit for at most twelve hours a day, or as a dormitory or for family purposes. You don’t have a house which is designed for people to actually do work in and have a working day as well as having their family around them,” Larkin says.
“There is an awful lot of stuff that is happening in the classroom, which we can’t necessarily replicate remotely, which will diminish the experience for the students.”
With Trinity adopting a hybrid learning model from September, we asked our alumni about the benefits and downsides to such an approach to education. Larkin points out that different courses have different requirements. In STEM subjects, it will be very difficult to replicate the correct standard of teaching in a virtual environment. However, in the arts and humanities, much can be “transferred to a remote environment, especially if it’s supplemented by the occasional socially-distanced small group encounter.” Yet he urges staff and students not to underestimate the challenges that come with a predominantly-online teaching and learning experience. He draws attention to the outdated, “pretty low-end stock” technology which is currently used by most universities. “I think what you’ll see is, people will realise two things. One, doing effective online teaching is more work and more money than what they assumed it to be. Second, there is an awful lot of stuff that is happening in the classroom, which we can’t necessarily replicate remotely, which will diminish the experience for the students.”
McCarthy similarly worries about the consequences on students’ social lives and wellbeing resulting from fewer in-person encounters with staff and students. He highlights the unique opportunity that a university experience allows to meet people of the same age who share similar interests, and thinks “it would be a tragedy were that to be lost.” Some of his “fondest memories of student life are of just sitting around the cricket pitch with my classmates between lectures.” Due to the hybrid education model, there would be less informal socialising and fewer opportunities for classmates to get to know each other. The purpose of the hybrid model is, of course, to reduce social interactions, but a return to in-person lectures as soon as possible would be amazing for the social life of students at Trinity.
“Make sure that you’re constantly learning in whatever job or role you ultimately take.”
Larkin goes on to stress the importance of developing “a way to keep yourself buoyant during this whole process,” and more specifically, acquiring “that first professional-style job to begin developing your career.” He also focuses on the importance of continual growth and upskilling: “It sometimes mightn’t be the most logical thing to do to go for the highest pay. It might make better sense to go for something which pays a little bit less but has a better title or gives you more opportunity for growth.” McCarthy also values the development of professional skills and choosing a job that will ideally allow for growth outside of one’s immediate responsibilities. “Make sure that you’re constantly learning in whatever job or role you ultimately take. If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again each day and if you’re not gaining experiences that you can put on your CV then it’s time to move on or move to a slightly different role to gain new experience,” McCarthy suggests.
Both alumni strongly encourage networking as much as possible, “especially when you’re fresh out.” Larkin encourages gaining of experience abroad, “especially for Irish students who have a footloose nature to them.” Once outside of Ireland, it’s crucial to “remain in the networks … It’s very important to get locked into those types of groups.” This will keep students privy to potential job openings, including those back in Ireland. He warns against the dangers of isolating oneself and potentially missing out on further opportunities: “The idea that you go off, get your job in London, hide in your flat and just work away, that isn’t as effective as doing this networking.” McCarthy also advocates for the advantages that can come from reaching out for help: “Get out and network and not just with your peers. If you know someone who knows someone in the industry you’re trying to get into, approach them and ask for their help and advice. You’d be surprised at how willing people can be to help out relative strangers.”
“That’s going to be a big growth industry, trying to deal with the fact that we cooked the planet.”
While Larkin condemned industries such as journalism and retail as being on a “trajectory of doom,” he reassured us that there were other avenues to explore over the coming years. He predicts considerable investment and energy being directed towards labour activation policies, Springboard courses and subvented internships, as during the previous recession. Additionally, he sees lots of money being poured into the biomedical sciences to contend with Covid-19. He also referred to the European Green Deal and the need to prepare for the achieving of the 2030 and 2050 targets: “There’s going to be a lot of money floating around and that’s going to be a big growth industry, trying to deal with the fact that we cooked the planet. And it’s not just engineers that are needed for that, there are roles for social scientists and for people in humanities. It’s one of those problems that encompasses a lot of different aspects.”
Although there is much to learn from history, it’s normal for students to feel anxious about graduating into a world defined by such newfound and unexpected uncertainty. However, though much has changed over the past few months, students can be reassured that, in terms of job hunting at least, things have remained largely the same. McCarthy says that “the keys to success are much as they ever were; write a strong CV, do your interview prep, approach recruiters and fill in tons of applications. As I mentioned, people at the start of their careers typically change jobs quite frequently so be thorough in your jobsearch preparation and consider it an investment in your future career.” Larkin expresses a similar sentiment, encouraging graduates to look beyond the limiting possibilities provided by their initial qualifications. “There shouldn’t be a concern on the part of students that they must be married to whatever their discipline was when they were in college. These lateral transfers are things that people shouldn’t be afraid of. I think that’s good advice for people starting out.”
