The COVID-19 pandemic has forced awareness and, above all, a questioning among many people. In doing so, many young people have completely revised their career plans.
Closure of factories, businesses and non-essential activities, as well as theaters, have gone through the wringer.
An online survey of 2,000 young Quebecers reveals that 15% of them have changed careers due to the pandemic.
This is the case of Benoît Bouchard-Emond.
“In my old job, I was a welder at Prévost Car in Sainte-Claire. I also wondered a lot about where I wanted to align myself. I decided to go to damage insurance, ”he says.
Almost half of the young people surveyed (44%) say they are worried about their professional future; an identical percentage say the pandemic has changed their perception of the job market.
“They are currently anxious about their career choices, but the good news is that they have taken more time to think about it since the start of the pandemic”, explains Catherine Légaré, president and founder of Academos.
For Léo Dumas-Chalifour, the time had come to go into business.
“I produced comedy shows and I also did management. I make corporate videos for different local businesses. I do aerial photography now. I also started a small agency, with a friend of mine in Montreal, ”he says.
For his part, Colin Beaudoin has swapped wine bottles for school benches.
“I was a floor sommelier, as they say, so I was in the services to advise people. The pandemic was a way out. I actually wondered if this was really what I wanted. As in fact, here I am finishing a certificate in scriptwriting, then I’m going to film studies next year, at the University of Montreal, ”he says.
For Ms. Légaré, the pandemic will have been an opportunity to allow young people to open their horizons.
“There can be all kinds of effects right now: getting young people thinking; for some, it will turn into anxiety and for others, it makes you want to go to sectors they would not have thought of before, ”she summarizes.
– .
