Closing the Networking Gap Amid Covid-19
Published: 2020-03-21 02:06:15

In January 2020, when news of a novel new Coronavirus popped up in Wuhan, China, a small community formed of ~1000 members dedicated to discussing the enigmatic and obscure disease. Less than two months later, that message board had grown into a community of over 1.4 million members(most active subreddit) and is recognized as one of the leading information and discussion sources on the pandemic. Subreddit headlines like "Boy, 7, uses $600 of savings to make Coronavirus care packages for seniors, feed 90 students" or PSA's to "not flush disinfected wipes into the sewer" highlight how people want to be involved during this trying time. Especially as many of us are self-isolating indoors, we attempt to find digital outlets to connect with our greater community. 

The realization that individuals were looking for new ways to interact with people and businesses, dawned on me gradually. I committed to going back to school in August 2019, which had me graduating in early February 2020 at the beginning of the big outbreaks in the US. During that first month, I saw my number of technical interviews go from an average of 2 a week to 0 and in-person networking became out of the question. Similarly, as I followed another reddit community for computer science career questions, the mood quickly turned to panic as numerous posts about layoffs, rescinded offers, and cancelled internships added to the general sense that things were out of control.

One day, before the restaurants were shut down, my wife and I were eating out and discussing how connecting with people has been impacted. My wife was explaining how remote work would impact peoples health as tasks related to a normal routine like hygiene and preparation would change while at home. Studies have shown a large boost in productivity comes directly from utilizing a daily routine that includes a shower, getting dressed, and general preparation tasks. She added, "there should be an app for people to check in with their wardrobe choices remotely during Coronavirus so we can continue to promote good habits." Of course, I loved the idea and by the end of the dinner my next side-project Quarantine-Fashion was born where users would use game-like daily check-ins and pictures to connect with their coworkers. Right then my attitude shifted: if there was going to be a pandemic, I was going to use my professional skills to work on something to combat its effects.

Not long after I began working on that side-project, my wife's company shut down with a tentative re-launch more than a month in the future at earliest. Her company is focused on educational hands-on interactive experiences for children. Although I am just a junior developer, I decided I needed to see if there was anything I could do to help with my skill-set, so I reached out to her coworker who is a Store Manager. Surprisingly for me, she asked if I would mind scoping out a basic e-commerce store to continue retail operations for their educational kits. She explained they saw a large increase in their Youtube presence, so it was clear that customers continued to look for interactions. We were able to prepare a basic plan for the next month and it felt great to work on something productive that Coronavirus had directly affected.

During the recent three weeks, responses to job applications and interviews have been hard to come-by. However, when you stop to consider how many of these industries are also hurting, it's perhaps more constructive to see this as a community problem. If the pandemic continues on its current trajectory, even more things are likely to change. I cope by trying to find the opportunities that could come with it and continuing to connect, because we can't let the virus win.