Right now, college students are wondering if they will ever be a full-time, in-person student again. It is a real concern, especially for students who have chosen a university far from home. It can be very expensive and disruptive to continually move in and out of the dorm and travel to and from home whenever the mayor snaps her fingers.

While these are real concerns, there are even bigger ones such as, is my major still applicable. The career path you were on before the pandemic might not make as much sense post-pandemic. If you were heavily leaning toward retail management, you might want to have a second look at the state of retail. Big retail has largely gone online. You have to consider the possibility that it may never return to the street in the same way it once existed.

You might also reconsider fashion design. It might be a little while before people are ready to see and be seen just for the sake of it. We have all grown accustomed to sweat pants and slippers. It could be tougher than you think to get people back into pricy fashion items.

That said, there are just as many doors opening as there are closing. Here are a few doors that will be wider than ever post pandemic:

Biotech

It will be a while before we breathe a collective sigh of relief. But when we do, it will be followed by the words, "Never again!" For a long time, we will be paranoid, jumping at every innocent cough or sneeze. We will be looking for vaccines for everything including the sniffles. And we will redouble our efforts to create tools and diagnostics that will aid in that fight.

We will turn to solutions like single cell sorting into 96 well plate units to 384 well plates. This type of flexibility in a simple, benchtop sorter will enable a lot more home-grown labs from which biotech can advance. These are the tools being deployed right now. The future belongs to the people who can use them to make us all safer. Never again will health be taken for granted.

First Responder

We have always had first responders. But from time to time, there is an event that elevates them from employees, to essential workers, to heroes. When toy manufacturers reduce manufacturing superheroes to make room for paramedic and EMT action figures, you can expect there will be a boom in new applicants for becoming real-life superheroes.

Expect hospitals and city services to boost hiring of first responders. Never again will we risk a major disaster that overwhelms our ability to respond. Those first responders include doctors, nurses, hospital intake specialists, 911 operators, firemen, police officers, and anyone else who has to show up for work during events that send everyone else home.

We are also going to need people who can provide supplies such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and everything else that should be considered as a part of one's protective gear. Failure to be able to source such supplies is to send our essential workers into a war zone without armaments. Never again!

Software Developers

According to the experts, software and IT jobs are set to double in the next 10 years. This is a train that you definitely want to be on. Not even the pandemic can stop the need for such jobs. The companies that survived found they had an increased need for remote networking, data security, and communications software. Work from home is not a trend that is going away anytime soon. Specialized software solutions are the key to maintaining a safe, mobile operation.

If you are a college student, everything has changed. And nothing has changed. Since time immemorial, students have had to shift their majors in midstream to accommodate the changing circumstances of their world. It is nothing new. Part of what university should prepare you for is how to change with the times and still come out on top.

Make whatever changes you need to make so that you can take advantage of the new opportunities in biotech, first-response, and software development.