Sophia Aymond had her sights set on moving to Los Angeles right after graduation. “I really thought in May I was going to be out of here,” she said. This weekend, she’ll graduate with her bachelor’s degree in media and communication.
The Texas Tech senior had been busy in the weeks leading up to spring break scheduling meetings with potential employers in the west coast city. She planned to spend her break there. She had three meetings firmed up, with some pretty major companies like Viacom and CBS, but then came COVID-19.
She knew things were serious once the university made the announcement it would be shutting down and moving classes online. “I had friends who were abroad who were on the next plane home and I knew this is not something that’s going to be temporary.”
She sat her roommates down to discuss breaking her lease. They were skeptical about the severity of the situation. But soon after, Aymond gathered her belongings into her car and made the five-hour drive back to her hometown of Frisco, Texas. Lubbock no longer had anything to offer her.
“The only thing that changed about Lubbock was going to my classes and spending those last few months with my friends that I’ll never ever get back…it’s just like I never got the closure,” Aymond said.
From Frisco, back at home with her parents, Aymond can continue saving money to work towards that ultimate goal of moving to Los Angeles. Her initial plan was to move there and find temporary work as a waitress until she could get her foot in the door in video production. The timing of everything is less than ideal. The entertainment industry has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus. The exact numbers remain unknown, but it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been laid off in the industry as a result of the pandemic. And the city has extended its shutdown to at least July.
Since leaving Lubbock, Aymond was fortunate to find a remote consulting job with an essential business. “I only got it because my friend worked there,” she said. She explained that consulting from a distance was new to the company as well as her.
The shift from office to home may be a trend that sticks in the U.S. Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced they would allow employees to work from home permanently if the job allows. And as leasing agreements come up on Wall Street, major companies like JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, are reconsidering the layout of their workplace. And Aymond hopes that her remote work can move with her to the big city.
“ I’m hoping that they will let me work from home full-time and never let me go into the office so that way I can take it to L.A.,” she said. “That way I’ll still have a job and be in LA and I think a lot of jobs will be able to do that.”
