When the COVID-19 virus broke out in 2020, entire industries were decimated overnight.

At a time when some workers lived on unemployment benefits, others saw in the Covid-19 crisis an opportunity to change their career path and build a new future.

In a report published by the American newspaper "New York Times" (nytimes), writers Gillian Friedman and Emma Goldberg reported the stories of 5 people who changed their careers in the past two years.

Korean and his passion for food

Cory Trefonte had a passion for food since childhood, creating many recipes in his family's kitchen.

As a teenager, he dreamed of opening his own restaurant and serving a wide range of cuisines from different cultures, from pizza to curry.

Before the pandemic, Corey, 22, was making money doing odd jobs, such as building roofs and landscaping in his Cleveland neighborhood, but those jobs disappeared when the city was swept by the pandemic.

At the onset of the pandemic, he felt frustrated and that the paths before him had been blocked.

In August, learn about a free program that offers vocational training services and job opportunities.

Corrie was skeptical at first, but after speaking with the program's coordinators, he signed up for a two-week training in professional manners, such as how to dress for job interviews.

Soon after, he landed a job at a downtown Cleveland restaurant.

In January, Corey takes a new job at an upscale contemporary American restaurant called Fahrenheit, where he works 40 hours a week cooking and cleaning, knowing he's gaining the skills he'll need to open his own business.

Berry and candle making

Dwight Berry, 25, was six months pregnant when she was laid off from her job at a bitcoin money transfer company in March 2020, leaving her with agonizing shock and facing difficult choices: How will she support herself and her baby?

Berry gave birth in June, and moved to her mother's home in Oradell, New Jersey.

There she found the support and warm embrace of her mother, grandmother, and younger sisters, and began to think about how to use this trauma to begin fulfilling her dream.

Berry watched candle making videos on YouTube and Instagram, after realizing that candles are something everyone likes, so she decided to start a candle making business and sell them.

She named her company Flame N Mama in honor of her son.

Now, Perry is balancing several jobs, delivering orders with DoorDash 3 to 4 hours a day, and was recently hired as a registration specialist at an auto store.

In the evening, she makes her candles and sells them on social media, and she's managed to raise money and go back to Queens with her son.

Martinez and the dentist's assistant

When Liz Martinez, 32, began training as a dental assistant last year, she knew it would be different from her job as a beauty consultant at Sephora in San Francisco, but she found her new job in common, as she practices the same technical skills. It communicates with clients and provides them with assistance.

In March 2020, Martinez received an email informing her that the store she works at would be temporarily closed due to the pandemic.

Soon, she gave birth to her second daughter. She could not work because she needed to take care of her children, but she no longer had the income to support her family, and in her words, "I discovered then how it can be to be surrounded by people and yet feel deeply lonely."

Martinez discovered that she could receive training to become a dental assistant through a local nonprofit program, so she signed up for a 3-month course.

Levi and the food cart

David Levy, 61, was still trying to get through the disaster that had befallen him when the pandemic swept the country.

His family home was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, and he lost his construction job, forcing him to move in with his mother, wife and three children.

He struggled to find work in Virginia, so he started working as an Uber driver, but the pandemic slowed the pace of work and reduced his income.

Received a letter from the Community Service Seniors Employment Program that provides job training.

In August 2020, he joined a workshop for food entrepreneurs, and had an idea to modify a large trailer into a food cart, but he did not have enough funding.

Subsequently, he was involved in a car accident that left him bedridden in the hospital.

In August 2021, he received a $65,000 deposit, which he used to launch a food cart project, "Pizza Pita", serving food that fuses Middle Eastern and Colombian flavours.

Wateri and her own farm

Watery, 54, was a nurse at Travis Prison in Austin, Texas when the pandemic began, which she described as the most shocking time she's had in her 10 years of nursing.

At that time, she was not only worried about protecting herself from the virus while working, but she was also afraid of some prisoners who were pouring out their anger on her, and she said that one of the prisoners tried to spit on her saying, "I have an epidemic and I will transmit the infection to you."

Like many in the health sector, work was draining her.

"I love taking care of people, but at one point I was really thinking about changing my job and taking care of the plants, the plants wouldn't call me nicknames and insult me," she explained.

In July 2021, she left work to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a farmer.

To learn how to run her own farm, she signed up with the nonprofit farm share in Austin, rented a small plot of land to grow fruits and vegetables, and now sells her produce to local farmers markets.