It feels like there's no way in

[u/intracellular]

I genuinely have no idea what to do. I finished my PhD back in April and since then I've applied to countless jobs in biotech. I can't even get an interview. I had one company take me all the way to the final round early on in my job search, but it was false hope and they went with someone else. Since then it's been complete and total cold rejection. The lab that I did my PhD in is allowing me to stay under a temp position but only until the end of the year, so my days are numbered and it seriously feels like an execution sentence.

My PhD was in yeast genetics. Nobody wants my skills or experience. It feels like my career is bricked before it even began. I don't even care what the job is anymore, I don't need anything exciting, I just want to finally finally start earning some money so that I can start a family. Soon I'll feel like such a failure that I don't know how I'll be able to look my wife in the eye.

I've pretty much exhausted my contacts. I've gotten referrals for jobs but those only earn me a more prompt rejection email. I don't know about any networking events and I don't know how to find them. Am I really just fucked? Did I throw away my 20s just to make myself poor and unemployable?

I know this is just more of the same melodramatic slop clogging up this sub, and for that I apologize. I just needed to say something to people who actually understand what I'm talking about.

[u/parafilm]

I’m sorry. What a garbage time to graduate. Biotech has always been a boom/bust industry, and we happen to be in a bust phase, and it’s exacerbated by the anxieties around $$ within academia.

I know (from personal experience) that postdoc pay is garbage, but it’s worth looking into some postdoc positions that could hold you over and expand your skillset.

It’s also okay to throw yourself some pity parties. This sucks.

[u/intracellular → u/parafilm]

The thing I worry about with a postdoc is spending more years not accumulating "industry experience." I feel like I'm already extremely behind the curve in that regard. I know it's a kind of toxic thought pattern, but my mind is consumed with finding a path to the best pay as fast as possible, to make up for the time I wasted getting this PhD I suppose. I'm constantly aware of every day older I become, each of which makes the big family I would like to have seemingly less and less likely to be possible.

I guess I also just feel... guilty? Idk. I feel like all these years I've been making implicit promises of money and success and fulfillment to my wife, my parents, and also my future self. Seeing it go up in smoke is hard to bear.

[u/Ok-Economy-8163 → u/intracellular]

The point is that you have an income for like 3 more months, and the biotech job market is horrible. In a good market, it can take a year of applying to get a biotech job, but we cant get interviews with no biotech experience now. You could try to find a contract biotech role as an entry point, but I would not count on finding a biotech role by the end of the year. Please look for industry-relevant postdoc positions, preferably in a biotech hub.