Things keep looking bleaker and bleaker. I didn’t get this job I was real excited for. Lab technician up in Boston. Wanted to work in a lab again. Apparently I was in the top 3. I was also overqualified. Probably what did me in. Might be arrogant to say that. Was pretty bummed. Now I have to dive back into the hellscape of looking for a job. Got like 3 calls today at least for an interview for technician roles and automation engineer. Overqualified again for that technician job. Failed the automation engineer interview hard. I was mad through it too. Kept asking questions I didn’t know the answer to. Haven’t retained a damn thing from my schooling for all it was worth. It was the same for that bedford grey job. Probably the same for the systems engineer job. Bad at interviewing and answering technical questions. Don’t know a damn thing. So I guess I’m unemployable. Shouldn’t even have gotten this far. In any of it.
Trying to find funding for going into PhD program is just as bleak. Only able to find two fellowships. Both highly competitive. They all are. Unable to apply for more for one reason or another. Not the right qualifications, stuff I’m working on doesn’t apply, etc. I got this far through luck, but it won’t work anymore. I shouldn’t have gotten this far. I’ll just embarrass myself again. The fact of the matter is that for the longest time I’ve been able to do what I want when I want. Call that luck or privilege or whatever, but it’s true. I’m not supposed to be in academia. But I’ve been doing that for the past 8 years. Now reality has come. And I have to accept that I can’t do a PhD degree. I have to settle for a job I’m going to despise and be no good at if I can even get it, which considering everything that’s happened I probably can’t. I hit a wall. So why shouldn’t it be time to check out by now? I’ve done what I could, but that’s all I’m capable of doing. So why spend the rest of my life doing something I don’t want to do? That’s the reality of the situation, but I get to choose how I take that reality.
4 comments
Although the results are disappointing, you seem to be taking solid action, and that is good.
The choices ahead of you seem difficult as well: to keep searching for the better employment, or to do something lesser.
Might I suggest doing both, though? Take the lesser job, because it is better than having nothing. But in the midst of that, knowing that youd be happier elsewhere, continue your search for sonething better. This ensures you will survive, albeit, not ideally.
Youre doing very well. Youve been tring hard, and you deserve to give yourself credit for that. The path is difficult, and painful, but youre still taking steps forward. I encourage you to keep going.
I, too, have a less than ideal job. I make beds all day for a hotel. It is not what I hoped for, it doesnt pay the best, and it certainly impresses no one. But I DO survive, and while schooling allows for better opportunities, I am grateful for the simple, modest life I have now.
Keep going. Youre doing great. I am sorry for your struggles and your pain. For your legitimate frustrations.
If you’re “overqualified,” why not just remove some of your qualifications on the resume/application?
Based on everything you’ve said, you should go into a different field. Something you’re more competent in. Something you’ll be happier in. Take a non-engineering/less technical job that only requires any college degree- or just basic knowledge of what’s in your field.
I know of ppl with MBAs and they are literally delivering food bc they can’t get hired (over qualified and unemployable bc that degree costs too much).
*costs the employer too much
As someone who’s gone from job to job in my younger years, far from where I wanted to be, and are only now really trying to settle into a proper career path, change up your resume.
Def include only the stuff that is pertinent to the job role you’re looking for and hold back on the degrees unless you need it to even be considered for the job.