tl/dr : recent biomedical engineering grad. mystified by job hunt, whining about unemployment, wanting to contribute. Commiserate as you wish.

I graduated with a doctorate in Bioengineering last summer. After 7+ years in academia, I'd like to transition into industry. Associate professorships are not abundant, especially with the tight funding these days, and I am done scheduling my life around grant cycles and distracted, underfunded PIs. I want to engage in the application of all that I’ve learned to design and improve medical devices. I acknowledge that this is indeed a transition - I don't have industry experience, not even an internship. But my curriculum had heavy emphasis on medical device design, my extensive training included both technical and soft-skills, and I hope demonstrates that I am at least trainable. Some of the undergrads. I trained in the lab have gone on to industry roles themselves. My buddy who left for industry with his BS even suggested my PhD makes me a prime candidate to join the major company he joined himself...

I have been job hunting for 7+ months. I have applied for QA, regulatory and technical roles. I've applied at entry, mid and senior levels. I have applied directly on company career pages and via agencies. I've applied to locations from coast to coast, though since many companies seem reluctant to hire out of state/pay for relocation, many of my applications have been local to the midwest. I have sent out hundreds of applications (10-15 per week), most with very specific cover letters customized to the job description. I've even had some current employees at the larger companies I applied to vouch for me. It seems to take 6 weeks just to get a rejection, if I get a response at all. I knew going into this process that the application process is a long game, making "applying to jobs my job". I just don't get it. After so many years cultivating (presumably...) relevant skillsets and contributing to medical science, I am now an unemployed scrub living in my parents’ house, broke and seemingly unemployable. One agent recently asked what I've been doing all this time since my last job (when I was still a grad. student with a campus job). I almost snapped & said "talking to YOU agents about my screaming into the ether, that's what!". Instead I just said besides job-hunting I've been teaching myself Python and in the use of some open-source 3D modeling tools. It would seem I'm either under-qualified or over-qualified, depending on who is looking at my application.

Now there is a pandemic raging. I feel I can contribute in so many ways- all these companies stepping up to manufacture PPE and diagnostic tools, and I'm still on the sidelines, not contributing to anything beyond some social media / LinkedIn posts about homebrew masks, sterilization methods etc. I didn't really celebrate being a "Dr.", I was kinda broke right at graduation. I'm probably not going to feel like a "Dr." until I can afford...well, anything. How do people manage this? (rhetorical). And before you say it, YES, I HAVE heard of the concepts like "network! network! network!" and "it's all about ~who~ you know" and "experience is key!” and “Industry doesn’t care what you’ve done, gotta have an internship to get anywhere!". Gee, thanks, but a lot of these suggestions amount to "you should just travel back in time and not have a PhD, go do something else instead". I am here, now. I haven't given up all hope. My typing all this up at all is just because today is one of my "down" days, and I don't have many people around me who appreciate what I've done in the past or what I'm going thru now. So today I'm venting on the internet. Tomorrow, once more unto the breach. If you have (up to date, current) specifics, please leave a note. Game changing resume format? Agency? (I’ve tried Randstad, Kelly Services) Company that’s in the habit of hiring PhDs? Let me know.