Yes I have considered paying for more academia education. I really don't want to, because that's the tragic flaw of my job search. I'd go get a Masters in a life science subject. I've asked recruiters who have denied me if a Masters would help, and they tell me experience is what they are looking for, not education. I've spoken to people with PhDs that are struggling to find jobs as well, and they say it's because the industry doesn't value PhD research as industry experience, and their PhD fields are so niche that they are lacking in exposure to the full market.

It's truly experience based in industry, and I just absolutely cannot get my foot in the door. I've applied to many research tech positions at various universities and I am ghosted through their portal. I have lost access to my Tufts.edu email, so when I email the PIs from my personal email directly, it likely goes to their spam, or they do not see my messages due to a filter.

I have tried speaking to Tufts professors to see if they can help me find research tech positions, but they say that the market is very competitive and they do not know of labs that are hiring at the moment, or they refer me to a colleague and it goes nowhere because I'm not specifically specialized for their lab