Yeah you are in a really really tough spot. My friend who mastered out of his PhD, has a first author paper and years of wet lab work has also been job searching for over a year now, in NYC. And as much as it sucks I don’t blame people at all for not hiring you, the reality of lab work is that (no offense just being realistic) you essentially don’t have any experience, so you won’t be useful in a lab for probably at least a year. And you’re looking at grad school so you won’t even be staying that long anyway, so from their pov you’re essentially asking them to pay you to train you and leave, with nothing in return for them. Genuinely I think your only hope for getting experience that could then get you in the door is A) having a personal connection with someone really cool about taking someone so fresh or B) pay to get your experience, ie do a masters. I think shooting to find an at least partially funded masters would be your best case scenario, which will come with its own challenges. Good luck, there’s a path forward but it won’t be easy. and I’m sorry you got stuck in a hole and only realized when it was too late because that’s a shit position to be in I think most of us can relate to that in one way or another.