I (24M) graduated with a master's in biotech around 7 months ago. Before that, I got my bachelor's at the same faculty. You'd think I would be set for a good career, right? Well, nope. See, when I first started college 5 years ago, I was told by everyone around me (parents, grandparents, professors, etc.) that my degree would be more than enough to get me a good career, either in academia or industry. Therefore, I should just focus on doing exams and graduating. This meant ignoring student work, internships, or anything else outside of my marks and my thesis. However, during my second year of my master's programme, I had done some digging and realized just getting a degree won't get me a job. So I decided to go to my uni's career centre and look for advice. There, when I asked the advisors what I should do to get experience, I was told that with my academic success (bachelor's GPA 3.2 and master's GPA 3.6), I should not waste time on internships and immediately go into a PhD. I, being an idiot, listened to them and finished my master's thesis as quickly as possible. Well, 7 months later and almost every PhD position except one has rejected me outright, and that one rejected me after an interview. I also applied for several entry-level industry positions and got rejected every single time.
I really don't know what to do. I was briefly considering going back to my uni to volunteer in a lab, but I would honestly be embarrassed begging my professors to work again in a lab after asking them for recommendation letters for all sorts of positions. At this point, I am so desperate for cash that I applied for retail positions.
Can anyone here relate or give some advice/words of encouragement? I really feel like I have dug my own hole and I can't get out.