Failed Academic
I don't know what to do with my life anymore. I'm a university researcher with 5 degrees - two Bachelor's, two MAs, and a PhD - working my second low-paid, temporary academic job. There are only like 10 jobs a year in my field in my country (Canada) and they all have 500 applicants. Because of cuts to education, there are less and less jobs, and I haven't gotten an interview in two years. By March, I'll be unemployed.
My job doesn't have fixed hours. I'm just told to write research articles. So, I do that from dawn until dusk. I have no friends left, no life.
Last year, I started writing journalistic articles for newspapers and magazines. That doesn't pay either. Most publications these days don't pay freelance writers, you just get "exposure," (to what end I have no idea). So, here I am uncovering millions in corporate malfesance for free. Glad some millionaire privitized utilities can make millions ripping off single mothers living on social assistence, but I can't make an honest living doing anything.
My brother is a welder with a community college diploma and makes twice what I do. My other brother studied law and now makes four or fives times what I do. Obviously, the money was never the point, but I can't afford to live anymore. The job I have now pays less than my cost of living in this overpriced city.
No house, no car, no kids, no job security, no future. Does anyone have any idea what I could even do? What field I could work in? Every time I apply to a non-academic job, I lose out to some 23 year-old with a BA in English, so I genuinely don't know anymore.