I think that there's something seriously flawed in me that prevents me from finding a job and advance my career. I tend to compare myself to other PhD graduates that are now working in wonderful postdoc projects and earning a good salary at a prestigious company or university.

When I look at myself, I really think I did my best to earn a PhD, but maybe I am wrong. The thing is that I had to deal with abusive advisors that took advantage of my work and tasks unrelated to my PhD that took many hours to complete. At the end of it, I felt burned out and tired, and wanted to quit academia.

Deep down, I think that some of them have had it much easier than me. Their thesis supervisors treated them as decent and valuable human beings, they came from wealthy families, people paid more attention to them and their needs and they often got away with cheating.

Not only do I think that my career skills and knowledge is mediocre to bad, but I think that no matter what I do, I will never be able to accomplish my goals because there's something wrong with me as a person.

My PhD dealt with biology-related topics. The problem is that during 3 of the 4 years it lasted I spend most of the time doing simple techniques such as PCR or DNA isolation. I have no computer skills either. Do you think any lab would hire a PhD graduate with such mediocre skills? Definitely not.

Perhaps I should enrol on a bioinformatics or advanced laboratory skills course, the problem is that I have no money, and I can't apply to any state subsidies.

When it comes to a job, I has been three years since I defended my PhD and I have had no luck so far. I constantly ask myself what is that I did wrong that prevents me from accomplishing my goals. Likewise, I don't know why have I been so miserable during the PhD while others were having so much fun. Is it as simple as that life is unfair?