After over 18+ months of on-and-off job-hunting, I've reached a dead end and would love nothing more than Reddit's opinion. I'm motivated to post after reading a recent r/houston post about struggling to finding a job offering 50k-60k (Psych BS holder)… meanwhile 40k would make me over the moon.

My education/certifications/experience:

• I'm 24, I graduated cum laude (B.S. in Psychology) + was inducted in a national honor's society in Fall 2022. My background is in behavioral research, data collection, and video initiatives. I have many years of experience with the programs Microsoft Excel, Word, Google Sheets, Docs, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Photoshop. My "Psych+Media Production social skills" angle was received quite well by people who interviewed me, as I frame my skillset as extracting creative insights from data/interviews/surveys/research, and translating those into critical internal goals, which sums up my academic/research project history like video editing initiatives, case study research proposals, and competitive audit samples. Personally, I believe my skills are well suited for either UX, clinical research, or publicity.
• Besides the aforementioned, I have a certificate of completion in a Pixar-partnered short film design collaborative course, and a Coursera certificate in User Experience Design, since a reddit post I made early 2023 convinced me UX was a smart path given my skills. While I love UX, I'm far from the only one- it's insanely competitive. To get in the industry, people refine their UX portfolio for far longer than I'm comfortable with not having income. I have done Fiverr freelance video editing as well as DoorDash. My resume's weakest point is the lack of 9-to-5 roles, but DD is my most reliable source of revenue. Plus, I don't know if anyone's really read my resume, as these days it seems like the hiring manager simply cares about your presence/charisma, and the resume is just there to verify you are who you say you are. I've also made a portfolio website with the goal of boosting visibility.

Here's everything I've tried, please share anything I haven't:

• 80% of my effort goes into online job listings: Indeed, LinkedIn + messaging recruiters, and a dozen other no-name job boards. I apply to literally any position that my experience qualifies for, I'm not picky with field. I've only gotten interviews for marketing jobs (and have so far gotten offered the job after all interviews I've done), but they also appear to all be either unprofitable startups, or are MLM schemes (I've since steered clear from marketing roles overly eager to hire me).
• Multiple job fairs, to meet people face-to-face. My experience has been awful: I drive 40+ minutes into Houston only for recruiters on-site telling me to apply online if I'm interested, when my goal in attending the fair is to bypass the ATS recruitment systems and meet people (I hand them my resume anyways). I'm overdressed and 10 years younger than everyone else at the Houston Galleria Crowne Plaza job fairs, and am told by recruiters that they're looking for someone with more experience. I'm underdressed and too old for the University of Houston job fairs, since every single recruiter there is looking to fill internship roles only, which I don't qualify for as a graduate. Only two places got back to me, a bank whose recruiters expressed interest in me on-site but didn't follow through in email, and a nonprofit clinic which gave me a thorough interview and tour. I was turned off by the clinic when they refused to answer my question of how many hrs they want me to work and specific questions regarding salary. I've stopped going to fairs for those reasons and to save gas and time if they're intent on me applying online anyways.
• I made a connection on Reddit with a lady who works in UX, we called and she offered advice and a referral to her boss about me, unfortunately since then she has ghosted me.
• Made appointments with my college career counselor to tailor my resume, mainly saying to list a wide variety of places I've worked at rather than emphasize skills. I've now been out of college too long that I can't access my college account.
• Met with a job coach whose contract amounted to weekly meetings for 600$ a month. As I am unemployed, that is obviously unsustainable for me. Her main piece of advice was the exact opposite of the college career counselor; to emphasize skills on the resume and not the places I've worked. She connected me to someone who works at a college clinical research department. The meeting amounted to us agreeing that my qualifications are perfect for this position, and to simply keep an eyes on the online job listings page of local clinical research clinics before we hung up. Suffice to say, that's… what I've been doing.
• Emailed a friend's headhunter who works at a Houston staffing and recruiting agency. They got back to me within a day offering assistance if I share what roles I'm looking for, and after I shared, they ghosted me (but kept corresponding with my friend, haha).
• Had a phone call with a professional acquaintance who owns a local media company. At this point I thought I was professionally unqualified (I was worried my lack of 9-to-5 jobs was debilitating), and while they couldn't help me find a position, they said I'm more than qualified and shouldn't focus on increasing qualifications more than just finding a job. They suggested pushing for media-oriented positions in the Houston oil/gas industries, which I haven't been able to secure. They also suggested I make a portfolio website, which I did.
• College connections: People who work at Houston news stations referred me to their broadcasting/video editing positions, unfortunately didn't get called back.
• Outside of my wheelhouse, Costco pays an average of 38k, and I heard great things about working there! Due to low turnover, Reddit says the only way to get in Costco is to apply to a newly built one, which I have. Despite applying to all available positions (at several Costcos) with a tailored resume, the already built local Costco says they're not accepting applications at the new one until they've transferred existing employees there to fill roles. So far haven't been called back.

I need help figuring out where to go from here, especially now that current circumstances mean I need a livable wage soon. As far as I'm aware, there isn't a way into a job unless you know someone in the backdoor: there are too many applicants that get filtered through ATS systems- now the Master's grads get offered B.S. positions and the B.S. grads can't work at jobs worth their history/education. I don't mean to be prissy though, if Reddit believes that a stint at HEB/Marshall's will boost my eligibility for the Psychology/Media Production-centric roles (or really any livable wage) I'm interested in, I'd like to hear why. As far as I can tell, none of that matters more than knowing someone in the backdoor.

Some peers chose to go back to college to pursue a Master's. If my priority is just to make money and I'm not fixated on one particular field, I'm not really stoked about the idea of spending 5 figures on tuition when I'm already qualified for many roles and would rather just make money and work my way towards a role I can grow in, within the workforce. (Plus, being surrounded by non-graduate friends making 18+/hr contributes to a lack of excitement towards pursuing a Master's when I can't even get 18/hr with a B.S.).