I'm sorry you're in this situation, but every part of this is basically just life, and many many people go through this as the norm not the exception. It was just that in previous years your expectation happened to meet a fortunate reality.
I didn't even bother finishing school because all it's there for in practical private industry terms is to "prepare" you for competing favorably for a junior position, or actually qualify you objectively in regulated industries. In academia I guess you'd be done like 2/5 steps if you were interested in pursuing that long-term, but idk much about that. It took me so long to find a job last time I was laid off that I absolutely considered going back and re-schooling from scratch to qualify for that junior position in something more tangibly valuable/stable, but then happened to land something. That was the third time I'd spent more than a year completely unemployed. It's a sickening grind and has never become easier.
However, just because you're not graduating with a job in hand (a fanciful dream in other industries) doesn't mean you won't find one any time between when you graduate and a year out. You might, it just takes continued persistence, and a hell of a lot of luck, and meeting people in the real world outside school.
It's extremely demoralizing though, you're right about that.
I didn't even bother finishing school because all it's there for in practical private industry terms is to "prepare" you for competing favorably for a junior position, or actually qualify you objectively in regulated industries. In academia I guess you'd be done like 2/5 steps if you were interested in pursuing that long-term, but idk much about that. It took me so long to find a job last time I was laid off that I absolutely considered going back and re-schooling from scratch to qualify for that junior position in something more tangibly valuable/stable, but then happened to land something. That was the third time I'd spent more than a year completely unemployed. It's a sickening grind and has never become easier.
However, just because you're not graduating with a job in hand (a fanciful dream in other industries) doesn't mean you won't find one any time between when you graduate and a year out. You might, it just takes continued persistence, and a hell of a lot of luck, and meeting people in the real world outside school.
It's extremely demoralizing though, you're right about that.