Nice story.
I fully empathise with the surviving in the UK without a graduate- or professional-level job.
B’mth is not inexpensive and The South Coast is pricey.
People often leave my research group after a Masters or PhD (prof on The South Coast and in Oxford) and I see them struggle in the beginning (many interviews and mostly junk job offers) but they usually end up building something substantial.
Your story has a lot of parallels with this pattern and thus I see you on an upward trajectory that will be inspirational to others.
Please don’t forget that the tech/job market (at least in pharma/biotech) is quite awful at the moment and it’s likely that 30 universities will fail to exist in their current capacity without serious government intervention in 5 years (72% of all universities will run deficits next year), so it could be a bleak few year, so keep up the good fight.
Also, please don’t forget to give back to the next generation and participate in any mentoring provided by NOTHING, both upward and downward along the food chain (it’s critical for life-long networks).
