So here's the story...

I stumbled on technical writing in 2008 while working as a loan administrator - our company was outsourcing our work and I was asked to prepare process documentation for our colleagues overseas. I fell in love with it. At the time, I didn't even know that was technical writing. After some research on the field, I started taking some courses in TW but later put that on hold in 2010 to move from Vancouver to Asia for a few years.

I moved back to Vancouver in 2017 and still wanted to pursue a career in TW so I started the part-time online certificate program at Algonquin College while continuing to work full-time in the financial/lending industry. I just completed the program last month, which included an unpaid work placement practicum. In the meantime, I've also assembled an online portfolio consisting mainly of course work and documents I've created at my job.

Over the last few years, I've been to a few interviews in search of a job as a TW but for one reason or another, it hasn't happened. I've been very frustrated and I'm starting to become depressed - after the years of schooling and rejections (not to mention thousands of dollars I've spent to get my certificate), I'm no closer to finding work in the field than I was over a decade ago. Most of the job postings I'm seeing are either asking for years and years of experience as a TW, or some other specialized knowledge (IT, software) or more advanced TW expertise that wasn't covered in-depth in my course materials (DITA, XML). Junior roles seem to be non-existent where I live.

Not asking for sympathy, just honesty. Should I just give up on the dream?