You're defining your skills too narrowly. It's a common problem among PhD graduates; after all, you spent 3+ years immersed in that area so it becomes very easy to think that this is all you really know.

In reality, you're skilled at diagnosing the needs of different sets of software users - or, to take another angle, at diagnoising the needs that disabled people have regarding new technology.

We have an ageing population that is likely to require more and more assistive technology as time goes by - and for that technology to be home-based and easy for them to use intuitively (plus, older people increasingly expect to keep using new technology, because they're now so used to it - people retiring today have spent the majority of their working lives on computers). This is a massive growth area in our society and is one area of the economy that is quite literally future-proof as there will only ever be increasing demand. Furthermore, the likes of Apple and Nokia are now very much into designing smartphones that people who are blind, or who have MS or MND, can use hands-free in exactly the same way as you or I would use them. There is tons of stuff going on there that you could get into. I would suggest you begin by spending a week or two building the biggest database of accessible technology companies you can find alonsdie a record of every research company that has done anything in this field. Google every search term you can think of and then try to use that to figure out who is a reasonable fit for yourself. Search the wesbites of disability advocate organisations such as RNIB or MNDA to find out what is going on in software and accessibility. I can see you on both the design side of it and the evaluation side of it. Public sector organisations are required to make sure that everything they do is disability accessible - that has created a whole industry in evulation of room layouts, etc. - that could easily be applied to software too.

I get the impression that you would probably prefer to work in smaller teams and that big corporate life very well might not be for you. Which is good, since there are always far mroe opportunities in SMEs and very small companies than there ever are in big corporates.

I think there are zillions of opportunities out there for you but you have to broaden your understanding of the skills you have and you have to be extremely proactive. I know it's not easy, because I think part of the problem you have (and that you perhaps don't recognise) is that you are mentally exhausted after the PhD as well as depressed (again, a common experience and one that I went through). I would therefore recommend seeing a doctor as well.

I notice lots of people are making really interesting suggestions, but it looks like before the OP can take advantage of any of them, perhaps they need to settle the emotional fallout first.

If you look back on my posts on this forum a fair few years ago when I was in the same position, I was just the same. Lots of the regulars gave me quite good advice, but I was in no position to take it. I just got frustrated and ended up countering everyone. I was just angry,despondent and just wanted to lash out. I ended up working as a waiter, as I was convinced if I couldn't make it as a real academic all I was good for was menial work. It took a while (and a fairly horrific post doc) to realise that actually I could just do another regular job, the sort that graduates do, and that was okay.

For me (and for the OP it could be different), the first step was to sort out my emotions, unmet hopes and what WJGibson mentions about having my academic dreams stamped on. Part of that was grieving, but part of it was realising the myths and assumptions I was still holding ("I worked hard, so I should deserve a job","I was better than other grads because of my PhD", "I could never admit I may have made a mistake otherwise people would think...") It was only after sorting this all out that I could begin to move forward.

Indeed, I realise that there is an ever increasing need for assistive technology, and there are a number of jobs in this field - unfortunately they are mostly not in my location. Nokia is currently advertising a job that would be ideal for me, but again, not in my location. I applied for one research role working with assistive technology and was turned down without a reason; I can only presume that a stronger candidate with more research experience must also have applied, perhaps from elsewhere in the country.

I probably would prefer to work with a small research team, but in reality I will take absolutely any job I can get - ideally a research or lecturing job, but even a bar job would do. One employer had me complete a five page application form for a bar job and then told me I was too old and didn't look right for the job! :(

I am aware that I am depressed; I have struggled with depression throughout the PhD and also earlier in my life. I have seen numerous doctors but the problem is never resolved. I was hoping that gaining employment might go some way towards addressing the issue.

Usually people work hard because they expect it to benefit them - they put a lot in because they expect to get a lot out - and usually it pays off. It seems reasonable that if you've invested time and money in your education you should reap some benefit and not end up right back where you started, otherwise what was the point? Nobody in their right mind would make huge personal and financial investments in something which they expect to be completely worthless, and if it turns out to be worthless then surely you're within your rights to feel ripped off?

If someone trains as an accountant, or a doctor, or a lawyer, and invests shedloads of money and half a decade of their working life in achieving the necessary professional qualifications while working, do they not have a right to expect employment in their specialist field? If so, then why does the same not apply to academics? My friend worked as a trainee accountant for five years, did his professional qualifications while he worked, and now (quite rightly) has a job as a qualified accountant. I worked as a lecturer and researcher for the same period, did a PhD and a teaching qualification... but I don't have the right to expect a job?! I'm tired of people saying that you don't have the right to expect a job just because you have years of on-the-job experience and qualifications - of course you do.

I'm afraid that (contrary to the rosy picture that academics often sell you when you approach them with regard to the possibility of studying for a PhD) this is not how it works in reality.

I've been through exactly the same feelings of injustice as you. After all, we all work on our PhDs for very little income with the expectation that such a commitment would be "worth it" in the end. The reality (again, one that is never made clear to you when you sign up) is that the number of academic job openings (in any field) is much, much smaller than the number of people who achieve PhD qualifications. Academics don't tell you this mainly because they don't want to put you off when things get hard during the PhD. And it is a shock to learn how things really are, as opposed to how you may have been led to believe they are, and that this simply ejects you back into the graduate job market. And, naturally, you then feel like an idiot who has been taken for a ride, with all of the negatiev things you feel that must say about you. We're only human. I regard opting to study a PhD as the greatest mistake of my life, and I don't really anticipate making a bigger one, but that's life. I was young and idealistic and didn't really think it through in the way I would have done were I embarking on it again today; but that's just how things are. Plenty of people make the wrong career choice. It took my brother 5 years and a near nervous breakdown to finally wrench himself out of an accountancy career he had gone into with his eyes closed.

My own experience was of the typical "DABDA" progression - Denial (something will turn up in my chosen field, the horror stories I hear won't happen to me), Anger (how dare this profession have led me to expect this!!!), Bargaining (perhaps if I knuckle down and produce another publication then I can get that job), Depression (it's hopeless), Acceptance (sod it, it's not worth the hassle, there are plenty of other things I can do that value me just as highly). I can't even begin to explain the psychological torment I went through with receiving rejection letter after rejection letter after rejection letter. Or, sometimes, simply no letter at all. And being told

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Also PS - if you feel that the NHS hasn't managed your depression so far then I would go to a different doctor. Easy for me to say when I've recovered (mostly) from my own depression, and I know that depressed people tend not to seek out help proactively because of the very nature of the illness, but to get on top of it you need to do that. If your current doctor isn't helping you then you have every right (according to the NHS patient charter) to go round to different ones until someone takes you sufficiently seriously to follow it up properly.

Gaining employment alone is unlikely to resolve your depression.

As an aside, nowhere near enough is understood about the psychological fall out of the post-PhD years, or the impact this has on lifetime earnings and long-term health. I've been recovering from my collapse for three years now and I'm still not fully "there" yet, though I feel not far off full recovery - however, the person that eventually emerges will be very different from the one that entered a PhD programme back in 2002. We're very much forgotten about once we are perceived as having "left" (i.e. pushed out from, as a consequence of financial circumstances and absence of job opportunities) academia. My supervisor hasn't been in touch with me in over 3 years and doesn't bother responding to the occasional e-mails I send out informing academics about where I am and what I'm up to because I am no longer an academic and she has never worked outside of an academic environment in her life.

As far as I'm concerned, this experience makes me a stronger person than those who are fortunate enough to be able to go and hide in academia forever, most of whom would face precisely the same psychological turmoil themselves were they ever to be pushed out (which, with the redundancies likely in academia going forward, seems a likely propsect for some of them, sadly). I often look back at the state of some of the academics I used to work with and feel relief that I'm not going to turn out like some of them (which is to say, smelly, unhealthily obsessed about a particular subject and in poor health due to a diet of ready males and junk food as proper cooking gets in the way of reading journal articles, etc.).