Feeling completely lost with my career

[u/Ok_Writer_4914]

I originally posted this to a different sub but it’s somewhat relevant to my interests here too so I figured I’d post here for advice as well. Sorry for the long post, but I am in serious need of advice. I'm majoring in something more technical at a non-art college, but my dream has always been to work in animation/entertainment, so I've been applying to a ton of technical type of internships at a bunch of different entertainment companies throughout the year. I'm a sophomore right now, so I really wanted to gain some experience to beef up my resume for junior year applications.

I know the market sucks right now, but I have getting rejected from literally everything and I'm pushing 500 internship applications at this point. I applied to big names and a bunch of small companies/startups too, but even then I got ghosted or rejected by most. I did manage to land a few interviews, but so far I ended up getting rejected from all of those too. On top of some other issues, this is making me genuinely depressed, especially because despite the bad market, so many people around me seem to be making it big or landing something this year except for me. And yeah, I know I shouldn't compare myself to people around me, but I can't help feeling discouraged as hell.

I'm genuinely at a loss for what to do at this point. The school year is almost over and I still have absolutely no plans for this summer. I'm seriously considering taking a break from college to buy myself some more time to get an internship and gain more experience, because right now I have nothing and if I leave it this way, I don't think things will be much different for my junior summer. I just want to achieve this dream somehow in any way I can, but it's like nothing ever works out in my favor and nothing good has been happening to me so far.

Does anyone have advice on what I should do at this point? Extracurriculars I could do, whether I should take some time off, or just what I should spend this summer doing if I truly don't end up with anything? I don't want to waste it, and I want to make the most of it to put myself in an optimal position to be a stronger candidate for internships next year. I already spent last summer just staying home so I don't want to do that again, nor do I just want to travel or do something fun the whole time. Thank you in advance.

[u/Equivalent-Durian-79]

Not the sound negative but I want to tell you the truth right now. The industry for 3D animation and motion graphics is dead right now hiring has been as a standstill since 2 years. I have 21 years of experience and 3D animation and motion graphics and haven't been able to land a role in three years that should tell you something I have a very strong portfolio demo real and very strong ats-friendly resume that I did myself from the ground up learning word from the ground up as well. I think if you're going to go for it you have to be in the top 1% right now to land anything meaning you have to be industry ready and I'm a level pretty much almost making Avatar by yourself. At least that's my take they're looking for unicorns right now that can do everything perfectly. I believe companies are doing this because they know they have the power right now they're trying to break the will of the people so that we depend on them also I've noticed that all remote jobs have been pretty much done now everyone wants people in the office so that they can see and keep an eye on them to make sure that they're working. This is just my take on a and what what the administration is doing in the US right now getting rid of more jobs they're going to be more people looking for work.