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Floundering after completing PhD

Hi AskAcademia,

Not sure what I'm looking for here. Advice? Support? Commiseration? Shared experience? I completed my PhD in wildlife ecology this spring. By all accounts everything went swimmingly. I enjoyed my research. My advisor was very, very hands off, distant, and offered no mentorship, but was generally manageable. I was funded by an NSF GRF, so I accrued no debt and I completed my program in five years. All well and good, right?

Unfortunately, now I'm several months out and still looking for work. I started applying for jobs here and there as early as last October but have been actively searching and applying for positions now since April. I have no intention of remaining in academia long-term (I have no desire to be a professor), but I have applied for some postdoctoral positions. Mostly, though, I've applied for research and wildlife management positions with state and federal agencies (i.e. USGS, USFWS, etc.) and research and program manager positions with non-profits and NGOs (i.e. The Nature Conservancy, university field stations, the Smithsonian institutions, etc.). To date, I've applied for more than 50 different positions, and... nothing. I've had three interviews: one for a fieldwork position for which I was overqualified, and that paid less than I made as a NSF fellow; a job that was advertised as a wildlife biologist position with a state agency but was actually management of timber sales and dealing with 'nuisance' wildlife; and recently, a foreign postdoctoral position with research that is very interesting to me, but with a supervisor that is notorious for being difficult and unsupportive, and who expects that postdocs work 50-60 hours per week under threat of not receiving good recommendation letters-- definitely not the type of environment for which I'm looking. 

I have four publications, two first author, and three additional first author manuscripts currently in review. Of the published first-author articles, one is in Trends in Ecology and Evolution and has been heavily cited, and the other is in Ecosphere. I also have a second-author paper in another open access journal and a group review paper in Ecology. I've had friends and colleagues read through my cover letters and they've found no issues-- writing is one of my greatest strengths. I have a diversity of experience as an ecologist, with a range of field and analytical techniques in addition to some genetics work. My references are solid. 

I honestly didn't have much in the way of imposter syndrome while in grad school. There were definitely times when I knew I was outclassed intellectually by someone, and I met a lot of people who were far more capable as an academic than I am, but I never really had trouble with anything. But this job application process has made me start to wonder if I've just been delusional about the whole thing and have been mediocre all along. What is it I'm lacking? What's missing in my research experience? Is it my lack of publications? Something about the ways I went about my dissertation? The methods I used? The questions I asked? Are my cover letters bad? Is my CV not compelling? Or is it just that I can't stack up against other candidates out there? As days go by without any response and with no promising leads I'm finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a positive outlook. I have my PhD! My work has been published! I have expertise in my field! That should all be worth something, yet somehow I've never felt so worthless.
gpt
I'll agree with some of the others that your background seems like it would land you a job or at least more interviews, which leads me to think it's your packet. You need to sell yourself in your cover letter so they know exactly how you would fit in that job. Address every point they make as a desired or required qualification and how you perfectly align with selected experiences and skills.