I don’t know how to plan my career in the future; could everyone give me some advice?

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I’ve been having a tough time looking for a job lately, and I’d like to ask for everyone’s advice to help me plan things out. I’m a woman; I graduated over 12 years ago, in 2003, with a degree in chemical engineering processes. Upon graduation, I wanted to work at a design firm, but they required experience, so I went to a small company to work in research and development (which essentially involved organic synthesis experiments). After two years there, I switched to a newly established foreign-funded company, where I was involved in the research and development of fine chemical products. Since the company was newly established, it was a great way to get trained (it required doing many tasks), and I really enjoyed working overtime at that time. The person in charge of research and development is a foreigner. My English is pretty good, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice my spoken English as well. I have been involved in research and development, including the development of product analysis and testing methods as well as the establishment of inspection procedures. I have also handled ISO 9000&14000 certification tasks, and worked with the marketing department on competitor analysis. It seems like the company is training me to become a product manager. I worked at that company for almost 6 years. Later, due to poor sales performance and changes among the shareholders, both the general manager and the head of R&D were removed. The company’s new general manager is a typical Taiwanese; once he took office, he made many changes to the staff. Anyway, he didn’t seem to like me, and I didn’t want to stay there any longer. Later, because I wanted to develop my career in my hometown, I returned to Shijiazhuang. Ten years after graduating and back in Shi, I stumbled upon a private chemical engineering design firm that was classified as a Class B firm at the time. I was overjoyed, thinking that this would be the path I would pursue from then on. After going there, my supervisor asked me to work on occupational health design, so I spent nearly 2 years on the preliminary design. Eventually, my health couldn’t take it anymore – sitting for long periods caused back pain, and besides, it had been over a decade since I last worked in design; I had forgotten all the professional knowledge I once learned. So I quit at the end of the year and then started looking for a new job. But I’m not sure what type of job to look for; it seems that my strongest skills are in a laboratory setting. I’ve interviewed with a few companies recently, and two of them were looking for analysts or laboratory staff, but the locations were too far from home, and the salaries offered were too low. There are many environmental protection companies looking for employees, but I’m not very familiar with this field either. Last week I had an interview with one company, and it seemed promising, but I still haven’t received any response to this day. I no longer have the confidence to submit resumes. I’m very confused now and don’t know what to do.