Clueless academic trying to wade into industry.

I am finishing up my PhD in Machine Translation from a top European Uni. Lately I realized that academia is just too toxic. Securing funding, writing grants, getting rejected and the cycle repeating.

I am now determined to leave academia and see how it feels to work at companies. With no understanding of a methodical process to do this, I am randomly applying to companies on LinkedIn. I guess that's not the right approach. Also when asked about compensation I was just converting the money I was making during my PhD. Some recruiters told me that that's not the money they'd pay freshers.

Folks, can you please give any pointers and suggestions? Pretty please!