Helldesk....Yeah I was with the helldesk for 5 years before I was able to switch out. I decided to do a Master's degree part-time while working full-time. I switched to a job that complimented my Master's degree. I would not advise getting out of technology, getting a low-stress IT job, and learning it on your own. I have assisted in the interview process and experience counts. If you say you work at Borders and you are learning PHP on your own, you will be expected to show a portfolio of your work. If you can balance doing an advanced degree while working, that would be the best in my opinion. There are also a lot of MIS online degrees that you could do. Another option is to save up money and do some boot camps, like CEH (certified ethical hacker), CISSP, or whatever interests you.