I am now 51 years old and have been in the tech field since PCs came into the work place and home. It all started for me when "Dealer swaps" became necessary at my workplace. When I was a car salesman before computers became common I worked as a salesman at a GMC, Volkswagen dealership. No one knew how to operate the computer and were afraid to try and use it for locating the nearest car that we needed that a customer wanted. Whatever the reason may have been like a certain trim package or what have you. I became frustrated with management over this because they could not operate the computer and I was losing sales over it. I said "I'll take a look at it", "No, it's too complicated" they said. Bullshit. Giant hulk of a machine and a blinking cursor. Okay. I grabbed the manual and have never looked back. I became their "go to guy" on that system. Not to mention increasing my own sales I got allot of free coffee and donuts out of that.
I started my own home based "Call out" computer repair/networking business and was quite successful. I went to a tech school and got my "Paper". As time marched on and many, MANY people were pumped out of these smaller schools that were popping up around the country the computer repair business became a cut throat business and that was okay, for a while. Then it reached ridiculous proportions where that particular business model was no longer viable. Having been a motor head in the 70's (Which is what got me into car sales to begin with) I was very handy at turning wrenches. I kept seeing these ads in the paper from huge companies like General Mills etc looking for "technicians". It turns out they have an aging group of people and no fresh blood to speak of. I found a niche. Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). Instead of an office I am in an industrial setting now and am considered to be blue collar. But you know what? I work with computers, ladder programing, PLCs, touch screen all in one heavy application computers some of which run open source OS's and many other technologies. Now I make 6 figures a year.
So if you are having difficulty finding work and can switch gears just a little bit, you may want to look at this. Just thought I'd share that.