Go find and MSP where they can help you hone your skills.. You may still start out hourly but usually with benefits and you will be able to hone your skills and

Go find and MSP where they can help you hone your skills.. You may still start out hourly but usually with benefits and you will be able to hone your skills and have people mentor you. The QA on Apex, that's just churn and burn contract work to play a game and fill in some surveys and do this/do that... IBM? Sounds like you were a contractor... i would have stuck that out - IBM often graduates contractors to FTE's and IBM will often pay for your school too. If there are no managed services providers or no rackspace type companies around, find a contracting agency that does IT work - and do the same, show you can read a manual, do a job and start growing, building a rapport and getting some work under your belt. But whatever you do, don't be a hacker, be an employee. They pay you to do what you were hired to do.