My best friend was thoroughly unhappy in a research gig. So she took out a massive loan and went to med school. It was a STRESSFUL period for her and her family

My best friend was thoroughly unhappy in a research gig. So she took out a massive loan and went to med school. It was a STRESSFUL period for her and her family. She's out now and makes 10 times her previous money and is a fair bit happier at her job. My wife was a store manager, wanted to slow down for family, took hr courses and is now an hr manager. So there are success stories in fairly radical career changes. On the other hand it sounds like you want to stay in the field, just get some traction? I work for a big tech technically in technology, and would hire "someone like you" depending largely on other qualifications and aspects,especially on something adjacent - I. E. (spit balling) if you have a decade of average or below average technical experience, you might make an above average incident manager, release manager, service delivery manager, etc - depending on other skills and circumstances. If you are willing, diligent, detail oriented, have good comm skills, have good troubleshooting skills, or any combo of above, there are jobs with upward mobility (not saying it's trivial finding them).