I've been in IT for 20 years next year. I've been a sysadmin this entire time. Back in Virginia (Silicon Valley East), I made great money, but here in Texas, I make a pittance.

I'm in my mid 40s and have been looking to get into something else, but building on my existing skills. No one is even looking at me.

I'm toying with the idea of maybe going it alone. Start a small IT consultancy. Not sure what angle to look at this from. I'm not trying to put out a "woe is me" here, but rather appeal to the others in here that are toying with the idea of maybe going it alone in some capacity.

I've put out literally tons of resumes/CVs in the last couple of years and nary an interview. It's not like I don't have skills, but it seems that employers now want sysadmins to also be programmers and network engineers and coffee monkeys all at the same time.

I've also entertained the notion of getting out of IT altogether, but it's all I know. A guy I know bought a small cleaning company and he now cleans houses for the wealthy at 150-200 a house x 4 houses a day. He splits this with one other person. Not quite sure. But in my mid 40s, I don't think my body could handle a purely physical job.