[A. Pole]

I got laid off last year.

I grabbed up the books, took some juco classes, and got my skills up in the areas that were in demand.

What type of advanced skills one can pick in a few months of "juco classes"?

[MrB]

It was more from the books and cramming than any classes - the classes were just formalizations of what I taught myself. Also, being a "student" allowed access to a lot of resources - online books, computer labs, job clubs.

Specifically, I went from C++ (9 years) to .NET and web development.

The point is not to sit back and whine that nobody wants to pay you to do what you've always done.