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I am amazed at the cliches I hear here, it is like you never had to look for a job!

I am willing to wager that at a minimum, 99% of those posting on this thread have had to "look for a job." Myself included. Infact, a company I worked for closed their Raleigh office in preperation for being bought. A customer of mine heard the news and hired me (in a field I had no experience in). He was fired a few weeks after I started, and the new boss, shaking things up canned a few of us (including me). And to make things even better, I got very ill immediatly after getting canned. I was unable to work for several months (also had no insurance and ran up some bills). Then it took a couple months to gain employment because my medical problem prevented me from engaging in a full job search effort. Worked for the company that hired me for 3 years and got laid off. My 2nd time being laid off in 4 years (3rd lost job in 4 years).

Of all the people posting on this thread, I am talking from experience not all that different from yours. But you seem to think different.

The town I grew up in, Endicott NY is a shell of its former self. IBM (started in Endicott NY) has completely left town. Endicott Johnson shoes had done the same (which all 4 of my grandparents worked for). Endicott NY was the company town. EJ built a large number of the homes in the town and their employees lived in them. My grandmother still lives in her EJ home. Everyone worked for EJ. Then Watson started IBM and soon everyone in town worked for IBM. GE had a very large presence as well. And Lockheed had a plant in Owego (10 to 15 minutes away). Those 4 huge employers folded up shop and left.

"it is like you never had to look for a job!"

I had to look for a job in 1978 when the economy sucked canal water ten times worse than the average -to-normal economy we have now.

I moved halfway across the country because I wanted to work in my field. If I had had to, I would have asked my family for help. An advance, temporary rooming, whatever.

Prior to that, I had already lived on beans for a couple years extra because as I reached the culmination of my graduate studies, I realized to my chagrin that the job I was training for had been monopolized by minorities, and as a white male I was dead meat.

Somehow I was able to network across the country to find a job without having to travel, before the era of the internet, the fax, the cellphone, when even the PC itself was a rudimentary novelty to us non-geeks. (I used to know BASIC and how to count in hex!)

One thing which got me through a rough patch was service in the Army Reserve. They paid real money, although not a helluva lot, but it was better than welfare cheese.

You said you couldn't find a job in CAD so you went and learned five more languages for CAD.

Here's a clue: I have a friend who wrenches for a Ford dealer and makes over 50,000 dollars a year. And he's no 60-year-old foreman either. His foreman makes close to 80K.

Best wishes on your new career, whatever it turns out to be.