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Landing a "Regular Job"?
sfe_software asks: "I'm an out-of-work programmer and systems administrator. I've reached a point where I have to find a job - any job - and I am finding this quite difficult. I'm apparently 'over-qualified' for everything from flipping burgers to fixing PCs at the local CompUSA. Noone wants to hire you at $6-$12/hour when you were making $45-$75/hour on previous jobs, yet, I'm not finding the high-paying work any more and need *something*. As a contractor, I've always kept a savings, but at this point that river is quickly running dry. What are other out-of-work techies doing? How do you convince a hiring manager that you aren't simply using them as a temporary stepping stone (even if this is true)?"
If you really *want* a lower-class job...
Instead of over-stating your resume, understate it. Problem solved.
Assuming you don't have a friendly pizza place hiring nearby, my other efforts - selling stuff on eBay, and networking your gluteus off to get website or consulting work (even if it's just upgrading an old P-120 for someone's Mom...) is a good way to bring in a few bucks while passing time in a quasi-productive way. You can also take time to learn new skills, from books or classes, that you never got around to while employed.
The most important lesson I've learned is to keep my income sources diverse. I still deliver pizza one or two evenings a week, I still scan eBay for poorly-advertised stuff I can buy and resell at a profit, and I still do websites and upgrades for people whenever I get a chance. No one person, company or even industry can determine whether or not I earn money.
Perfectly Normal Industries
If you are shooting low, the people hiring for those positions are not smart enough to understand what you even put on your resume.. target it for the bottom-feeder IT jobs like compusa techs. HIDE advanded information, do not put down salaries from your last job, and even if you did they cant verify them it's illegal to release that information without your written consent and only for income verification ... employment is not eligeble for income verification.
you need to downgrade your resume alot, and dumb down when you talk to compusa, remember these IT people at compusa barely operate let alone understand IT.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yes, relocation is a pain - just did it last year myself. This makes the 2nd time I've moved to places other than my first choice of living areas...been happy both times. When I was laid off last year, I looked in my large metropolitan home first...after three weeks, looked nationwide. I considered Nebraska, Mississippi, all sorts of places most people wouldn't pick as their first choice. Personally, I'd rather be working than unemployed or flipping burgers. And I'm too young (and so are you if you're under 50) to lock yourself down to one geography. If you want steady upward mobility, you have to RELOCATE SEVERAL TIMES IN YOUR CAREER.
If you cast your net wide - the whole US, go anywhere, do anything - you will find work if your skills are in demand. If you don't find work, then your skills are not in demand or your experience isn't sufficient and you have to lower your sights or improve your skills or both.
It's simple market mechanics. Brutal if you want to call it that, but simple nonetheless. If you're not finding work in your home market, then you need to look in other markets. You might end up in some place you don't like, have never heard of, or not your dream, but you'd be working.
PS...I've never met anyone who was both a senior sysadmin AND a senior programmer. I've also never seen a truly senior admin/programmer who was out of work for long. I'd pick which one you like better and go gonzo on it.
Advice: on VPS providers
No, it means you did pay into the unemployment system, even though you have no hope of getting anything out. UI, as presently structured, is glorified welfare, but it doesn't have to be.
While welfare can't be privatized (there's no money to be made), genuine, risk-based, unemployment "insurance" can, and IMHO, should be privatized.
At present - and as you've found out - UI isn't insurance, it's merely a tax. Most people pay more premiums, but are ineligible to collect. (And guess how much of the UI "premiums" collected actually get paid out to the few workers poor enough to collect, as opposed to skimmed off into the sinkhole of general tax revenue?)
But UI could be privatized. The cyclical conditions that precipitate payouts (high unemployment) coincide with cyclical conditions in the economy (recession) that coincide with cyclical movements in interest rates (Greenspan :-)
This means that a private insurer could anticipate periods when payouts are likely to be high or low, and adjust an investment portfolio to take advantage of anticipated interest rate movements.
The portfolio would be funded from premiums. Just as medical insurance costs more for smokers, unemployment insurance would be more expensive for seasonal workers like fishermen (who, on the East Coast, are likely to be unemployed in winter), and less expensive for workers in fields in high demand.
The beauty is that (unlike the current system, based on coercion - everyone pays a tax, by force of law, but not everyone can claim) participation in a genuine unemployment insurance plan would be optional.
Are you a really good fisherman? Skip UI, and use the money to improve your gear, allowing you to catch more fish, to tide you over during the winter freeze.
Are you a really lazy fisherman? Pay for the deluxe UI package. Work 10 weeks a year, get paid 52. (The cost of this package would probably exceed what you can catch in your 10 weeks. That's your problem, though.)
Are you a really lazy programmer? In a hot industry, but think the good times might end? Worried about them H-1Bs takin' your job away? Buy a fat UI policy - just in case. Pay 5% of your salary in premiums, and in the 1-in-10 chance that your employer shows up on FuckedCompany next week, collect 50% of your salary until you find another employer with a foosball table and Aeron chairs at every cube.
Are you a really good programmer? Think you'll never be out of work? Skip UI altogether. Save the money for a rainy day, just in case you're wrong, or go buy a Ti4600 and hope you're right.
A privatized UI company would be incredibly motivated to get its out-of-work insurance claimants back into the job market, because it would drastically cut its expenses. It would want you to get a good job, because having a good job reduces the probability that you'll need to claim against your UI policy in the future. You could get your MCSE or other industry-recognized certifications as part of UI. Your insurance company would gladly give you placement assistance.
Contrast this with Government, who has zero motivation to get you back on the job (it's not their money), and every motivation to use their "back-to-work training" programs as ways to reward friends and campaign donors. ("You have my campaign $10000 last year. Here's a $1.5M contract to build a computer literacy center for UI recipients in our district. Sure, 386s running Win3.1 are fine. They're 'computers', aren't they? It's not it's any money out of either of our pockets if they ever work again.")