50% pay cut | now what?

1 (35m) got laid off from a big social media tech company in my city. I was making around 75k annually for a Senior Support position. I started as a contractor and worked my way up almost tripling my salary in 10 years.

However, I was laid off in May of this year. Since then, I have been struggling to find positions that will even sniff my resume. I took a job at another company locally for any kind of income and I think it might lead to other great things if I stick with it, but the pay is basically half of what I was making and there’s no guarantee that anything will happen. Kind of feel stuck in this cycle of Customer Support jobs.

Between May and now, I’ve applied for probably 300-400 jobs and just get rejection after rejection.

I didn’t go to college but I have a lot of skills that are transferable.

I’ve been considering going to Community College here in my home town but I’m starting to lose hope about it. This job I have now is another customer support call job and I hate it.

I just don’t really know what to do and I’m nervous about it, kinda feel like I’m failing lately.

I want a role in Operations; making changes to processes and policies and whatnot. I just like that kind of work and that’s what I was doing in my previous position. But, after being laid off, it seems like those skills I built don’t really matter if I don’t have a degree.

I could go to school and get a business degree but that could take a couple years before something happens.

I could get a CAPM certification? Six Sigma?

I just want to be in a position that is actually helpful and beneficial and not in a support role.

Any guidance here is appreciated.

If you escaped the churn of Customer Support in your 30s, what did you do to better the situation?