re: Career advice please - very odd situation here

Where are you located? Big D as in Dallas? I am not a tech guy but I do associate with techies daily in my job. A couple thoughts are to maybe look at jobs outside of tech but that would see your knowledge as valuable. Cyber is huge and it's only going to get bigger. Also look at something like Third party risk as a way into a large corporation where you could move into other roles later.

A neighbor was in a long term tech job with a small company and laid off last year. He got a much better job for a city. I think it might be beneficial to look at different industries and not so much the specific job you want. Skills and knowledge are transferable.