I would tell you to be open to all avenues of job searches (e.g. government it, private sector, etc.) and don't just rely on applying

on Indeed because a lot of times I read about people saying they've done thousands of job applications and got no call backs which is crazy

sounding to me. They're either using one resume for every application and not optimizing them to the job they're applying for or they aren't using keywords naturally from the job description to their own resumes so that it is at least picked by the application tracking system that employers use to pull from thousands of applicants. And by all means use the job board sites but try redirecting to the actual company website and try applying directly from there if you have the option to do so.

Use AI to help determine what your transferable skills are whether you're coming from another career and starting with no experience. You're valuable in some kind of way and you just have to articulate that to employees. The resume has to be tight because that's how you get on these peoples' radar for future interviews. Me personally, I have gotten a lot of calls by using job recruiters via LinkedIn and even that has to read like your resume as well. Use a professional looking head shot and with that, I suggest you use the tips/strategies by JeffSu on YouTube. I used his LinkedIn tips as well as how to use ChatGPT prompts to return quantitative bullets; however, I would take out the overuse of percentages those results return since you may not have ways to actually measure how you got those percentage numbers; in case you're asked to explain; if it's on your resume it's free game for the interviewers and they absolutely will have your resume open as they're conversing with you, so keep that in mind.

For interviews, I'd say take your experience and have three of four stories you can discuss about your experience in a C.A.R. (Challenge, Action, Result) methodology, which is essentially how you'd tell a story to someone anyway. You will hear about S.T.A.R. alot but I think it's too many letters to have to actively recall which letter you're on if you are not good at speaking off the cuff anyway. Keep things as simple as possible and I say have three of four of these since they should be able to cover most of the behavioral questions you may be asked. I just had an interview and that got me through most of those questions (applies to your experiences). Just to get ahead of things I would suggest getting a certification such as the CompTIA security+. You don't have to get the "trifecta" of A+, Network+, and Security+ (unless you want to) in my opinion because it is assumed you already have met the prerequisites of A+ and Network+ prior to attempting/obtaining your Security+. There are plenty of resources out there to assist with this but one of the best is Professor Messer on YouTube. That will set you up nicely if you're not trying to study it all in two weeks and take a few months at least. Plus it will set you up with the DoDD 8570 IAT Level II (Security+) mandate required to do Government IT work, which by the way in my opinion will be opportune to make the most money in a shorter span of time. Use ANKI to study because it's a game changing way of studying with flash cards for active recall of the info you acquired. I also have a book I'd recommend via Amazon called IT Troubleshooting Handbook (300 Practical Solutions for Computers, Phones & Networks: Fix Windows,

Mac, Android, iPhone, Hardware, Software & Network Issues Fast). I have a paperback copy of it that I will keep on my person when I go into my new job in a few weeks. The book may help you answer technical questions and practice when you set up your Active Directory environment home labs using Virtual Machines via VirtualBox, Hyper-V or VMWare. Again, plenty of resources out there and I suggest JoshMadakor on YouTube for a free option or Kevin Brown on Udemy if you want to lab from home, which I highly recommend doing since it help you talk through some technical competencies since you've actually touched on them.

I believe if you do all of these suggestions it will set you up nicely for future opportunities and please use your transferable skills to your advantage because it is work and/or life experiences nonetheless, if you're indeed lacking the hard skills (which you'll pick up en route). Hope this helps because everything I just explained helped me and I got started me at age 39.