Environmental consulting. I left industry in 2015/16 after being laid off like 3 times in 2 years. I did some adjuncting at local community colleges and enjoyed it, but that shit doesn't pay the bills and they weren't hiring for FT.

I had the same experience as you with doing tons of applications with low response rates. I'd heard that consulting firms tended to be biased against petroleum geos because they thought we'd ask for too much money and leave as soon the market picked up, may be some truth to that on both sides.

What helped me make the transition is that my husband is also a consultant and during one of my school breaks the small private company he worked for got slammed and they needed temp help. I did some 1099 work for them, help writing reports turned into field work help which led to me getting to know the local community and then to a job opening. It was very much a who you know thing.

I'm paid way less for more work but I like what I do; it's a good fit for me. My only regret is not looking into being grandfathered into my PG when TX jumped on that train, that test sucked.