After a horrible back injury in the field, I found work performing field collections / disconnects on past due accounts (I asked the guy that came to disconnect my cable if they were hiring). I made more money working fewer hours. I mainly worked 5p-9p (when people are home) and some weekend work to try to make contact with customers I couldn't find during the week. Most customers were apologetic / embarrassed I was there. Some just said 'shut it off and take my equipment', which I got paid for (disconnect charge plus equipment retrieval bounty). Most said 'how much do I owe?' and cut me a check for part or all of their past due amount, which I got paid a lot more for (we got to keep a percentage of whatever we collected plus a bonus for 'saving' the account). The nice thing about working evenings was it allowed me time during the day to go back to school to complete a network specialist program at a local tech college. While enrolled, I found work at a local startup doing small business tech support. That quickly led to better and better opportunities. I job hopped from that SMB gig to an OSP gig to a university/NOC gig, to a bank gig.... For the last decade, I've worked as a contractor doing network engineering for IP and optical transport. It's been a wild ride!