I went looking for work in exactly the same field as I was when I was laid off (windows sysadmin), and found that there were a million available jobs, but two million available applicants. No actual jobs resulted from this search.

Nearly by accident, though, I took a position at Microsoft doing software testing for network-related aspects of the operating system. It turned out to be a perfect fit, allowing me to leverage all the things I'd learned as a sysadmin, while learning a lot of new technology, especially with regard to wireless hardware and software.

After my one-year contract with Microsoft was up, I found a position doing the same thing, but for a new company: NetMotion Wireless. I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary here, and I'm happy as a clam. We make VPN software that I'm proud of, and the people are just fantastic.