I gave carpentry a shot but I only lasted a week on the job. I was super fortunate to meet a crew of guys that were willing to show me the ropes. I was able to learn quickly and it challenged me. I really enjoyed stepping outside of tech, but the reality of working for $20/hr hit home pretty quick. To the best of my knowledge there aren't many places in the United States where you can realistically support yourself on an income like that. At least not long term. I also nearly lost my marriage (not joking).

I'm back in an office now working in a contract tech role that involves a little bit of coding on the side and it's alright for now I suppose. It isn't glamorous, but I'm happy to be working to be honest. I wanted to respond to your post because I found that cold calling and networking was the way to go for opening doors. I needed to talk to real people and build personal relationships. It took time and some surprisingly interesting opportunities opened up here and there. No one gave me a hard time about looking for work. I met a lot of people who were more than willing to take time out of their day to talk to me. It took a long time to get back into a full time role - about 6 months.

I also applied to a couple hundred jobs online but that approach didn't lead to much. The couple of interviews that I did get weren't even genuine. I deleted my LinkedIn account and never looked back.