I took some time off for close to a year for personal health reasons (and to make my own applications) and now I'm looking for employment.
I am an excellent generalist engineer, but lately I cannot get hired. I do have several active job interviews in the works, but they aren't promising and the hiring process is very slow. I'm putting in resumes to many companies online each day.
I do not know if it is the current economic situation or my obvious age based on length of career (early 40s) but my I am having a hard time getting an offer and even my network is dry.
I am quickly running out of money and my #1 immediate priority is getting ANY sort of cash flow so that we (my family) don't get kicked out of our apartment (my wife has health issues that prevent her from working in public, she is also unemployed).
Long term I am trying to release my own applications and services. I can build basically any web based app, video game etc. within reason but I feel it will take months to establish a user-base for anything I have prototyped and there's no guarantee that will happen at all.
The problem is that I need money now. I don't have time to f-around in the immediate term.
The suggestions I'm hearing from friends / family are "try to get a job at I can get by on low cash flow, but I need to get it flowing - any amount. How can someone in my situation make some honest cash fast?