[pdimitar]

> At the end of the day though I know what I have to do: Either study for 3 more months, stay where I'm at with my current pay, or switch careers entirely. Right now I'm leaning towards switching careers entirely.

One person who wrote a Python book was spot on in their conclusion: "At one point you should stop working as a programmer. You'll get no respect and your pay will be mercilessly negotiated down. Better to start another business and utilize programming as a secret weapon."

(Grossly inaccurate rephrasing but that was the gist of the paragraph.)

Still though, maybe you are too shy for the brutal game of numbers and chance that job hunting is even for seasoned programmers. That's fine. But you should know -- there are a ton of really mature and interesting people out there who know how to recruit. But it's a fact of life that you rarely find them; more often than not, they find you. And that's not happening to everyone who needs such an approach (sadly).

If you feel you want to switch careers and can't bear the thought of working programming anymore then do it. But if you just kind of feel giving up because of bad interviews -- don't give up just yet.

And I absolutely agree: we like to think we're special but there are a lot of very talented people out there. Very few are actually standing above the crowd. I am fine being one of many though; we each bring our own flavour to the company and some of these flavours do bring serious competitive advantages. :)