[rdouble]

Try to get a job as a sysadmin or IT person at a health care organization/hospital. In economically depressed areas, these organizations usually provide the best paying jobs because they are not subject to normal market forces. They exist everywhere, and will hire anyone even sort of qualified for the job. You can use that experience to move to a city where they have the python jobs you want, because health care orgs everywhere are desperate for people who know about their specialized infrastructure.

Here's a few examples of what I mean if you are say, in Grand Rapids.

http://careers.spectrum-health.org/?job=main.searchbycat&...

[Luyt]

"They will hire anyone even sort of qualified for the job"

Are you sure? When I read those job postings, I see stuff like:

Job Requirements: Bachelor's degree. Minimum of five years experience with Informatica or another comparable ETL product. Knowledge of data warehousing. Experience with development and trouble shooting within the HealthQuest PLIB, PM, IIP, COMLINK HL7, MR, PA modules and Q-processing. Experience with monitoring and addressing batch cycle activities.

Either they grossly overask, of you wouldn't have a chance if you're not an insider already.