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Well it depends on your skill set.

Remember, I was talking about the dot-com bubble about ten years ago. And trust me, it did not matter WHAT skills you had, if you didn't have a sheepskin or you weren't the ONLY person to know how to run your program/computer/network, you were pretty much pushed out the door. Most of the people on here who were in the computer industry during that time will tell you the same. Back then, GTE/Verizon laid off 350 people in one week and then EXACTLY two weeks later they sponsored 400 work visas for the same jobs!

I understand your plight (good luck on your plan), I taught myself Visual Basic, C, C++, C#, UNIX/LINUX, etc... but because I didn't have a degree, I was over the cost allotment for employees without a degree. Bottom line, it was cheaper to hire a newly minted, college graduate than to keep me and pay for my seniority.

I still do programming/networking on the side and I make descent profit from those side jobs. I also use those skills to help in my current career. I have created many programs, databases and interfaces that allow me and my company to track various aspects across our entire national footprint. Simple programs and interfaces, but there were no COTS solutions available.

I think alot of those overseas jobs in IT are coming back. I know we had a footprint in Bangalore in Mumbai of about 40 contractors whose sole job it was to maintain our legacy code and they really mucked it up. As of July we have no overseas contracted programmers, QA or PM positons. We did not get 200 per hour work, we got what we paid for 40 bucks an hour. It took 5 Indians what 1 American could do. Nice folks over there, but they need to hand held through everything, 0 initiative and self starter instincts in them. We had one guy who came over to America, got a work VISA, became their boss and we retained him. He is now applying to become a citizen and he had become Americanized.