Did you see "Second Careers: Pushed by the recession, millions are making dramatic job changes" — the lead story on USA Today last weekend?  (July31-Aug2, 2009) or this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2009-07-30-recession-change-jobs_N.htm

Several case studies of laid-off workers who have either reinvented themselves, or taken advantage of career retraining programs. Among the stories, a former auto-worker who retrained as an intensive care nurse, a Wall Street financial whiz training to be certified as a math teacher, and a real-estate broker moving into computer network administrator.