Trade school, get your license and a TWIC card, then persue opportunities outside of aviation, especially the rotorwing side. Don't look back.

It is a fickle industry. Been in it nearly 40 years. If I had a do over I would have chosen a different path. 
People will always need plumbers and electricians and will always stay warm and cool. Aviation has two groups of people...pilots and everyone else. Yu really dont want to spend a career in the everyone else bracket. So

yes...run Forrest, run. 

Is that pilots have the biggest egos.  Not all pilots, but most do.  It's part of the look at me I'm a pilot I know it all syndrome.

Some of my biggest headaches are when pilots come in to the mx office and complain how something isn't working right but they can't articulate that which they think is wrong.

Nine times out of ten it's them doing something wrong, or expecting the system to work in a way in which it does not.

Lots of my fixes for them have been for example, print off a Notam and leave it in the log book that states the DME station is reported down for service from such and such date to such and such date.....and that's why it's inop.

Or for instance, they keep writing up a #1fuel prime pump problem, when there is no problem, it all checks out, they write it up, we sign it off....this goes by for a week, then a training pilot happens by the base to explain to them they will see what they are seeing when not following proper procedures in the start up check list.

Most problems like these are caused by a short between the headsets. 

Pilots can't seem to understand the simple fact that knowing how to work something when it is functioning properly is one thing, Mechanics have to know if it's broke, why it's broke, how to fix it, and how to test if it's working properly.  This takes decades of experience and training, opposed to the brief over gloss that pilots get in a 1hr course at flight safety on how to couple the Flight Director to the GPS.

Also, Little nuances like don't put your overnight bag in the aft fiberglass baggage compartment extender like we've told you a thousand times because that 10 degree error on your compass card is your own doing when you put all that $#!+ back there it fks with the flux valve.

I could go on and on but you get the gist.

Unfortunately the rotorcraft mechanic shortage

is getting worse and this article is from 2019!

https://www.avweb.com/recent-updates/business-military/new-study-forecasts-rotorcraft-pilot-and-mechanic-shortage/

tell them there is only misery here, mosquitoes, rain, heat, cold, and pizz poor retirement options.  tell them, theyre going to be laid off and/or fired for the smallest infractions during slow times.  tell them theyre going to be third class citizens, and will only get a raise when the aircraft are going AOG because everyone else quit. tell them that there will be paid shills shouting them down on social media if they dare speak out about how poor their chosen career is treating them. tell them their employers will hire zero experience trainees, and demand their existing employees train them, watering down the labor pool with people who have no skin in the game. tell them they will miss half of their families important events. just tell them NO!

Ben Wa? DoM?

...as in any endeavor, you get back what you put in/make of it.  retired rw 46+ years.

no debt, nice home and other proprties, successful children, solid 401k.  Making more now

then when I last worked...without even touching any retirement funds.  Do as I please when

I please.  Sound good?  It is. Go make your way through your efforts.