You are correct, no-one pays the same wage for someone starting a new career as you probably earn now having worked your way up the chain. However, if changing careers is truly the right decision then you take that into consideration and take the initial hit. I'm one of those who's been burning out for a while now, have already started a college course and saving as much as I can, that way when I'm in a position to make the leap (far enough through the course) hopefully I can weather the cut until I gain some experience and start working my way back up to a decent salary. Just depends on how much you want out of IT - "where there's a will there's a way".