Career change after a layoff, where to begin? - what worked for you?

After 6 years as a software tester I am thinking about moving into a different field. I worked as a software tester before this. I have good customer skills and I am comfortable with spreadsheets. How did you start?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 2 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.