Wow, so much to pack in and respond to so I will start with a TLDR of a +1 annectoda of ‘it can be done’.
Did I make the right choice? Yes and No. Did it work out ok/well? Yes... And No.
Would I do the same again? Yes.
Note: I considered posting under a Temp/Throwaway nick but figured meh, to hell with it.
The following is just a +1 anecdotal "can be done" rambling of some internet stranger so take it with as many pinches of salt as you wish :)
I am 'semi-retired' from the IT game, rode the Y2K and Dot-com boom and bust and semi-retired/ 'left' the industry back in late 2012. At that time I had reached a level where I could pick and choose and/or name a price without worry, secure in the knowledge that within a day or two my phone would ring with someone else on the end desperate to have a problem fixed. {Will list my reasons for getting out of the IT game at the end of this comment}.
I branched out in to a non-IT related field (but was still a very technical and hands-on field). We are who/what we are and I just have this itch to 'fix' stuff.
My pay at first was a LOT less than I was earning previously (roughly 1/10th) but within two years it was on par and within 5 years it was about 3x what I was earning in IT so yes, it can be done.
The thing to ask yourself is this (I'm assuming here that you have considered all possible different roles within the industry and found that none of them would suit you. If you haven't done that yet then do so with haste. Often it's better the devil you know).
Also consider this - Wherever you go, You always take the Weather with you. In other words - If you haven't identified the underlying cause of your dissatisfaction then even if you do decide to trade fields you will find yourself asking the exact same question on a different technical forum within a few years ;)
If still convinced that a change of career is the right thing to do (hint – the fact that you haven’t reached the point where you go Fuck it – anything is better than doing this even if it means going back to Ramen Noodle Days suggests that you aren’t at that point) then consider doing a good old fashioned “likes and dislikes” and a SWOT analysis ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis ) to identify where/what to do next.
Those same strengths that brought me to that point in my IT career of where I could chose who to pick up the phone to also served me well in my ‘new’ choice of career. How did I identify the new field I chose to get in to? By trawling through a lot of Job sites (with pay filtering turned off) and just clicked/viewed the vacancies that sounded of interest. This gave me a really good idea of what interested me and if something was of interest then a quick Google/Glass-door search for roles within that industry showed the max potential earnings). As an example – “Street Sweeper” ticked a lot of my ‘boxes’ except that even the best of street sweepers could never hope to come close to what I would like to earn. But doing that gave me the criteria to narrow down on what aspects ARE essential for me in any role.
{Reasons for leaving IT}
During the 2000’s the amount of pure greed, the countless ‘chancers’ (aka “cowboys”) in the field left me sickened and disgusted.
What ever you decide - Good luck and I hope you find happiness/contentment.
