So I have a somewhat odd situation here and I'm looking for information on how to move forward in life.

Long story short I have a college education and a BA from a good university but I've never been able to use it. Instead I ended up working for a temp agency bouncing around from temporary welding/fabricator job to other job. I graduated at the height of the recession and was unable to find work that was commensurate with a college education. Instead I took blue collar work to make ends meet.

Then health issues intervened (and not on my behalf). After a very, very long time trying to figure out what was wrong I finally submitted to a battery of tests my doctor wanted and ended up diagnosed with diabetes. Dealing with that largely look over my life due to the specifics of the situation. Now that those things are under control I'm back in the job market for full time, college graduate type work but I'm so far in over my head that I feel like I just graduated Middle School.

None of that really matters but it's decent background information for my question: How does one, these days, go about getting a job commensurate with a college education other than going back to graduate school? The truth is that I'm really not sure I can afford to go to graduate school at this point because my wife is in a pre-vet program which is pretty darn expensive and, well, life in Colorado is too.

My college basically used it's name to get people jobs and that worked until the "Great Recession" now, I'm eight years out from graduation with basically nothing to show for graduating college and I feel like I'm spinning my wheels because I really don't "get" a lot of the job advertisements I see. I don't understand how you're supposed to get experience with a lot of this stuff and have no idea what most of these job postings mean.

So, I guess the question is this: How does one move forward in such a situation? A lot of the stuff on the internet is just clickbait, a number of the "job companies" I've used are just taking my money and offering me minimum wage jobs... I feel like I'm stuck. How does someone even get decent career advice without getting ripped off? Can some people recommend ways to comb through job sites and offers without spending time on worthless nonsense and scams?

I'm working on a graduate entrance exam at this point but I really don't know how useful that is. I mean, at this point is it worth $80K more debt for another degree? Are "headhunters" the answer? Are there actual companies that will work with you to find decent, non-temporary, employment? How does one even start this process without falling prey to scams?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.