40+ and alternative careers?

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Respected commenter and reader The Aqueous Layer has this to say on the alternative careers front:

I think this line of thinking is great for people under the age of 35. When you start pushing into your 40s and beyond, it becomes much harder to transition into an alternate career, from both ends. Employers are going to be much less willing to take on a 45 year old with no experience. The adage about "It's easier to find a job when you have one" is also true as well. HR and/or hiring managers might not admit it, but there is a bias towards hiring people who already have jobs... 

50 and older it becomes more of 'what will I settle for' or 'what can I do to help make some money to pay the bills'. Unfortunately, I know several people who ended up in that boat, cobbling together small teaching gigs earning less than $25K total.

As someone who is in TAL's gray zone (i.e. NLT35, NMT41), I would be interested in hearing from readers who have successfully (or unsuccessfully!) transitioned away from traditional bench/research-related work to something else. Please tell us in the comments or write me at chemjobber -at- gmail/dot/com.