There is life after Scn
My wife and I were in the SO for over 15 years each. We were in managment in LA and went to a lower org after having a baby. We hung on there working in poverty for 2 years before we threw in the towl and left. At that point we had two children and that year made less than $10K. So we started off with almost nothing and really we only had a little bit of furniture because before going to the lower org I was on an an 8 month LOA and earned some money to buy furniture with. I rode a bicycle to work (I was 50 at the time) even when it snowed!
But we were lucky compared to many. I had military and business computer experience before going into Scn SO staff and continued to work on computers in the SO. However, depite that, most of my SO experience was of little value as I worked on their archaic legacy computer equipment and when I got out in 1997, the PC was in full business use. So my only experience with that was with the home computer I'd managed to acquire.
Let me say first that, SO members, despite being in an organization that staff are essentially PTS to management and the whole theta trap of the SO itself, most members are basically very great and able people. What LRH says about SO members being very capable in the outside world to a large degree is true. In the SO you are expected to be able to do any job and do it well. If you can't you aren't there very long. You do gain many abilities as you are assigned jobs -- whether in renovations, organization, management, etc. You learn as you go and learn to make things go right. There is a lot of emphasis on training for your duties - Even though there is a lot of abberaton and excessive controls of your life and you work up to 72 hour (sometimes more) weeks
With that said, I came out feeling a huge sadness having lost connection with the group I'd been a member of and losing a lot of friends. But I'd always felt very capable in my life, in working with computers and so I simply jumped in and never looked back. So above all else it is attitude. You have to believe in yourself, and if you have that then you can make others believe in you.
But it was very dicey and scary at first. Although we did have an apartment we were very thankful for food stamps and welfare for 2-3 months to be able to feed our babies and have a roof over our head. I'd go the library daily and check ads in the paper there and call employers from the pay phone. That is tough. I paid for an answering service so that I could get messages since I didn't have a phone at home yet. I don't know if these even exist any more, but that's probably not a problem since you can get cell phoness for cheap these days, and use the $10 cards you get in supermarkets now. So in many ways it is a lot easier today. There is also internet services at most libraries now to get your resumes onto the internet and search the job databases.
But factually anyone that has been in the SO for years has a lot of skills, and it is really a matter of creatively putting those talents into a resume.
I have never hidden my time in Scn with any employer or on resumes or for that matter from friends or co-workers. Basically I simply state that I was in the ministry in Scientology. I may not be proud of what Scientology has become but I can honestly say that I was in it for the same reasons that Scn states as it's purpose to "make a safe world, where honest men can prosper, without wars.... etc." don't remember the exact words. That was always my purpose and the fact that Scn went off the rails (if it was ever on them) is beside the point.
So my advice to anyone having left SCN or the SO is hold your head high, know that you are an honest being and your intentions (and those of most of your friends left behind, or left before you) were honest and pure, and YOU can make life go right and just recognze that there are many SPs and PTSes in at all levels of the church, and you will find that any control that they have over you is shattered and you can move on. Know that we love you, as you felt when you first ran into the term "much Love" when you first joined staff, without any of the bullshit enforced reality that managment shoves down your throat.
Ah, hell, I told myself I wasn't going to say anything negative here, the intention is to let anyone know that has left, that they can make it and make it well. Sign up for courses, study for Microsoft certifications, etc. The world is open to you. Study tech has a lot of crap in it but just the knowledge of clearing words, and not go glib, is the real key to being able to study anything. Hell, I'm studying quantum physics now as a hobby and that would have been impossible without the baics of study. So use the few good tools you gained from Scn and throw out useless control garbage and you will flourish and prosper!!!
DrDen (my nickname by some of my old clients)