I've finally decided that I've had pretty much all I can stand of my unappreciative and increasingly unstable boss.

My problem is that my job history is very short, unfocused, and completely undistinguished. My current job is a low-paying, limited-opportunity, hourly-wage position (I'm a veterinary technician). The one before that was a summer job. The one before THAT was a campus job I had while in college. My degree is in history (but I'd rather shoot myself than teach).

I'm tired of working 55-hour weeks, not having my health insurance paid, not making enough to move out of my parents' house, and not having any social life at all because I come home exhausted, footsore, and smelling like a kennel. I'm 26--I'm too old to be this poor. I'm afraid that if my current boss finds out I'm looking, he'll fire me and, as miserable as it is, it took me six months to find this job and I can't afford for it to take me that long to find another one.

I'm a good worker, polite, honest, conscientious, on-time, literate, and smart, but everyone says that about themselves when they want to get hired. Does anyone out there have any advice that they found useful when job-hunting?