I've been actively looking for the kind of non-academic jobs you suggested, even passed some recruitment tests for federal employment. The problem is, I haven't seen any job posted anywhere. It seems pretty much every single government agency is in downsizing mode. And it looks like it's not going to change until the next election, in 2015...

I don't think there were much of anything beyond benchwork that interested me. I like solving problems and designing experiments. I don't like teaching and children even less, so that's out.
I feel I have been cheated. Everyone seems to have benefited from my work: the PIs and the institutions I worked for, the student I trained or advised. But I have not. I'm left with a useless skill set outside a lab, too old & qualified for junior/tech positions, not enough experience for manager ones...

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I ran into this forum googling for people in a situation similar to mine. I graduated 8 years ago after a pretty good PhD, went abroad (US), got a fellowship, everything seemed well. But years passed, problems and delays accumulated and I finally left after 4.5 years with no first author publication, in bad terms with my PI, for another post-doc in Canada. A paper eventually came out a year after, but my second post-doc didn't fare better than the first: failed projects, delays and an increasing sense of alienation. I am finally putting the finishing touches on a pair of manuscripts of little interest.
I'm now 8 years after graduation, with no prospect of entering academia (and no will left to fight for it). I have 6 months left on my contract and it feels like a train wreck in slow motion. I'd like to get a job in the industry, but I have no experience, no contact and apparently no skill of any value to a biotech company. I have applied to pretty much any job I remotely qualified for and never got a call back.
I have no idea of what I'm supposed to do. I never had to look for a job. Discussion with my current PI always end up the same: I'm supposed to build a network, but I have never been a people's person and I am completely inept socially. I fell like I am just supposed to roll over and die for not being a natural social butterfly. I could to go home and regroup but I'm stuck here, as my wife won't follow.