Let me start off by saying welcome to TechIMO.
Well I will try to answer all your questions in order. Don't be discuraged by the "current" market situation because in 20 years, coffee will be made by robots but someone will still need to code, test, and build a robot to do that job.
Now let me address the payout question. Depending on your area, since you didnt mention where you live i dont want to assume, your going to making a sub-par wage as a barrista unless your one of those folks who goes to the barrista competitions and wins some loot here and there. You can check
Hotjobs and see what kind of jobs are available in your area and how the pay compares. You would essentially be limited to help desk or call center/support jobs. These are typical entry level positions with little to no skill required. The average i would expect from the national level would be in the mid to high teens for pay, more if your in california for instance and less if your in montana.
The IT field bares almost no reflection to the economy because people are ALWAYS buying computers and needing support for them. As bad as the economy is for many fields, solid companies like Apple, Intel, and Microsoft hold us afloat. Also depending on your area, you may not have a computer industry to speak of, think montana.
Seeing that you make above minimum wage, which varies from as low as 5.25 federal to 9.25 in san francisco, this could be a big bump but remember that the TYPE of job is completely different. Your going from a stressed but social environment where you interact heavily with not only your coworkers but the people you make coffee for. Now if you get in a call center, your going to be in a cubicle farm and your going to be working entirely by yourself with people who are often times frustrated and/or upset. You will not get the smiling faces or the attractive smiles and you may hate the people you work with.
Now as for you being a quick learner, that's one thing but what you need to understand is that some of these test are very involved and require you to have actual hands on experience with the items involved. Passing the A+ will be not so bad but as you delve deeper into the workings of Microsoft Certs, you will begin to see that it stops being easy.
Now, the last bit i will touch on is that you need to make sure that this is something you REALLY want to do. If you plan on doing this as a job and not a career, then don't bother with the cert and just get a call center job. If you burn out in a year or two then so be it. If you can stick with it and find that you want to do more, then get a cert and use the experience you have as a call center person and transition into a different type of work in the IT field. (since you have a sales type background, six months to a year of Geek Squad will look good enough on a resume to hire as an entry level tech at a mom and pop repair store or potentially even an internship at a larger company.)
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