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dominostars | 1 year ago
When I left my last SWE job (after 10 years in the industry), I had money saved and was coming off of very challenging changes in my personal life. So for the first year, I gave myself a lot time to rest, take care of health challenges I had been procrastinating on, and getting back into video games and anime for the first time since college. Through video games and VR chat I got into 3D modeling as a hobby, which I would continue to learn doing while also exploring some other things (volunteering for a political campaign, and interpersonal mental health coaching). Eventually I got excited to move to LA to take classes at Gnomon, which was quite expensive but also extremely enjoyable. I honestly never expected to actually work in this field since I did not dedicate myself fully to it, and it's a tough industry. But one of my classmates referred me to a job at a major tech company that wasn't that glamorous, but paid well and suited my very limited skill set. So here I am.
All in all, there was about 5 years between my last SWE job and my first 3D modeling job (with some coaching work in between but it was very low paying). Certainly that time gap could be shortened, as I was not fully dedicating myself to it, but it would have also been a much less enjoyable process and transition if there was pressure to support a family behind it.
If I'm going to give you any tips, is if you're trying to start a family I highly recommend finding a boring easy tech job that doesn't require your full capacity so that you 1) make enough money to not be stressed about it, and 2) have plenty of time to focus on non-work related things. There are tons of boring roles that are.. well, boring, but not stressful or soul draining. I'm kind of surprised you want to be a parent but you're also entertaining a sales role that would be pushing you to work more instead of less. My two cents.
boredtofears|1 year ago
dominostars|1 year ago
I had no art background at all, and honestly it's one of my biggest weak points that I debate doing more learning around. I got some fundamentals in my classes at Gnomon, but I'm pretty lacking when it comes to things like lighting, composition, etc. None of these matter for my job, but it does impact my personal work.