About That Resume Gap...

About that gap...

I've got a bit of a gap in my resume. Explaining it in full would probably take more than the typical amount of time for an interview answer. I'm writing it up, then, for anyone who is interested in the longer but more complete story.

Why Did You Leave Your Previous Position? At my last position, there was a long-growing tension between the part-time salary of the role, and the amount of time expected. I had taken it with the understanding that I'd have enough time outside of that role to take on a second part-time job, but that quickly turned out not to be the case, making the situation untenable.

Problem: Not enough pay to live on, but not enough time to get a second job
Solution: I learned how to develop video games in C# using the Unity game engine, completing the Unity Junior Programmer Pathway. I drew on my previous experience as a tabletop game publisher and combined it with my new programming skills.
Results: I published my first completed game on Steam and began looking for work as a junior developer in the game industry. The same month as my part-time contract ended, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market flipped from a job-seeker's market to an employer's market. And it was a month or two into a series of layoffs in the game industry which would later be called the worst year for the industry...for the next two years.

Problem: Thousands of developers with more experience than me now competing with me for far fewer jobs.
Solution: Realizing the shift in market now made it nearly impossible to get a dev job, I pivoted to learning 3D modeling. It would still be a useful skill to a game studio, but could be used for lots of other situations, such as animation or advertising. I took multiple Blender courses, focused mainly on game assets, but little bits in all the areas (lighting, environments, textures, animation keyframes, rigging, etc.)
Results: I built a portfolio that, while not yet top-of-the-line, was probably good enough for an entry-level position. I kept learning, but started looking for 3D art positions as well. Within a couple of months, the Art Director's Guild released a statement which said, in part, "Currently more than 75% of our members are unemployed and many have not been working for 18 months or more. ... Given this situation we cannot in good conscience encourage you to pursue our profession while so many of our memebers remain unemployed." FastCompany called the situation a "grim unemployment crisis."

Problem: Grim unemployment crisis in the second reinvent-yourself new career in a row.
Solution: The spread of employment problems not only in games and 3D modeling but in the tech industry in general suggested hunkering down rather than branching out, so I decided to pivot back to teaching. I had far more experience in education, and already had a teaching certificate. I found far fewer openings at local public and private schools than I'd ever seen before. That's when I learned that the Seattle School Board was planning to close as many has half of the elementary schools in the district and reshuffle as much of that staff as possible into the remaining schools. Some months after that, the second Trump administration started and began changing priorities and making deep cuts at the US Department of Education. Education now looks just as unsettled as the games, tech, and 3D art sectors.
Results: For the moment, I am seeking both openings in any of the previous areas, and new areas of better opportunity that match with my many new skills gained over the past several years.