I have a friend I just met recently who was a programmer (mostly CAD software, he says) back in the 80s-90s, but 19 years ago he married into a fishing family a

I have a friend I just met recently who was a programmer (mostly CAD software, he says) back in the 80s-90s, but 19 years ago he married into a fishing family and has been a commercial fisherman ever since. You can do whatever you want, especially if you have a nestegg to bounce off of. I have done many things, but I went from IT into being a Technical Director for animation. In my case my income went up, cause reasons, but I think for many folks in pure tech it would be a significant cut. But my coworkers are awesome, my work is fun, I'm pure remote from the shore of Lake Winnipeg. Life is great. I can't generalize my experience onto the entire labour market, but from what I can see, the whole "gaps in your record" matters a lot less now than it did. My record is abysmal from that perspective, again because reasons, but in animation at least that really doesn't matter. I'm one of many autodidacts here.