[justinlilly]

I have a friend who left tech and went to art school. Now makes puppets for a popular TV show.

Find something that makes money, retrain, get it done.

Hard to say what you should go to without knowing what you disliked about the current thing.

[EVdotIO]

I was primarily in gaming, and I know it's not the same across the board, but with "work" I can't say there was anything I disliked. Honestly I enjoy the technical challenges and problems of programming.

Issues I had: Crazy hours, the interview process... and with the bay area the CoL. Last job was a little more complicated, but I would say I need a certain degree of autonomy. Things were measured to 15 minute intervals on tickets, and I couldn't do it.

Retraining... I have thought about this. I don't know if something like CNC operator is the way to go, or follow a passion. No clue on what to look for or what makes sense. Don't know bang for your buck works there.

[itamarst]

It sounds like you've just had bad jobs. Measuring by 15 minute increments is crazy. It's quite possible to work sane hours (I even wrote a book about it: https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/).

How about visiting https://www.keyvalues.com, seeing which things interest you, and see what companies meet your interests? As others have said, there's huge amount of variety in jobs and companies.

[troebr]

Ouch one of my jobs was like that. I was supposed to log _when I was going to the bathroom_ in their homemade time tracking app. Then every evening the "standup" was the CEO berating everyone on how long it took them to finish their tasks for the day. There are lots of sane companies with healthy work conditions out there.

My advice to someone interviewing now: if something smells funky during the interview process, trust your gut.

[brerlapn]

I've known a couple of folks who worked in gaming and it sounds pretty hellish.

I would second thrownaway954's comment about finding jobs that take advantage of your programming background, and especially in security. Being able to understand the deeper technical aspects of systems and to troubleshoot issues that you spot can be a real differentiator over people who have some technical knowledge but can't really do much drilling down past running security scans.

If you're not hostile to federal employment or have personal hobbies that could cause obstacles to such employment, there is a lot of handwringing about finding good cybersecurity people. That is going to be a kinder work week, too.

I'd say my higher level comment though is to echo that short stints of employment aren't dealbreakers, and don't get stuck thinking too negatively about your experience or your resume. Get a second and/or third opinion from other people who can give you an impartial impression of your resume and talk through how you address those experiences in interviews. I've been involved in the hiring process recently for several positions and especially for younger people I actually expect them to be moving from company to company pretty often, if for no other reason than it can be hard to make meaningful salary gains without doing so. If you don't hate the day-to-day activities of the work, don't give up on it - just put more research into finding better environments.

[snovv_crash]

Sounds to me like you need a better working environment. My personal suggestion is a move to Europe, where salaries are lower, but overtime is frowned upon.

[zer00eyz]

I was primarily in gaming....

Gaming is to programing what sweat shops are to the fashion industry. It is a big big world find something lower key and lower stress would be my recommendation.

As for the gaps and the year stints, your young (in your career) no one is going to think twice about it if you move into another vertical.

[theandrewbailey]

You worked in gaming? Was it for or under a large publisher? I heard those places are practically sweatshops.