[zellio]

I can only speak for my personal preference but if you could show good works for that period of time I don't see it being an issue. Use the few years and huge vacation to contribute to major open source projects, stay current and keep coding. I don't see why it should be an issue. It shows flexibility, aptitude, and a drive to better the self.

[malandrew]

These are my thoughts as well. Hacking on an open source project during vacation time sounds awesome and is something I would definitely respect if interviewing a candidate that was previously working as a teacher.

Hacking on open-source and side projects is also an incredibly important thing to do in order to be a good role model for your students. You should make it clear to your new employer that side projects and open-source are a huge part of success in tech and that you need time to work on them and also share them with your students.

What are you going to be teaching and for how long? I would imagine that you don't necessarily want to be teaching the same subject year after year. 1-2 years may be fine, but more than that spent on essentially the same task would strike me as off, but I can't put my finger on why.

Could you hold the position of teacher at the same institution in a way that changes from year to year? If not, could you continue teaching, but change the institution from year to year to make sure you are teaching something new each time? Alternatively, could you maybe alternate doing 1 year of teaching and 2 years of coding to satisfy both itches without ever getting rusty as a professional software engineer?

[thejacenxpress]

Thanks :)