I started working on shipping a game to Steam after I realized how broken the market was. I realize this might sound even more stressful than a job search for something like a backend role, but I feel like I have a better chance than average based upon cattle-like, low-effort trends in the space and my willingness to endure certain kinds of suffering that most indie game developers aren't even aware of.

Worst case scenario, this provides something interesting to talk about in subsequent job interviews. You can often delete large portions of a resume when you have a fully published product live on a platform like Steam, even if it's very mediocre and selling like trash.

In any reality, this is way better than working in the domain of boring bullshit banking and suffering the miserable personalities that inhabit the space. I feel like I might cross the "never going back" threshold with that entire industry within the next few months. If I reframe this, it is really stressful but it's also quite liberating. If I hadn't walked away from that job last year, I would have had zero time to think about these alternative paths.

Even if the game doesn’t take off, just having a shipped product under your belt is a signal. It shows follow-through, creativity, and self-direction