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Do you have talent and skills and money?

ETA sorry if that sounded harsh, I just don't know what you currently do or want to do or your position so not sure what advice to give!

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I know very little about the industry you're in but I have changed career path several times over the last 19 years (god, am I really THAT old?). I pick apart my CV and look at my transferable skills. IT, customer service, management skills/experience, administration - it's about what you have been doing within the job and not the title of the position you've held that you focus on when selling yourself to another employer if you are switching career. You may start slightly further down the career ladder if you switch industries but once you've got your foot in the door it doesn't have to take long to work your way up again.

Do you have ideas of what else might be of interest to you apart from the teaching mentioned in other posts?

I'm with Kochanski on this one, cool job! Such a shame it's the way it is.

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My brother is in a similar position. He does the same as you, and was headhunted a few years ago for a company out in Canada (one of the big ones). At the end of the last game they made his entire team redundant, and he's still hunting for a new job. It's tough out there

Could you teach what you do at university or college? You might not need any formal teaching qualifications at first.

I work at a Uni and they run degree courses in Animation, CGI and Computer & Video Games. The academic staff don't have formal teaching qualifications- they have industry experience which, for a practical course like that, is more important. I think they do an introductory teaching course when they start but it's very basic and just shows you the ropes really, ie. how to plan / deliver lessons. Teaching in HE is nothing like schools or college; much less formal as they don't have to bow to the rigours of OfSTED- they expect the students to manage their own learning really. I think it would be a great career path for you!

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Digital Extremes I think, it sounds like they are total t*ssers, gave my bro and his team no support, no advice, just called them and told them they were no longer employed... worked them literally 24/7 til the game release (my bro worked through Christmas and New Year last, couldn't even get the time to call us) then got rid of them all as soon as the game came out so they wouldn't have to issue the promised bonuses!

If you fancy teaching, call some local colleges to see if they need anyone, even if just on a trial basis on the evenings or something. Or even some exam boards might be looking for assessors? I used to work in qualifications auditing and we had lots of people who went round and audited the colleges who were delivering the training. You need to be industry-experienced to do the assessing as you know what employers want, but it's not usually full time, but if you could combine with teaching you could make a decent salary I think.

To be honest, I know how you feel. I've got 5 years experience and almost finished a PhD for pity's sake, but can't get a job in my field at all. I had two big fat NOs from job interviews this week, for really frustrating reasons e.g. I was too analytical for the analyst role... grrrr. I'm starting to think about giving up on my career and doing something else entirely... but I have no idea what. We're on one income at the minute so things are getting scary.

I think it depends on the Uni.......! ?

At my uni you just need an undergrad degree in the subject to be a teacher, and you get on-the-job training. A masters could be useful if you have no experience, but given you've got experience I think you'd be fine and as Skeptical says it would be a great career!

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I lecture at a uni in London and, whilst the majority of us still go down the MSc/PhD road, I increasingly see lecturers being recruited due to their practical experience and brilliant public speaking skills (I guess particularly in practical based subjects or where there is a shortage of experts in the field). The only teacher training that all lecturers are required to do is a 2 day course... So don't be put off investigating university teaching, 7 years of experience is a lot!

I don't know exactly what it is you do, so forgive me, but if you use photoshop and image manipulation have you thought about being a retoucher or visualiser? I am an artworker for the packaging industry, working for an artwork and repro house. We have in-studio retouchers, and its mostly food packaging we deal with (ready meals, deserts etc for sainsburys, tesco, Morrisons, Coles, superdrug). However, if you were working with our designers it's far more creative, and not just food. Point of sale, characters for ranges, web design.

The original founder of EA games is setting up in the East End of London (Old St IIRC.) He reckons that the UK is a better place to be that Silicon Valley as over there people move around jobs too quickly, chasing the fast buck. He believes that the UK will offer a more stable environment to develop his games company.....might be worth dropping your cv in to them....

Reference is tonights Evening Standard

hth and good luck

Peter