I quit my job in May 2019... before the pandemic started.

I was working as a senior data analyst at an insurance company in Canada. The work was boring, thankless and pretty exhausting but I was paid well (for a data analyst, anyway). There were no opportunities on the data science team since I didn't have an MSc so I didn't have a clear next step. At the same time, I had started the OMSCS program that January and that was eating up my off time.

I was too busy just trying to stay on top of school and work that I just couldn't see myself having the time to prep for tech interviews or do some side projects to jump-start the tech side of my resume. I decided I just wanted a breather.

I resigned and cited wanting to get ahead on my degree. I figured this would be a reasonable narrative if the gap in my employment were to ever come up during an interview.

I spent 10 months focusing on school, enjoying my time and improving my development skills.

When I started looking, I applied to about 25 data scientist and a handful of ML engineer roles. I received no callbacks except for one ML Eng role which didn't go anywhere. Luckily an old manager was starting a data science team at another insurance company at the same time as I was looking. He basically handed me a data engineer role with a bump in compensation in early 2020.

If I reflect:

- It worked out extremely well for me. I left a non-technical job, had a nice 10 month break and ended up getting a development job where I get to write code all day. I actually enjoy my work now and I have learned so much since then. Zero regrets for me.

- At the same time, I underestimated how little my experience as a data analyst meant to data science teams. I would have had to apply to many more jobs to get something via the standard online application approach. I think that would have been really stressful.

- I ate through about 25% of my cash which was a little painful to watch.

I think if you have a strong skill set and experience profile, its probably just fine. If you were like me and trying to make a big switch (eg. data analyst to data scientist or some kind of eng), it was a risky move and I wouldn't recommend it without a plan. I lucked out. YMMV.