I went from being a Teacher to being hired as a professional Game Programmer in ~3 years and Game Designer in ~6 years. I made a video sharing the three things I recommend focusing on if you are looking to get a job as a game dev.

Here are my three pillars of changing careers into games, loosely in order of importance. The goal is to work on all of these things while being patient and kind with yourself along the way. These things often take time, and it’s best if you view it as a multi-year spanning endeavor.

1. Build a focused portfolio of game projects.
2. Make friends and connections in the industry.
3. Make small incremental job moves when possible.

Focusing my efforts on these helped me to change careers from being a teacher to being a game designer! I go more into depth on these three things in the video