I'm currently finishing my second year of what was supposed to be a two year term (but was recently extended to three years) as the organ scholar [1] at one of the larger churches in the U.S. The director of music and I are the only two organists on staff, so I get to play for thousands of people and accompany/conduct a professional choir every week. I left the tech world to do that because I knew I wanted to at least try working in music at some point in my career. I am still working on several open source projects, so I haven't taken a complete break from software development.
I'm technically 3/4 time at the church, so I've been looking for a part time tech job to augment that for the last two years, but have found getting one quite difficult since there are so few available. I always assumed this foray into church music would be a break from technical work and I'd go back after I was done, but my two closest mentors are strongly encouraging me to go to graduate school for organ performance after I finish my term, as my undergraduate degree is in math. I'm also somewhat concerned about my viability as a candidate trying to re-enter the tech world after being away for a few years.
I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do next year. I'm definitely happier than I ever was working in tech, although I struggle with feeling like I'm looked down upon for "just" being a musician. I also worry about the long term financial impact (retirement) if I do stay in church music, as the pay is obviously much, much lower than I'd expect otherwise. Unlike most people in this thread, I took my break early in my career, so I don't have a large pile of savings to fall back on.
Congratulations on that position! A sibling did a masters' in organ performance, and getting an Organ Scholar position is a solid achievement for an undergrad.
I would not worry too greatly about your skills not being viable, depending on what you are wanting to get back into later. If not in a SV/startup world, there are a lot of tech-adjacent companies who will look at you, see someone with an undergrad in math, a masters in something, and dedication to a technical craft, and strongly consider hiring you. Plus, you have something really interesting to talk about in an interview, and that's not worthless. I know the last time I was looking for a job, I got at least two interviews because of a very interesting previous job overseas (because the interviewers openly said, "you mat not have the typical experience we look for, but you had this job and tell us about that).
I'm technically 3/4 time at the church, so I've been looking for a part time tech job to augment that for the last two years, but have found getting one quite difficult since there are so few available. I always assumed this foray into church music would be a break from technical work and I'd go back after I was done, but my two closest mentors are strongly encouraging me to go to graduate school for organ performance after I finish my term, as my undergraduate degree is in math. I'm also somewhat concerned about my viability as a candidate trying to re-enter the tech world after being away for a few years.
I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do next year. I'm definitely happier than I ever was working in tech, although I struggle with feeling like I'm looked down upon for "just" being a musician. I also worry about the long term financial impact (retirement) if I do stay in church music, as the pay is obviously much, much lower than I'd expect otherwise. Unlike most people in this thread, I took my break early in my career, so I don't have a large pile of savings to fall back on.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_scholar