I recently quit my job as a backend software engineer because I was not enjoying the work. My career so far has basically ~4 years of backend work at a couple of companies - so c#/Python/PHP, database stuff, etc. I've always liked systems programming, so I'm taking something of a sabbatical to just work on projects that will hopefully land me a job in that domain.<p>Right now I'm relearning c, and then I guess (?) I'll relearn c++ too since there don't seem to be many rust jobs yet. I'm doing "Linux from Scratch" and building my own shell right now. After those are complete I plan on building my own version of Docker, and then maybe moving on to some kind of virtualization project (or maybe creating my own file system, just whatever seems fun).<p>So, using my home-built version of docker as an example, would it be better for my resume to spend a ton of time building out my own software (open sourcing it of course) or should I spend that time contributing to an existing open source project? I worry that if I choose to contribute to open source it'll take up half of my time just getting familiar with the existing codebase, and I wouldn't actually have that much to show for it. I would also be a lot more locked in to that specific project, and would have less time to explore different options (maybe I find out halfway through that I prefer driver development to containerization - I can move more nimbly when working on my own stuff).<p>I really need to make sure I'm optimizing this time off, so any guidance is welcome. I can take as long of a sabbatical as needed, but I'd like to keep it as short as possible so I can get back to saving for retirement :)