You never know when something will come in handy. When I first graduated from college, I didn't expect my degree in Game Design to get me anywhere; I was just expecting it to give me what I needed to publish my own games. But lo and behold, it got me my first freelance job writing game guides. Come to think of it, my degree probably had a strong hand in acquiring all my other freelance jobs related to games.
As if that weren't enough, some of my recreational interests have also started to turn an unexpected profit recently. I am a long-standing sketch artist with an extremely bipolar relationship to the subject (love-hate, you know how that goes.) This affinity for analog art has landed me not one but two gigs, designing both a movie poster and doing storyboards for another friend's film.
I also have a long-standing interest in wargaming. I've painted and collected several different armies over the last twelve years, including:
-Dark Angels (my first)
-Imperial Guard (I had a tank division with more tanks than infantry)
-Grey Knights (one of my favorites, especially with the new models)
-Sisters of Battle
I've also painted orks, elder and chaos models when my brother was unwilling or unable to paint his own models. This interest in Warhammer 40k has attracted the notice of one of my customers at my p/t job, who recently contracted me to paint his models.
While all of these don't really add up to a full-time job, let this be a lesson to you: if you're good at something, there's always a way to turn a profit with it. It may just take you a long time to find it.
