What’s next after blender

at some point in life you have to finish what you are learning, you finish high school then go to college, finish that, then get a job, then get a girl or boy finish that, hopefully several times like i do your m. you get the point. this is true for blender too.
learning blender or using blender should not be your only life goal, there should always be a second step, what you will do after blender, for example, my next step will be your mom then your sister but obviously this should not be yours, unless..
but seriously lets look at what you can do after learning blender.
1 Sale addons

Addons are becoming big business thanks to the ever expanding blender community which is always demanding faster and easier ways of making things. studios and artists need new tools and features and the blender organization already has too much on its plate fixing old bugs while maintaining blender as a software with all its different brunches. though its helpful to know how to code with python its nolonger necessary thanks to geometry node and addons like bagapie that can convert geometry node setups into addons. so all you need is an idea and you can start raking in millions from your addons.
2 Make video games

if addons are not for you, try making video games, if you can use blender you have half of what is required already, and the rest you can learn from other artists like sebastian lague. his youtube channel is a filled with knowledge to get you to the next level of graphics and game design. some of his tutorials i would recommend everyone to watch regardless of what you want to do next include, this video on how to make a Package delivery game, he shows how to make a whole planet with, mountains, lakes, rivers and a whole atmosphere explaining everything, its not a step by step tutorial but a project over view breaking down different concepts and problem solving which is both entertaining and educating at the same time.
Another game developer i would recommend is thinmatrix he also makes project breakdown video and because he makes his games using a game engine he made him self, you can learn alot about how games are rendered and what it takes to make your own game engine.
3 become a vfx artist

blender is a very powerful tool and in the right hands can do quite alot, every month there are hundreds of indie directors or small studios making short movies so there is always demand for vfx artists, though most artists would prefer using a professional tool like houdini, you can still do alot of vfx directly in blender thanks to addons like Rbdlab, as a vfx artists you have to be able to make explosions, smoke simulations and destructions all things Rbdlab handles vfx very well and quite easily.
4 Build a blender market place

if you want to rake in millions of dollars, don’t bother with addons, don’t bother with game development do one thing, make your own market place for blender products.
sites like blendermarket are brokers connecting artists who want tools to make there lives easier and artists who can make said tools, these site takes a cut each time a buyer buys anything like addons, texture packs or models. if this sounds too easy, it not, its big business but its also alot of work, but if managed to learn blender you probably can manage this too, all you have to figure out is payment processing, artist payout, handling traffic, marketing, building a robust platform and the business side of things like taxes in all the major markets you will be operating in but still doable, right now blendermarket is a monopoly in this space so there is room for a new platform maybe that will be yours.
5 Become an affiliate

if building your own marketplace is too much, try affiliate marketing for addons, if you have a large audience or any audience at all promoting addons is a great way to make some extra change at the end of the month, one of the best channels at this is Asknk, though this may look easy at first you have to have a great understanding of what you are promoting as users are not only watching you to hear about new things on the market, they also want to learn how to use them from you. thats why i have much respect to channels like Asknk and gamesfromscratch because they have to find out what is new and learn how to use it before anyone else to make a proper review of it. If you master this, there is an audience waiting to hear your take on each matter going on in the industry, this is why any video Asknk releases can rake up thousands of views in just a few hours and all those are potential referrals.
6 Create a course about blender

if you are really good at blender everyone will want to learn from you, you can make training courses for your followers, you can start small with a youtube channel to test the waters like Max Hay who has grown his youtube subs from 0 to over 80k in less than six month, his channel is a testament to how fast you can grow if you have something good to offer to the blender community, then you can funnel that audience into your paid courses for more in depth tutorials and there so many things to teach.

you can teach about car animation like jean-yan, his course has over 64 videos teaching lighting, animation, car rigging, camera animation, project management, sound design and more, another great youtuber who has mastered this formular is gleb alexandrov, his channel has the most royal subscribers they are always interested in what he puts up on youtube or in his courses, this royal audience did not come by chance or by luck it grew from his constant production of high quality content and collaborating with other great artists like Aidy Burrows .

there course are one of the most selling courses on the market like the cinematic lighting course with over 2000 students, there photogrammetry course also has more than 2000 students and takes you through best practices for 3d scanning using open source and commercial software, you gain access to over 80+ videos
7 Make movies

most of us get into blender to make movies or animations, so whats stopping you. if its direction, follow someone like Ian hubert. did you know he directed teers of steel a blender short film that was released around blender 2.5 launch, you don’t get chances like that without something to show, you start by putting some work out there, if you want to one day direct a blender movie this is the formula its what Ian Hubert did and its what colin lev did. he directed sintel another blender short movie, he also made skywatch which was also done in blender. the quality was better than most netflix series i have watched.
obviously there so many directions you can take, but the most important one is starting now.