Greg Zeschuk's career path has been a bit bizarre, by his own admission. He's gone from successful doctor to prominent videogame developer to beer connoisseur. But after he left BioWare, Zeschuk said he didn't realize "how much of my identity was tied up in my career."

"When people asked what I did after I left BioWare, I really didn't know what to say," he said in a column for for Askmen. "I couldn't say I was a doctor, or a VP at a multinational corporation/founder of well-known video game company. Those lives were gone."

He said he really didn't think through how his departure from the game studio would affect him. "It's emasculating to say you used to be a contender and now are a nobody," he wrote. "In time I accepted that I run a beer website and YouTube channel you've never heard of. This lack of clear identity was a brutal side effect of my most recent career change, and it would have terrified me if I had anticipated its impact."

The column, which he said he was asked to do because of the strange path his career has taken, is designed to give people insight into changing careers. "Over the long term, we shouldn't be afraid of pursuing the goals that make us happy even if it causes us some short-term pain. It'll be worth it in the end. Trust me, I used to be a doctor."