I only have 4 years of experience in the field. ~3 years at a big social network in europe. We got beaten by Facebook. Then I switched to Consultancy work, yes the J2EE weblogic corporate mangers-all-over-the-place kind of work.

But after a year I stopped and joined a startup in the mobile industry. I coudn't be more pleased.

To you: - Do it! - The gap doesnt matter, if you can explain properly - Dont start working fulltime alone, either have a companion, work somewhere were similar people do the same thing, or have a second job on the side. This is mostly for social reasons. - If you want to work in the startup world, try to do something apart from j2ee. But I see you want to do mobile dev, good choice!

You should think twice about what your motivaions are, do you want to become an entrepeneur? Or you just want to be happy with your job? Dont make the wrong choices for the wrong reasons.