How hard is it to re-enter academia as a postdoc in mathematics? I'm currently in my first postdoctoral research position at a European university, in pure maths. I'm considering changing to software development. In case I would rather like to return to academia, how hard is it, as compared to trying to stay in academia right away?

The two scenarios I'd like to compare are:


Finishing my current postdoc and apply for new postdocs (let's assume that all relevant application deadlines are still in the future).
Finishing my current postdoc, working n years in software development and then apply for new postdocs.


How big does n have to become such that the chances of application success in the second scenario are significantly lower?
The possibility of getting a postdoc starts to drop rapidly as you become farther away from your PhD, regardless of what you are doing in the meantime. This goes double (or triple) if some of that time is spent without having publications.

What is your end goal? Certainly not to hop from postdoc to postdoc for the rest of your life. Answering this question will probably help you decide what to do. Take another postdoc if you are hoping to become a professor or academic researcher. Take a software development position if you are wanting to leave academia. Don't hold on to too much hope of being able to go back to academia in pure math after leaving for more than a year.