Ask HN: How did you move from IT/software to something unrelated?
I have a comp eng degree but was completely burnt out after graduation. I jumped into digital learning instead; it&#x27;s ideal for me as it&#x27;s still &quot;IT&quot; but combined with my other favourite areas, education, product and design. The learning curve wasn&#x27;t so bad, there are plenty of good WYSIWYG authoring tools with only barebone knowledge of HTML&#x2F; CSS&#x2F; JS required - although you&#x27;ll quickly find that that&#x27;s much less important than the skills to teach and to have a good design eye, for example.<p>So now, most of my job is to assess training needs, design a programme solution - along with its curriculum, script, storyboard etc - then develop the actual eLearning, test-test-test then launch. So quite similar to a software development cycle - except most often this is a one-man job and shouldn&#x27;t last more than a couple of months.<p>Initially I was naive enough to think hey, I got this, but there&#x27;s a reason why MOOCs generally have high drop-out rates. The bar for eLearning is <i>extremely</i> high. You also have to take account of other limitations, from outdated IT systems to the sizeable number of computer illiterates&#x2F; Luddites to the organisation&#x27;s own conflict of whether the training should look 100% corporate (aka boring) or creative (learners cry hurray!)<p>But I find that I enjoy navigating through them and finding the right balance. I also learnt a massive amount about how to teach, what good designs mean and how to listen to users. In terms of opportunities - well there&#x27;s enough I suppose, at least for me I can work on my edtech project - for children, cos hey it&#x27;s just more fun ;) - with a backup contract work to keep the money going.