Ask HN: Any successful transitions from a tech/IT career to working in the arts?

I have noticed that some things are the same for both industries. Doing accounts, selling yourself to prospective employers, getting along with co-workers.. These are a big part of any job, so you should know where you stand there at least.

Also I think that nowadays, on some level, every job is a tech job.. I am a circus performer, but have a website; I use software for music, video production, lights, etc. Also I have automated our booking system which required programming. So yeah I think in the arts world, especially freelancing, some IT experience can come in handy.

At the end of the day, it's up to you. It's probably a good idea to try your luck with writing part time at first - that worked for me (making apps for fun -> full time web developer)

Don't give up on your dream!

First, ignore the economic implications. The reason is simply that the economics of an arts career are a known known. Nobody goes into those careers blindly. You won't either. Perhaps the only widespread misconception is that there's a tier of artists below the superstar level, who can earn a living at it. There isn't. At the second tier, you're already competing with day-jobbers like me for $100 gigs.

Second, consider the skill level of first tier artists and how they got to that level. This varies from field to field and might help you choose a field where you have a realistic chance of getting a job aside from the economics (sociology), or don't (classical violin performance). To clarify the comparison:

Classical violinists are already playing at close to a professional level before they start college. At your age (assuming you're older than 8), you don't have a chance at making your hands do those things, or mastering skills such as sight-reading. I started playing music at age 8.

On the other hand, sociologists start college with a fairly general skill set but no particular expertise in sociology. A friend of mine went to grad school in sociology after a masters degree in classical guitar performance. Between the requirement for a graduate degree, and the lack of interest from anybody else, the job market is still overcrowded and underpaid, but not to the same level as music.

Consider as an alternative working yourself up to a very high skill level as a dedicated amateur. There are people in my area who do things like write books about the local history and culture, that sell 50 copies. Or, they work up and perform obscure musical styles that are not commercially viable. There's a guy who specializes in baroque keyboard music, and even the local pro's go to his performances.

Three viable options:

* Work in tech until you're financially independent (you should be able to pull this off in a decade or 15 years at most), then retire from tech and start working in writing/journalism full time without needing to worry about the fact that you could be making $40k at best for the rest of your life. You'd have plenty of time. After leaving a youthful interest in writing for a career in insurance, Chandler didn't come back to writing until he was in his 40s. It was then that he wrote his best (and best known) work

* Write on the side. You can make a good income and still comfortably fit in 15-20 hours a week of writing. WCW was a doctor and wrote poetry on the side. Many other role models here of course. The trick is to find a job that respects WLB and to avoid positions of time-consuming responsibility, but this is not difficult in tech if you're not trying to maximize income

* Broaden your understanding of the arts to include games (this one makes good sense to me as someone with an MFA in game design). Then, you can get a programming job at a game studio. From there, if you like, you can move towards/into design through "gameplay programmer" and "technical designer" roles. The upside here is that you can use many of your existing math/CS skills, and the money is ok (only in commercial gamedev, though. Solo gamedev artists starve like all other artists everywhere and forever). Another upside is that you can get started making games today using the skills you have and a tool like Godot. You can get a feel for whether you like it while practicing skills relevant to your current career

If I was you, I'd go with gamedev on the side and start working on some small story-driven (or even text-only) games using some tool that's tailored for those genres, like Twine or Ren'Py. Or honestly, just a CLI Node.js text game, why not

Good luck. Most programming jobs at medium/large orgs are boring as shit so I get wanting out

What do you think about the demoscene?

I came here to post this. I only worked in the game dev industry for ~6 months, but it was clear to me this is how I would break into any form of "art" myself. All manner of creative things exist in the space of game development too. Writing, painting, music, cinema, modeling, etc. It's all there.