Hidetaka Miyazaki made an impressing career change.

Miyazaki was born on September 19, 1974,[1][2] and grew up in Shizuoka, Japan.[3] He later attended Keio University and graduated with a degree in social science, later getting a job as an account manager for the US-based Oracle Corporation to pay for his sister’s college tuition fees.[4][5] Upon a friend’s recommendation, Miyazaki played the 2001 video game Ico, which caused him to want a career change as a game designer.[3] Miyazaki found that few game companies would employ him at age 29 with no experience working in the industry, with one of the few being FromSoftware. He began working there as a planner on Armored Core: Last Raven in 2004, joining the game’s development midway through.[3][5] He later directed Armored Core 4 and its direct sequel, Armored Core: For Answer.[5]

Upon learning about what later became Demon’s Souls, Miyazaki became excited at the prospect of a fantasy action role-playing game and offered to help.[3] The project, up until he was assigned to it, was considered a failure by the company. He believed the company’s outlook on the game allowed him to take full control of the project as any further failed ideas would not hurt it.[3] Although the game was received negatively at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show and sold far under expectations upon release, it began to pick up after a few months and soon found publishers willing to release the game outside of Japan.[3] After the success of the game’s spiritual successor Dark Souls, released in 2011, Miyazaki was promoted to the position of company president in May 2014.[6][7] It was considered unprecedented for a person to change careers in Japan and become company president within 10 years.[3]