Read on to learn how they pivoted their careers.Natasha Crampton, Microsoft chief responsible AI officerNatasha Crampton is Microsoft's first chief responsible AI officer.MicrosoftNatasha Crampton got her start as an attorney and is now Microsoft's first chief responsible AI officer.Her job includes working side-by-side with engineering, sales, and research teams to ensure they uphold principles as they build AI systems. It also includes external work, such as helping establish new laws and standards in the space,Crampton studied information systems in addition to law, and said she always had an interest in the intersection of technology, law, and society.

During the strictly legal phase of her career, she said she always worked on technological issues, such as helping Microsoft draft contracts.She said people looking to move into tech from other fields should start by using the technology themselves. She added that many technical skills are learnable, so coming from a different background shouldn't limit someone's ability to help shape it. She said, "a huge amount of the value" lies at the intersection of technical knowledge and insights from the social sciences.Georgian Tutuianu, Hubspot AI engineerGeorgian Tutuianu is an AI engineer at HubSpot.Georgian TutuianuGeorgian Tutuianu has had several transitions in engineering, from structural to traditional to software to AI at HubSpot.Tutuianu said that his ability to get technically in the weeds was an asset during the interview process, and showed he had experience with AI.He also highlighted that his résumé has a section dedicated to personal projects.

Tutuianu said he included one AI project, but it was enough. He said it came up naturally in the interview because he was asked about a time he used or built an AI agent."It was a juicy project where I could talk about it, and that was good enough," Tutuianu said.Tutuianu said he also had to do a take-home coding assignment and review it with the hiring manager afterward, but there was no algorithmic component to the interview."Instead of the typical software engineering way that these interviews go, which is 'go solve this algorithm in front of me,'" Tutuianu said. "It's more of 'can you build the things that we care about?

Show me."Jai Raj Choudhary, StackAI engineerJai Raj Choudhary said moving to San Francisco made a difference in his opportunities.Jai Raj ChoudharyJai Raj Choudhary transitioned from a data-focused role to an AI engineer at AI agent startup StackAI.The 24-year-old said he got his job by reaching out to StackAI's cofounder multiple times on LinkedIn. Choudhary said he had used the company's platform as a student, so he messaged the cofounder and started posting about StackAI, offering advice to the company.He said he thinks he got offers from StackAI was because he understood data quality, the edge cases for the clients, the matrix, and the failure modes of the AI model or any LLM systems that were being used.He said moving to San Francisco, where 9-9-6 culture existed, helped open his opportunities in the space."It's not like a 9-to-5 cushy job," Choudhary said.

"We work 9-to-9, six days a week. You wake up, you think about the problem that a client had, and you sleep thinking about what is not fixed yet."Also, taking a job at a startup that helped him grow and devoting himself to continuous learning made a big difference. Choudhary said he spent hours studying every day.Brit Morenus, Microsoft senior AI gamification program managerBrit Morenus said she's using every bit of her English degree in her role at Microsoft.Brit MorenusBrit Morenus, a 37-year-old senior AI gamification program manager, studied English, communications, and marketing in college. She started at Microsoft about 13 years ago as an executive assistant, and for the