# The path chooser

Eight questions that narrow 1,200 paths to two. Built from the questions our team asks when
someone writes in undecided.

Work through them in order. Write your answers down: the value is in reading them together at
the end, not in answering each one.

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## 1. What do you want to be doing in eighteen months?

Not a job title. Describe a Tuesday: what is on your screen, who you are talking to, what you
hand over at the end of the day.

## 2. What is the last thing you built that you were pleased with?

Anything counts, including outside work. The point is to find out whether you enjoy making
things, analysing things, or persuading people — those three lead to different paths.

## 3. How many hours a week, honestly, in an ordinary week?

Not a good week. Multiply your honest answer by 0.7. Paths in the catalogue run from 12 to 74
hours, so this answer alone rules half of them out.

## 4. Which of these would you rather be handed on a Monday morning?

- A design that needs a decision made about it
- A codebase with a failing test
- A campaign that is losing money
- A dataset with an unexplained spike

## 5. What have you already tried and abandoned?

Write down what stopped you. If the answer is always "it got too abstract", start with a
Beginner path. If it is "it stayed too shallow", start with Intermediate.

## 6. Do you need a certificate, or do you need the skill?

Both are legitimate. If you need the certificate for a specific employer or tender, check
whether they accept ours before you buy — we publish the criteria on the certification page.

## 7. Who will notice if you stop?

Learning alone in the evening fails more often than learning with one person who asks how it is
going. Name that person now, or plan to substitute a public commitment.

## 8. What would make you say this was worth it?

One sentence. If you cannot write it, you are not ready to choose a path yet, and no catalogue
will fix that.

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## Reading your answers

- **Questions 1 and 4 together** point at a field: design, development, marketing or data.
- **Questions 3 and 5 together** point at a level: Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced.
- **Question 8** is the one to reread in week three, when the schedule gets difficult.

Two paths should now be obvious. Take the shorter one first.

If you are still unsure, write to learn@edustream.com with your answers to 1, 3 and 4. We reply
with one path and the reason, not a list.