Ask HN: Industries to consider as a developer to weather the next recession?

But if most of your money comes from research, things can get interesting quickly. Research usually means high diversity, with the requirement for speed. This is fun. I wouldn't change my job easily.

Typically, uni's outsource <10% of their IT. Higher ed is not a very big or profitable market segment. Regulatory and compliance requirements can differ wildly, even between neighboring states or provinces, and especially if subsidies are involved. So, even less attractive for standardized software. That's why the COTS offerings are limited. Don't be surprised if you hear about larger uni's spending tens of millions on ERP-type systems. Not everybody can afford that, though.

What Pete27 mentions in regards to higher level is also applicable in high schools, at least where I am (Indonesia). They have varying requirements and while they sometimes look for off the shelf solutions in places it still involves a lot of tying systems together.

> Even for billing and payments?

Funnily enough - thats why I was there. We have built a platform for that. But due to the complexities of payments infrastructure it looks very different to what you would typically find in developed countries. And that particular integration was API based to a system they were building in house.