UX / UI work lends itself to designers with IT skills in a similar way. I ended up falling into Business Analysis ultimately, but graphic design experience mixed with IT skills have helped immeasurably throughout the twisting path my career took.
A friend of mine moved to Japan about 10 years ago and has spent a lot of time solo developing his site, Kanpeki Study, for efficiently learning Japanese kanji and vocabulary in bitesize, daily chunks. I’d be doing all his effort a massive disservice if I didn’t mention it - hopefully turns out to be a good fit for you 😄.
Absolutely the same experience as you. I’d spend weeks (or months, in the case of my final dissertation) mulling things over without being able to write anything, then the night before it’d just click into place and I’d write it all out. I’d end up with good grades as well, but the stress at the time from my frustration at not being able to just “get things done sooner” wasn’t fun!
Currently working on a programme of work for a huge client whose core system is still running the same COBOL spaghetti that was written in the 80s. The demand for COBOL developers to support or update these systems, and the compensation they get, is wild.