This was a good one, specially coming from someone who is in this field and as you said honest advice! I wrote a post which shared learning materials ans resources for data and ML engineers which might be related to your story, feel free to suggest it if it feels right :) The Data Engineering Handbook: Complete Guide for Beginners and Experts https://emaddehnavi.medium.com/the-data-engineering-handbook-complete-guide-for-beginners-and-experts-4dd9149ac19a