Help choosing my path in IT (29 months until earning a salary)
I know I’m just another random to you, but I need help please.
Hi everyone, a little background about me: I’m 31 years old, I have about 6 hours a day available for studying after taking care of my children. I have no formal education, but I have good intellectual ability (124 IQ), I have ADHD, and I have exactly 29 months to be earning a salary from my PC (due to family circumstances). All my knowledge can be summed up in a short phase of studying programming with Python for 2 months where I learned the very basics of the language (writing calculators, shopping lists...) and another short phase of studying cybersecurity about basic networking and some distro hopping in Linux where, within the span of a week, I started with Ubuntu, moved to Pop_OS, then to Kali (as a daily driver lol), then to Debian, and finally installed Arch without the graphical installer, but with help from AI. After that I learned about Linux: users, permissions, and not much more. I almost only talk to AI, I’m not very social anymore, in fact this is my first interaction on Reddit. I could give a whole book of context about myself, but I’m trying to summarize in case someone can help me.
I have an INTP profile within the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: systemic thinking, logical-deductive reasoning, detection of inconsistencies, and orientation toward optimization/improvement of systems (in case it helps to recommend an area, my brain literally works like that).
Honestly, from the extreme ignorance I’m in, I like code, I like everything I’ve learned (only theory), “all” sectors appeal to me, and with the rise and development of AI lately I feel devastated... why study something that even a senior with experience can’t get job interviews in? why bother learning a language when an AI can already write the code with a simple prompt?.. between the progress of AI and the downturn in the job market I no longer even know what to aim for...
If I’ve managed to identify one clear problem, it’s that I create wonderful and super efficient study roadmaps, but when monotony sets in I quit. I learn much better by doing things on the go, like those people who say “when I started my job I didn’t even know a single Linux command,” but of course things don’t work like that anymore, unfortunately for me... I could create a project, I don’t know which one, but I know I would learn a lot while doing it, yet I don’t know what to do or why I should do project “x” and not another one... I feel very lost.
What draws me the most is cybersecurity, AI, data, and almost any option that AI suggests to me; the problem comes when I literally don’t understand the terminology or the jobs and what they involve (even if I dig deeper, it feels like starting to learn from the leaves of a tree, when I should be reaching the root to understand it).
I’ve practically stopped playing everything, I’m only focused on studying this (what exactly?) and I can’t find my path... I feel that if I found “that” thing that hooks me, I would become a master, but how do I find it? where do I head? why there?
I just want to find my path, be sure that it is mine, and work my head off on it, I’m not lazy at all. I guess ADHD makes everything harder...
I’m not some sales guy who tells AI in a prompt to create a website for a local business and then sells it... I want to be good in my area of knowledge and be able to contribute to the community over time and help others.
Feel free to roast me if thats what you feel like but ill be grateful if you can give me some advice or direction.
Thanks for reading all of this! 😃