Having done a lot of this advice in my 20s, I’d recommend just getting started with an online training program you find interesting, seems career relevant, and also not too pie-in-the-sky as a near-term plan. Throughout my life, I think there were one or two that felt unusually good or bad all-things-considered. Even then, training programs are short (~6 weeks) and have no stakes if you stop them.
(The exception is if the training somehow includes hands-on training from someone actively trying to progress in one of your desired career paths. Good mentorship is a scarce resource and you should prioritize it above a lot of other things.)
It’s dramatically more important what you do after the online training program. It’s extremely rare that these programs set people up to to do the “impressive project” that hiring managers want from less prestigious candidates. If they did, everyone would be doing them.
As for the program, if you feel like you’re at least passing the course (whatever than means) and it seems promising, then I’d pair that with some informational interviews. You can ask “Hey I’ve been doing X training course and feel like it might be a good career path. Would you be willing to chat about how you got to where you were?”.
That will help you identify directions to take for your “career ladder”, which I put in quotes since it’s really more of a fog-of-war. Unfortunately, it’s usually the things between “Step 1″ and “desired job” where steps are the least clear and the most consequential. So I would save your energy for when you get there.
Having done a lot of this advice in my 20s, I’d recommend just getting started with an online training program you find interesting, seems career relevant, and also not too pie-in-the-sky as a near-term plan. Throughout my life, I think there were one or two that felt unusually good or bad all-things-considered. Even then, training programs are short (~6 weeks) and have no stakes if you stop them.
(The exception is if the training somehow includes hands-on training from someone actively trying to progress in one of your desired career paths. Good mentorship is a scarce resource and you should prioritize it above a lot of other things.)
It’s dramatically more important what you do after the online training program. It’s extremely rare that these programs set people up to to do the “impressive project” that hiring managers want from less prestigious candidates. If they did, everyone would be doing them.
As for the program, if you feel like you’re at least passing the course (whatever than means) and it seems promising, then I’d pair that with some informational interviews. You can ask “Hey I’ve been doing X training course and feel like it might be a good career path. Would you be willing to chat about how you got to where you were?”.
That will help you identify directions to take for your “career ladder”, which I put in quotes since it’s really more of a fog-of-war. Unfortunately, it’s usually the things between “Step 1″ and “desired job” where steps are the least clear and the most consequential. So I would save your energy for when you get there.