After experiencing some disillusionment, I was able to re-kindle my love for software by switching to information security with no prior background.

I've posted this here before, but:

I did the OSCP, a 3-month course + exam that teaches an overview/the basics of infosec and more specifically pentesting

It’s a fairly well-regarded certification (and a tough 24-hr exam), and got me interviews for Senior Security Consultant roles at firms like NCC Group with no prior security background

I think a typical progression is something like Security Consultant/Pentesting at a consultancy and then transitioning to Security Engineer/Security Researcher at a more specialized firm

I was actually able to bypass this and somehow land my dream job (binary/IoT reverse engineer) immediately after seeing them post on the r/reverseengineering subreddit and just going for it (they didn't care about the OSCP cert, but the things I learned and tools I used/was able to put on my resume helped a lot I think)

Besides the OSCP, what helped me land the role was playing microcorruption CTF

That job was one of the best I've ever had and made a lot of lifelong friends from it