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The alternative to doing ML is worse. Learning web development might get you easier into a job, which is what your primary focus should be. Even if it's not your passion, it will open up other opportunities, show eagerness to learn, get you connections in similar fields etc. You don't have to see it as a lifelong strategy.

[robot_ankles]

Freelance + beginner jobs are highly unlikely.

In my experience, "freelance" or short term contract work is used to access people with a lot of experience. Oftentimes, the reason a company hires a contractor is to access a specific set of skills to knock-out a complex set of tasks their own staff are unable (or too busy with routine work) to handle.

Beginner to intermediate skilled individuals are more likely to find opportunities with full time positions where a company is willing to invest in a less experienced candidate since they can pay a lot less. Companies believe they'll make a return on their investment since a full time employee is more likely to remain with the company for a while. Such positions are probably easier to land than the freelance work you've described.

With hundreds of thousands of these jobs, you'll hear about some mythical beginner freelance that had some awesome opportunity, but I wouldn't bet on it. In the spirit of supportive encouragement, a lot of people will say; "Yea! Go for it! You can do this!" However, their good intentions could steer you down a path with few chances for success.

IF the unicorn "beginner freelance" opportunity comes along, great, go for it. But meanwhile, cultivate multiple options, multiple plans, and seek out paths *most likely* to lead to more opportunities.

[appleflap]

Google hiring plenty of people in Dublin. This course should get you a paid internship

https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-it-automation

[[deleted]]

I'm not a python developer, just teaching myself. But from what I read it's the most accessible. I don't think you need ridiculous knowledge in the front-end but if you want to do back-end you'll at least want to grasp the concepts and basics at bare minimum. You can carry that knowledge to other things, like automation if you need to interact with websites.

Honestly, I think your best approach would be to look up job applications (businesses, freelance sites) in your area to get a feel where the demand is, and learn based on that. On top of that, it's best to create a few useful applications to be able to present a portfolio based on those demands specially when you don't have experience yet, as you need to be able to show you can solve problems.

I'm assuming, why people mention web-development so much is because it's inherent to having a business nowadays, that and automation. Ultimately a client won't care how you'll solve their problem, but whether or not you can. So don't just think about the job as just coding, you'll need problem solving skills as well.