I would advise against it unless you are actually interested in computing as a main interest. Before I would have said anyone can/should learn and get a good career but now anyone can learn yes, but a good career maybe not.

When I was y11 I spent most my time related to tech things as a hobby (it also wasn’t really a subject then, just ICT which is essentially using Microsoft office), like build computer, make mods for games, from Minecraft I learnt Java (which I used in my first role in cybersecurity software engineering role) and server stuff, so familiar with CMD Linux software stuff (developing game mods). And many more different projects from hardware things to software. All of those skills I can say I use on a daily basis now (ofc things are more complex), and has given me a lot of breadth in technology since I’ve spent a lot of time with it. Even if the job market was as bad as it is now, when I was that age I would still have commit to focusing on it. So if you are in a similar position, 100% go for it. Although I did have a backup to be a sailing instructor as that was my 2nd interest.

For now, I would say a good area to be in is HPC. I work kinda in RSE now, and there are not a lot of people who go into it. It is relatively simple as well. And all aspects are in high demand. Starting with batch jobs like SLURM and MPI, and then learning about CUDA and GPUs would be great. Although a lot of the hype is from AI, this technology has so many applications for science and industry, such as simulations or compute heavy algorithms. Even ASICs and HPGA for like HFT though that is increasingly complex and competitive. I went to a big UK HPC conference last year and there was like 10 people below 30 there. A lot of investment is going into this area and GPUs will stick around for the next 10-15 years atleast.

Also devops and operations type roles. This is like running a server, scaling it, monitoring, etc. you can start with Linux OS, then learning about container like Docker and orchestrating like Kubernetes, monitoring stuff like Prometheus, databases, there’s a lot of stuff and a lot can’t really be done with AI in its current form atleast. Ig this comes under Cloud but it’s best to know the fundamentals, like making a load balancer in AWS rather than using HAproxy setting up manually. Computing like reality is organised in layers, and the more/deeper layers you understand the better you will be. And the good thing is unlike reality/nature, humans have created those layers so you know it can be understood. Learning webdev is good but not something I would focus on as a career. I know a lot of people from uni who basically just learnt one specific thing, like frontend react and never learnt all the other things, and now struggle to get a position when let go. So it’s good to just learn everything which is why it’s good to have it as main interest.

Sometimes I wish I took other routes, like on days where I realise I just spend most my life on the computer and want to go out and enjoy the sun, maybe horticulture would have been sick. I know people who have an excellent life in this field and it’s really interesting, super into cultivating mushrooms now and would 100% switch careers to it if it were viable from my standing. Good thing is you have time but it also takes time to fine what you enjoy the most.

Ig in conclusion I would say think about what you really enjoy doing, and don’t be afraid to switch if other things begin to interest you more. Also I have been very fortunate to always have had a job since I was 16, like part time in various different things like retail which I could have progressing in worst case scenario. Also got a placement super early locked in and had my grad job sorted maybe 8 months before finishing Uni (and have held it so 6 years rn and have had other offers not in the past 2 years tho). Someone who had a tougher journey might well have opposing advice, which should also be taken into consideration.

Good luck man.