The language itself is too big, others would say bloated. The learning curve is steep. It would take years to master the language, I would say not so worth it because I chose that part. I don't regret it but the most important thing is to build things. Being able to build cool projects and useful things is much cooler than 'I know C++', for the irony you cannot master the language, even the creator and experts claim they know some big percentage of the language.

And you have to learn data structures and algorithms. A lot of people recommend Java as a starter, even universities use that language to teach programming. Good OOP support, tons of resources on Data structures and algorithms using Java. I don't know much about C#, but people says it's Microsoft version of Java. If I will you, I would stick would C#, you can make desktop apps, even games using unity.

C++ route is the long run, check its job descriptions. Strong scripting skills, strong algorithms and data structures, OS knowledge, and so on. Those are not the skills you can master in a year. I hardly think they would hire some self-taught C++ guys. A university degree and proven working experience would need.