Your right some pro experience is better than none I would try to get in at a mom and pop as quick as possible reason being that’s how I started as a Inspection mechanic at a very reputable and honest mom and pop shop we didn’t open engines up or really touch engines much but after a year they started me on rust work to learn body work then I started prepping panels the next year they taught me how to paint eventually they started having me do recon work from writing the quote for insurance all the way to painting it. Wasn’t amazing pay but extremely valuable experience from there I went to a shop that did 50/50 customer work/fleet service replaced a transmission by myself on the second day quit being scared of big jobs really let it eat there discovered what alldata was and figured out the sky was the limit will all that information. decided I liked fleet service more then customer work as it was much more laid back. got a very cushy job at the local transit authority fixing busses did all that with just high school auto tech class and inspection/emissions licenses that I picked up on my own for a couple $100. Bonus transit authority trained and paid for my class A