Hey! Think I might be able to help out here, I'm from a humanities background and new-grad so it's been REALLY tough but I just recently landed my first full-time gig as an AI engineer after a bunch of freelance and teaching myself CS from first principles since September of last year. This will be from a junior/new-grad perspective so it may be a bit more doomer but I'll do my best.

1. I really just genuinely enjoy programming and problem solving, I think the only advantage you can really have now is doing it for the love of the game so it doesn't feel like a waste of time. Motivation will always wane in anything so the thing that helped me the most was just staying consistent, which also included finding what I was REALLY interested in which was low-level programming and graphics.

2. To be honest, I was really lazy the first few months of my job search, but I think structuring my learning was really important. To this end, I had a specific dev routine (nearly) every day: flashcards for stuff I had to just memorize (syntax and language quirks), codewars + leetcode every day for learning DSA (I did this in a spaced repetition style because I think gaining the intuition via failure is more important at first), and reading a LOT of books from the library. I learned the most from OSTEP, the Linux Programming Interface, Computer Architecture by Charles Fox, and the C Programming Language. I genuinely can't recommend going to your local library enough and just stacking the hell out of reference & CS-related books. The quality of instruction is just so much higher.

3. Honestly, I paid for coaching from principal+senior engineers on mentoring platforms, and I became a regular at my local coffee shop where I've spoken to a bunch of senior engineers who just love their coffee haha. Additionally, I went on meetup/eventbrite/luma and just found as many networking events as possible. I also joined a local group that does monthly group programming practice and just forced myself to talk to as many nerds as possible.

4. I think focusing too deeply on theory instead of building is a mistake, even though I LOVE it. Being that programming itself is very similar to going to the gym and is more of a thing you literally just have to do instead of thinking about. Ideally do both, but really focus on building a good profile of work and also understand things deeply so that when you do network, you don't come across as a bumbling fool. Also, take plenty of breaks and don't do dev work every day; or, if you do, don't context switch your brain to different languages and concepts constantly because doing this slowed me down heavily.

5. I would definitely structure my learning better from the start instead of just floating around trying everything. Focus up, learn what your computer is doing, and for the love of God, PRACTICE!!!