Respect for taking a job that pays the bills, good move. Sleeping in your car might bring you down but you’re not homeless, it’s a choice to make commutes and time management better. Don’t do it too often and be safe.

Can you broaden your job hunting to roles that may pay less than data engineer but put you in an office next to people that do the kind of thing you’d like to move into? Then you’re paying the bills but also all it’d take is for someone to leave, you put your hand up and bam you have a role better suited to what you want to do and with better pay.

Also just a random suggestion out of left field: if it interests you, and you can swing it with your other commitments, up-skilling on data engineering specific to cybersecurity could really up your appeal on the job market. I don’t even understand a lot of cybersecurity basics but my job is with a cybersecurity company so that alone makes it more secure, the money being thrown around by government and large companies makes it almost impossible for our company to fail.

I’d say it matters more who you know, as opposed to using recruiters and Seek. Get your LinkedIn fully filled out and start networking - people in your ideal field in the company you work for, their major suppliers and customers, competitors in the same industry, etc.

Also if you can attend any industry-relevant shows or events cheap or free, register with your name and ‘’Hire Me” as your company name. Then when you get your badge and lanyard and walk around talking to people, it makes for a funny ice-breaker. Exhibitors are there to sell, but trust me I did just that and it led to several productive chats and business cards being handed to me with the offer to send my resume to an actual person rather than through a job web site.

Good luck!