I've worked professionally for around three years now and have programming as a hobby for years now. I know there's more interesting work out there. I've met people who's worked on cool things, occasionally see interesting looking positions while sifting through job boards, but I just feel like I've been so stagnant. I haven't learned anything on the job really and it's all been mostly easy. Theres plenty of things od like to get into, but the problem is all the relevant positions seem to require years and years of experience in whatever specialization they are that I will never get doing the grunt work I do now. I dont want to be stuck in 10 years working jobs I hate, throwing cookie cutter insert tech here apps to move data around.
I'm not really interested in ever pivting to a management role either, although that may be another depressing reality. I've tried venturing off and picking programming to as a hobby again, but I almost always give up out of lazieness, very quick loss of focus, etc. I can sit at work and daydream all day about cool projects to complete, but when the time comes, I nornally just pass outbofnwasye my time on something else. A lot of times there's shitton of boring, but relevant prerequisite knowledge I need, but dont feel like dredging through.
What can I do to make sure I'm not stuck doing this sort of mind-numbing work forever? I have no education and fear that other fields are less welcoming to hire people whos only relevant experience is some sad side projects.
(I didn't know this at the time, but trying this is how I got my first Linux sysadmin job)
[1] https://talent.works/2018/11/27/the-science-of-the-job-searc...
Then just start diving into that. There are communities around everything now. Get to know people there. Most of the time they'll pick someone who has genuine interest in a field, rather than someone looking to get paid, because it also affects the rate of learning. user experience, and stamina in problem solving.