As someone whos finished both the mooc fi 2013 and halfway through the 2020 version, without real world experience it's difficult to understand the topography of java jobs.

I know I don't want to do frontend web dev, but also that java core isn't enough to get a job.

I'm planning on learning databases, SQL, and SpringBoot - but I don't even know if that's what I'm interested. It's just "What I should do next with Java" according to all the courses and blog posts.

Yet most of those seem to be geared towards webdev. I kind of regret not starting with python, even if Java has definitely given me a better understanding of OOP. I think I'm more interested in data analytics than backend, desktop or android dev. All the layman's articles seem to suggest that's what java's for.

I don't know what I'm doing, and I've read dozens, if not hundreds of articles, university curriculums, etc.

Yet somehow, I'm halfway through a paid course for the Java Associate cert; and while I'm pretty sure I still can't get a job with that alone, what I need to learn next or alongside it to be actually capable of functioning or what I could do is mentioned no where.