I've been programming unprofessionally for 7 years, started with teaching myself Node.js as I stumbled to create unique features for Discord bots, picking up WG bot, making ChatLogger, RevCavePremium, RatCatcher9000 and other projects unrelated to Runescape. Talking about this skill alone in my interview landed me a job as an observability engineer with no degree and no professional experience. Since picking up this job I've learned Python, Bash, SPL, LogQL, SWQL, SQL, Regex etc. I wouldn't say I program "professionally" now as I really have no standards even when I program something at work since it's not really my job to, I just automate things as I see fit (mostly for my own gain)
I would highly recommend "Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate" on Coursera if you're going to jump into Python, I don't know a soul that uses or prefers Java anymore.
Fun fact: My very first program was a AutoHotKey green dragon bot when I was like 12, I followed a Youtube tutorial on how to make it recognize a colored pixel and click it