First, why do you want to be a Software Engineer? Higher pay? Do you like coding? Interested in puzzles? Second, I would just start small. Automate the boring

First, why do you want to be a Software Engineer? Higher pay? Do you like coding? Interested in puzzles? Second, I would just start small. Automate the boring stuff will get you in the right mindset for being able to factor out repetitive tasks by thinking about them as algorithms. In my opinion, algorithms are the original essence of what makes computer science a science: it's what Church and Turing (two google-worthy figures in our fields history) first formalized on their pursuit to define what it means for something to be computable. Once you can break a problem down into an algorithm, you can write a computer program to solve that problem. That is the power of writing code: if you can understand it algorithmically, you can delegate the task to a machine. This takes time and lots of practice!!! I would focus on trying to do this over and over until it's natural. Once you feel comfortable in Python, try learning another language and see how much easier/harder writing programs in that new language becomes. Third, you shouldn't feel like Machine Learing is out of the question. http://course.fast.ai http://course.fast.ai is a MOOC specifically designed to prove that ML is indeed something anyone can play around with. (I'm just beginning the course, and I'd recommend it after a year of coding under your belt and have a good comfort with using a unix-like terminal). Good luck, and keep practicing!