Ex IT admin here. To busy with life to focus 100% on my work. And I can show you what to do if your not sure

Hurry up and submit those bugs before bounties are worth 5$ and a hot coffee

It's probably coming sooner rather than later

Turned my 10+ years in the field into an afternoon with people who probably never read into the OSI model before in their whole life

Lol

You'd be surprised the number of people I interview who still don't have personal projects or portfolio sites (jr to sr). At this stage in the game it's unacceptable, so i'd encourage you to build things you're interested in even if it's not immediately relevant to the job you're applying for (ie if you're into video games, go build one, or hack some fun projects on an esp32). Study software architecture, for example DDD, as it's important when working with agents to have a shared vocabulary. This is the primary reason more senior engineers (with AI exp) are still high in demand, they know how to not get slop from their agents... it's effectively "taste". Network and get out to events and talk to people, show your eagerness to learn, grow and share. That advice applied even before AI. The hardest part of our industry is getting in. Once you've crossed that hurdle it becomes a lot easier. Best of luck!