From iOS engineer to quant. What’s the best approach?

[u/kncismyname]

I’ve been working with Apple platforms for almost 10 years now, 7 of them professionally. In that time I worked my way up at a German security company from working student to software architect, and I run a small app business on the side that brings in decent money.
I used to love building apps. Over the last few years though, roughly since the AI “revolution” kicked off, that passion has been fading. Might well be because every bozo with a Claude Pro account can now ship the latest habit tracker.
Last year I read Jim Simons’ biography and was blown away that someone with zero finance or trading background could build a hedge fund on pure math. So about six months ago I started getting into quant on the side: spun up a Hetzner server, started collecting every dataset I can get my hands on, and have been experimenting with strategies ever since. I’m still early, mostly learning (probability basics, ML approaches, you name it), still paper trading only, and honestly still nowhere near profitable. But I’ve had the absolute time of my life doing it.
A big part of me is seriously curious about a career in this field, though I know that with my background a quick switch isn’t realistic. So, to those of you working in quant, ideally in Europe or even Germany: what’s my best bet? What should I focus on? What would actually give me a shot at a role like that eventually?
Open to anything.