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I want to go into a career in networking and maybe some scripting/programming. Maybe over the winter break I'll use one old laptop we have for a tiny cybersecurity home lab. I'll put Metasploitable on it and open it up to my home network and go at it with my main Linux box. Is that what you meant by selfhosting and homelabbing?
I did learn Python by doing some tinkering with discord.py, similarly to what you were saying about Rust. That was pretty simple; I get the feeling that Python was designed to be learned. I'm glad I learned that in high school.
For taking hardware apart, my family does have an ancient Apple laptop no one uses anymore, but I heard Apple makes it a huge pain to get into those. What about old Android smartphones? Are those dissectable and fixable like old consoles would've been?
MacBooks actually aren't too bad to get into, but doing anything once you get the bottom off is another story- there isn't much that isn't soldered down.
I actually regret pointing out rust- it's what I've been looking at learning myself, and I think it's a poor choice for a first language, just because you can learn the basic stuff in something like python and have far less time spent fighting the compiler and needing to understand memory. Still a cool language, though.
Metasploitable is more or less what I meant, yeah. I would recommend, if you have a spare machine, install proxmox/esxi so you can virtualize a whole environment around it and learn about working with those things. You sound like you probably have linux experience, but being able to say that you can work on a server purely through the terminal is big, even if you only touch network equipment in your first role you will perform much better if you can ssh into a box and do anything you need to do.
It sounds like you already have enough to start applying for junior positions, I was in basically the same knowledge state when I got my first it job earlier this year. It took me months of hardcore job hunting to get a position, but if you have a real passion for stuff and show that you are a tinkerer and excited to learn more, that is what people are looking for. There have been a lot of lay offs in the industry so you may be competing with mid levels for junior positions still, but many employers know that investing in passionate people at entry level is often a good investment.
Biggest interview tip I know is not to pretend you don't know about something, try to relate it to something you do "Do you know JS/React?" "No but I have worked with python and made [x], and I am excited to transfer that experience to your environment." The positions you should be looking for shouldn't care much about what you already know, they should care about how long in seat before you know what you need to. Show that you're trainable, definitely talk about stuff you do at home (training they won't be paying you for).
Most people will have to work help desk a couple of years before any of this, but if you look hard/long enough (and probably get fairly lucky), you can jump right into the industry. I would look for small-medium businesses if you want to skip helpdesk hell- if you're going to be the second of two employees in IT, yes you will do helpdesk, but you won't be a phone slave 8 hours a day, you'll get the opportunity to work on new things and learn.
Hope that helps. I've only been professionally in networking/security for about 6 months, and definitely got my current job in part from networking from my repair tech, so you may have a different experience. I was 24 when I started, I don't have a college degeee or any certs yet, though, so I would honestly say the soft skills of interviewing, social networking, and presentation are what will help you get the job the most.
Hope that helps and you can get what you want. Job hunting will crush your soul, but if you enjoy computers, the other side of that tunnel is a great place to be.