People who work in data, what did you do?

Hi, I’m 19 and planning to learn the necessary skills to become a data scientist, data engineer or data analyst (I’ll probably start as a data analyst then change when I gain more experience )

I’ve been learning about python through freecodecamp and basic SQL using SQLBolt.

Just wanted clarification for what I need to do as I don’t want to waste my time doing unnecessary things.

Was thinking of using the free resources from MIT computer science but will this be worth the time I’d put into it?

Should I just continue to use resources like freecodecamp and build projects and just learn whatever comes up along the way or go through a more structured system like MIT where I go through everything?