I spent about a decade working in the finance industry as a software engineer. Most of my experience has been on brownfield systems, using technologies like Java, Python, and React. I’ve worked on a mix of things — building data pipelines, dashboards, and web applications — as well as doing a fair amount of maintenance and incremental improvements on existing systems.
I was laid off in 2024 and have taken a gap year career break. I’m now planning my next move and aiming to look for roles as either a Senior Software Engineer or Senior Data Engineer.
During this time, I’d like to upskill and strengthen my profile, but I’m unsure where to focus my effort for the best impact.
The online material is too trivial, talking about syntaxe rather than concepts or patterns. I also felt kinda bored like I already 'knew' them but didn't challenging enough.
What are the suggestions for good read to refresh and upskill?