Hey there! I can sympathize with your situation. I have an engineering degree, but have taken jobs in software testing/QA and now an application support role, but definitely lost/confused in my career. I too am debating whether I should focus on building a portfolio and studying software development or continue down a less technical route. I have recently not "taken the reigns" of my career's direction, but I definitely need to soon now in my late 20s. I know about a lot of different technologies and on a high-level, how they interact, and what they are used for, but have no concrete experience or a portfolio of side-projects to showcase any know-how.

People have often mentioned I would make a good sales/solutions engineer, since I am descent at explaining technical topics to people and have a good understanding of how different technologies fit into a bigger puzzle, but after this latest job in support, I have become frustrated dealing with client's old infrastructure, performing configuration tasks after-hours, and chasing client's IT staff to return their support inquiries. After this most recent experience, I am thinking that going down the SE route is less-optimal than as a dev/engineer for what I value in a job.

At this point, I have been trying to brush up on my skills using hackerrank.com and attempting to put together a few small projects in hopes of building a bit of a portfolio on github. I have heard mixed reviews about bootcamps and am not sure I am ready to spend ~$10k + living expenses while not working or working part-time, and hence why I am trying to "bootstrap" on my own for a while. Have you considered doing this?