Knowing maths and how to program won't do any harm. It's a start. Self-help gurus would say to reinvent yourself, e.,g. via a 5-year plan.
Most MFE/MSC programmes now have all the modern stuff so that means competition in the market for you. So these guys hit the ground running as interns.
And there's more to life than the ML basket. The jury is still out..Maybe eggs in multiple baskets. Everyone these days seems ti be a data scientist/AI researcher. Very crowded market. Is it a bubble?? No idea, no one has.One thing for sure: don't apply linear extrapolation to predict the future.
Usual caveats.
And quality of life/family??
There are lots of master graduates who know the titles but the downside of all those mfe graduates is that they know what package to load to get stuff done but frequently don't know the math basics of how that package actually works! So I must agree the area is crowded but it is hard to find people with genuine knowledge in the field.
However I am still thinking of the path to go from credit. Not necessarily opposite to what I do now, not the algo/equity but if I stay in the FICC I need to be able to switch to another "growing" field!