A mentor can be helpful to give you direction on where to focus your auto-didactic abilities.

I switched careers into software development several years ago thanks to the mentoring of several individuals.

Going to meetups in your area is one of the first places to look, and taking online or in-person courses are also helpful to find other like-minded people.

One thing to consider is that there need not be a formal "mentor-protege" relationship; you can get a lot of great one-off type advice from all kinds of people you come across.