I have two degrees in electrical engineering, and a broad (but not long) range of experience in full stack web development. I also know a thing or two about somewhat more experimental/obscure things--I've worked professionally as a translator in a language that is regarded as "difficult" (by most English speakers, and the speakers of the language), and I enjoy somewhat new programming languages like Elixir and Rust.
I feel as though this makes my background look "weird". My work in both degrees was focused more on the mathematical side of electrical engineering (signal processing, adaptive algorithms, machine learning, etc.), and ultimately practicing with that knowledge came down to near-pure software implementations.
Most traditional engineering positions seem to be targeted at someone who did only traditional engineering in the typical progression. Likewise, most (contemporary) software development positions seem to be targeted at someone who either has professional experience or taught themselves. It's been my experience that neither culture tends to professionally respect the habits of the other.
But one of the things I learned in graduate school is that many problems in my (large) sphere come down to a few different combinations of math background, engineering approaches, and tricks+intuition about hardware in test/implementation. Whatever it is, I know I can figure it out. But that's not how I feel I am or will be judged for hiring.
I think I've got only one thing going for me: my specialties are "adjacent" to many, many things.
If I want to make myself more palatable for some specific specialized position that requires an advanced skill normally obtained in graduate school or on the job, how do I get that skill in a way that is convincing, without spending years in more graduate school or working a job whose sole value to me is training for the job I really want?