Johanson69

I'm currently in the last year of my physics Master and looking to get into a simulation/visualization-based field (for example game engine development). Can you recommend what I should focus on getting experience in or maybe a path for someone "fresh on the market"? Based in Germany if that's relevant.

As in object-oriented programming? I do have 2 lectures on Java under my belt (polymorphism, encapsulation, inheritance, etc). I also have some experience with higher-level languages like IDL and Matlab (passing arrays around mostly).
Is there a "next step" so to speak, or does it just come down to putting myself out there and hope I get picked up to get more experience? I was thinking about joining a software engineering course (creating a project in a team fo four over one semester) or creating a small project in UE4 on my own, but I'm not certain that would really be worth the time, what with doing that besides my master thesis.

Thanks for your answers so far :)