You haven't really mentioned what area you are specifically interested in; Camera work, Editing, Directing.. In my opinion this screams out at me that a career in cinematography probably isn't for you. This is one of those 'jobs' that you need to be passionate about, this is real life and the chances of you stumbling into a big job are very unlikely. The type of people who make it are the people who, as mentioned earlier, love the industry so much they don't care about spending a year making tea. If you're worried about 'wasting time' then I don't think you're going about things the right way really.