Yes, it is part of my job career.
Well any tips besides what you already said : follow shitloads of tutorials to learn about modeling first, then texturing, which are the basics, and already a huge chunk to learn. Then you can start interesting you in rigging, animation, lighting, etc.
Depending on the tutorials you will find, they should normally give you tips on what to do and not do. The tricky part is to find the good ones ofc. Maybe take a look on forums like polycount and the likes, even if they are for high end pros. I'm not sure besides that... sadly.
As for shortcuts, tutorials should also give them if they are also made on blender. I do not use blender myself so I couldnt help you there. I use 3DSMax, which is the one used for most video games. I am not sure how much blender offers in terms of support for games, though it should normally handle most usual export formats.
Keep in mind that what you are trying to achieve here is a colossal task (it's a real job to learn). At an amateur level it should be ok though, but considering how heavy and technical 3D software usually is, expect to spend many, many hours on it before even grasping the basics. It's not just photoshop or something similar in terms of complexity (which is already something), as you may have already guessed (it's 10 times deeper). You will also have to be able to handle yourself in photoshop as well for texturing btw, and since it's an art job, it's best to know that you will have to work on that level too.
The task is daunting, but with a good motivation and a lot of work, you will progressively start to do better and better things.
Good luck anyway !
NB : protip, once able to model and texture stuff, start with simple props, not characters. Character, it's very high end. The difficulty gap between both is enormous.