Hi Eric,
If you're interested in tech diving, I'd highly recommend considering a GUE Fundies course. I'm not sure where in California you're located, but Beto Nava in the Monterey area and Karim Hamza in the Los Angeles area are both fantastic instructors who teach it regularly.
It will give you an idea of the baseline skill required to start tech training, what to expect, and what foundational skills you need to improve to get there. It will also make you a much better diver, and if teaching is your thing, a better divemaster too!
My personal answer to your question is after ~150 dives, not any time soon. ;-) However, I have taken a rec 3 class which includes a very limited amount of staged deco, introduction to handling failures underwater, heavy focus on midwater capacity, and trimix within recreational depths. I'm also planning a Mexican cavern class in a couple weeks. Neither are "tech" classes, but they're both small steps in that direction.