Wife wants to move from biotech into CS
Got tired of making 120k dead end job with an MS degree and 20 yoe or commuting to South San Francisco. She wants to go into coding or data science by doing a boot camp. Will it be better to do full time 3 months focusing on full stack (Berkeley extension), Python (Georgia tech), or those cheaper private online boot camp? Her goal is a 110k starting job in the south bay, and in the long term grow to 160k in today's dollar. She has two years before her current company relocate away.
Eventually money might be better but the quality of the job (job satisfaction) will be comparatively shitty. Good luck.
This. Seems like biotech is the future.
I work in biotech. I earn peanuts but am happy because I have a great culture and good wlb. Many of my friends are in tech and have high stress levels. I wouldn't trade off my wlb for another $100k (maybe my opinion changes in the future when I have kids and need more money to maintain a standard of living). So think before you make that move. To answer your question, aim for a coding job through a dedicated effort (not a part time online boot camp). DS really is a wide umbrella of things (coding, data modelling, stats) so may be tougher to get the foot in the door. Also, since you mentioned South SF, I am guessing the company is Genentech. It's a great company with a variety of work. Can she try moving internally first for an year and then make a move (like a data scientist in, say, Respiratory franchise within Genentech and then move to a data scientist in a tech company)
She used to work in Genentech, but she left for a south bay company because of the commute. Unfortunately that company is moving to SSF again in a couple years. She would probably be doing biotech related coding job first if she is moving into coding or data scientist, if she pursue that route. Main reason for the switch would be job availability in the south bay. There aren't as many biotech jobs here and without a PhD you are stuck regardless, so might as well switch field.
The primary reason is commute. She wants to stay in the south bay and there aren't many essay development or QA jobs for large molecules in the south bay. She doesn't want to commute so might as well switch to what is local.
The primary reason for changing careers is commute?! Doesn't that seem like a little too extreme?
Nothing is more important than commute.
Start with online resources before she quits her job, just to make sure she really wants to go ahead wit this. Then go full time. I would recommend Lambda School, App Academy, Hack Reactor, and Hack Bright. Do some research and make sure the boot camp has good relationship with employers.
Full time immersive is the way to go if you want to do a career switch - there are many good boot camps in the bay to pick from