Recommended Coding Programs? (career change)

[armstrongsubero]

If she wants to get a JOB I won't focus on Python or Ruby. I would focus on JS and maybe even PHP. Before she looks at anything I would advise her to do a job search in the city she wants to work and see what web technologies are in demand. If she is unsure, learning PHP and JS will allow her to freelance until she gets a job.

Python is popular in data science and AI, for web devs though its not as popular and that time will be better spent learning JS and PHP.

No one hires a backend web dev off the bat unless they have some God level skills. A junior dev will most likely be hired in a front end role especially one without experience and without a CS degree.

I can't judge your friend, but she needs to take her time, make sure the career is right for her and she has the fundamentals down before she tries learning full stack web development. What those courses teach and the complexity of a real app has a lot of dis-connect. Let her get her foot in the door and work her way up to full stack. Otherwise she will get in some small company that will try to take advantage of her and make her do everything.

Btw if she needs a good data structures and algorithms book, she can pick up a copy of the one I wrote. She will learn a lot in a short space of time. Especially if she's looking at getting into the back end role. A great read before she goes to an interview:

https://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484257241