This is spot on.
I'd recommend signing up and completing a relatively well-known coding bootcamp.
Edit to add, in 20 years a lot has changed outside of just specific CS skills:
Cloud collaborative suites, conferencing systems, Slack/MSFT Teams, JIRA, git, just to name a few.
20 years ago, I was at my first role out of college--we used Outlook, MSFT VC++ 6.0, VSS, and AOL Instant Messenger.
I use slack, zoom, and discord for a mix of school and personal use, and appreciate what each of these offer, but wouldn’t wish to switch off of Teams for work. I do wish you could message yourself on Teams like slack. That’s a nice quick reference utility.
Why do you offer condolences for MS Teams though?
However, the product is really rough around the edges and lacks the quality you'd find in other products (well, the other product, but there are also open source alternatives* that are worth looking at as well imo).
* https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/fokrr7/opensour...
As for cold networking, two options are:
- talking to recruiting agencies, which often have a pool of employers that they have relationships with and can help open doors
- good ol' cold calling - research companies that you feel are good matches and are hiring, send a resume and go from there
A third potential option is to do freelance w/ local mom-and-pop shops, at least temporarily, to build up a small portfolio, dust off tech chops and getting the google-fu up to speed.
Often times, non-tech companies have less strict/technically challenging hiring processes. These are good companies to aim for.
For her old experience specifically, I hear that there is demand for COBOL in some government niches. Might be worth looking into.