PhD in Molecular Biology or Coding Bootcamp

Career Advice
1

A little advice. I have a long story. I’m 43 years old with a Master’s and a partial PhD in Molecular Biology with over 17 years of intense research experience. I didn’t finish my PhD because my adviser basically ran out of money. I have a good chance to get into another PhD program, but I would have to start from scratch. These programs are tough and I’m a bit older and starting to think that it’s not worth it financially later on.
I’m doing FCC and I love it. But people say that you have to do a bit more to get a junior developer job. Thus, I’m considering doing an online coding boot-camp. What is your opinion on these boot-camps. They almost guarantee you a job after completion. I’m speaking with an admissions counselor tomorrow. Also, what do you think about my age, and doing a PhD versus coding?

Thanks a lot.

2

There are a whole lotta variables here, man. When you say you’d have to start over, would that mean coursework or publications? Even if you went back to the same university? As for age, I know a professor at an Ivy who started their PhD not much younger than you. If you really want to reduce this decision to money, I’d suggest calculating something like:

Integral of (increased salary per year)(d number of years)/time invested to reach the entry-point, or you know, the average of a continuous function.

As to the values of those variables for the programming track, to get an idea, I’d read a lot of the “developer job” thread. Many people describe a 1-2 year period, often with unemployment and pure study/coding involved for at least 3 months.

I can’t give your your answer, but I hope I have helped frame the question usefully.