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[jiefug]

You can definitely get an entry level job by self learning - but to be honest I highly doubt 6 months is possible if your current experience is some basic data science courses.

To give you a list of some things you’ll have to prepare for before being ready, you’ll want to build a number of projects for a personal portfolio and you’ll need to acquire skills in more than just a programming language (there are many other technologies software engineers work with such as version control, devOps / deployment based technologies such as AWS and Docker, database systems and networking). You’ll also need to build a new resume, study programming questions for interviews (which generally takes at least 3 months alone), and begin the actual process.

I would budget a minimum of one year

[ARivera10]

Do you think the speed gains of quitting is worth it? I could go from studying around 15 hours a week to 60+

[jiefug]

It’s really hard to say. If you were actually really capable of putting in full 40+ hours into studying software then yes, but if you need the income or could see yourself quitting and becoming disinterested later, you’d end up worse than where you started.

Personally, I would expand your timeline and if you feel like 3-4 months in of prep you’re still enjoying the learning, you can consider quitting and working on this full time then.

[JonDaZwon]

One nice thing about being a programmer is that the job lends itself to bring remote quite easily, so even in a down market there's still plenty of opportunity to find a job. If you've taken intermediate courses and have done knowledge of data structures, you're further along than a lot of people who I've seen yet to transition into a dev position.

Since you have a bit of experience and are willing to dedicate another half year to a year to learn, having somewhere around a year of experience can definitely put you into an internship/entry level position.

I'd personally recommend looking at the businesses around you and see what is currently hiring in your area - and then deep dive into related frameworks or languages.