I suggest same like you by doing some project. Talk to recuiter that he know do this and that is talk cheap. To convince that he capable to get hire, he need at least to prove that he had do some project web or he can show previous work he do with his online friend.. He also can check at youtube how people get jod related to his job.

If he had exprience with web dev previously, that good. He need to fulfil the requirement job. Tell him don't think second thought or doubt either he get hire or not. Put that aside. As long he confident with his skill im sure he know what he gonna do.

My boyfriend made a similar daring switch 2 years from corporate finance into coding, and got his first software developer (frontend) job in Malaysia (requiring an employment pass) less than 2 months after he quit his job in Seoul, which is why I think what your friend intends to do is totally doable.

Several things that worked:

- He quit his job and spent a month doing intensive courses on Udemy and Coursera, which has some super good introductory courses in web development. So it's definitely a full-time commitment unless you are insanely hardworking and can spend your 6pm-12am evenings doing this while keeping a 9-5 full time job. Next Academy is one of the biggest coding bootcamps in Malaysia, not sure if they are any good but could be worth checking out their reviews.

- You want to start building your profile on Github to showcase your projects. And yes have lots of projects, eg. open source contributions, building your own mobile app, web app, etc. Recruiters are known to find top talent there. Helps you look good on both Github and also your resume.

- While learning to code, also check out what jobs are being posted on LinkedIn, Tech In Asia, Stack Overflow, Jobstreet to get a clearer sense of what specific skill sets / languages potential employers are looking for.

- There are several start ups in Malaysia that organise monthly hackathons so be on the lookout for those, join coder meetups / facebook groups to meet as many developers as you can while doing some important networking.

- Finally, the thing to do is to keep applying to jobs and familiarising yourself with technical tests, hackathons, etc. which every tech company and start up use as a first filter for suitable tech talent. This book might be useful: https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Inte...s/dp/0984782850