It seems to me (without knowing much about the bay area hiring), that she should look for an entry into a company, where she can use her existings skills (which

It seems to me (without knowing much about the bay area hiring), that she should look for an entry into a company, where she can use her existings skills (which I would assume is mostly presenting stuff clearly)... Maybe something like internal documentation or the like. Then find a company, that lets it's employees grow (they do exists) and slowly pivot over to her end goal. The reason most companies wants experienced PMs is that it is not nearly as simple as the books suggest. And not being technical makes it even harder to be a technical PM.