Zillow Machine Learning vs Oracle OCI
Currently at Salesforce bored and frustrated. Never been excited about my work since day one but always get high perf reviews. Been here for over a year and haven’t gotten a bonus or promo out of the reviews. Interviewed a bunch and got 2 offers I like. The first is from Zillow which is for machine learning (my passion from college). Other is for OCI and I’ve worked in infra before.
Zillow Machine Learning Engineer
Base: 145k
Sign on: $40k/$25k
Stocks: $115k
OCI IC3
Base: same
Sign on: $10k
RSU: 7000 ($370k-$420k)
I have absoluetly 0 passion/interest in infra but I need the money (I need to dig myself out of debt). ML is my passion and interest but I know that I’m selling myself short by taking the level and pay. I would keep interviewing but tbh its hard to get ML interviews when your title is SWE.
Once I’m out of debt, I plan to go back to school to get a PhD in Robotics or ML so I can see relivancy with both. OCI gets me out of debt quickly so I can go back to school in 1-2 years but Zillow is more relivant to what I want to study but I’d have to work 3-4 years.
Current TC: 175k
comments
If the AI job was real AI, it'd pay vastly more, because it'd require more skill. And since it doesn't, we can conclude it's not what you think it is
Seems kinda backwards
You will get frustrated and sad. 2) test the water. See if you enjoy ML at a real company before going to PhD.