I have a B.S. in mechanical engineering, 2+ years experience as an HVAC sales engineer in the Philadelphia area, am a self-taught programmer, mostly know Java/C++, looking for backend work. Taking a Coursera course on machine learning right now, ultimate goal to get into the self driving car industry. Any career advice as to how to get my foot in the door? Any recommended projects to have in my portfolio? Currently going to networking events, learning python/ tensorflow (though ML Course is in Matlab), considering Udacity nanodegree for self driving car engineering, but don't know if it's really worth the $2,400.
You've got a huge research center or two in Pittsburg. Have you talked a look over there?
What companies in particular? I know Uber is out there, but who else?
Uber has a center and they poached researchers from Carnegie Mellon so maybe you can network through them