Jump to AI bandwagon essential?
I am SWE, 3.5 yoe at a big tech company, doing fine for my years. But as a backend engineer, the works seems a bit stagnant. Also, with the GenAI disruption in the industry, is it essential for someone like me to jump onto the bandwagon and try to get a job? Most likely, it’ll mean having to do a master’s in AI of some sort. Is it worth it? I have interest in AI.
Try to switch to ML team and just pick it up on the job
Masters in AI, willing to spend 2 years in academics without pay? Do you think it'd be worth it?
That’s my question lol
The fad will be over in 2 years
I’m doing online masters while working, def doable. There are good tracks for data science and comp sci
I’m doing a Masters while working, is difficult but doable, I think depends on what courses you take, the advantage is that you get the first stepping stone to get into the AI hype train, a credential, who will hire you if you don’t have a credential and also you don’t have experience in the field? So a Masters will help you to get into the subject in an structured way, if you already have a masters degree, maybe a professional certificate like the Stanford AI professional certificate will help, try to take something credible, Coursera will help you get a recruiter reach out but only for low tier startups .. for upper tier startups and big tech you will need experience, and maybe the only way of getting that is going through a smaller company first and then moving upwards.. obviously you will take a TC hit.. you could also go to some university/college you can be a slave working in research projects for 🥜 and be named in some papers .. that will mean TC and time sink … Then you can build resume and have credible options for succeeding in the field.. I’m assuming you will take it seriously, and aim at least to have chance of passing a pro interview.. Another alternative is to go the AI Ops route, most data scientist don’t know sheit about infra and ops, so you can have “AI” in your resume without doing AI at all lol .. anyway, be careful with the hype, AI companies are losing value, so maybe better stick with something concrete than chasing another crypto like bubble
Meta, what masters degree are you doing
With the area changing so rapidly, what you learn in masters will be obsolete in a few years. Best to learn on the job + self development outside work.
Just try to do AI things at work to keep a tab on things and relevant industry experience . Join a team using ML in some products or join the Einstein team as a SWE. Essential or not you never know but you can get the best of both worlds and keep an eye on things while still getting paid
Instead of being out of the workforce for 2 years, pick up the learnings in a new role. Get paid and learn the skills on the job. Dm for a TikTok referral, we’ve got tons of open roles that may fit what you’re looking for
Can you help with TikTok referral
Why the heck everyone is saying switch the team within the organisation, as IF it's an easy cakewalk thing that I'll ask my manager tomorrow to change my project and role and he'll just do it because I asked him. Wouldn't everyone wanna jump on this opportunity? Is that really so easy peasy? I believe the OP isn't dumb, that he couldn't have thought of this already had this been possible
Deeplearning.com build a portfolio, jump
I highly recommend you join a rigorous masters program. My deep learning team doesn't accept people without good research knowledge, we are the center at nvidia, learning on the job doesn't always work.
yes it can be faster to finish outside of employment