Advice for Aspiring AI Engineer

Question

I'm a current third-year at Cornell University studying CS and minoring in AI. I want to be a machine learning /AI Engineer in the future but I'm not sure how to best set myself up for that goal in the future.

I've accepted an internship return offer at Verizon working as a SWE in their AI & Data division. I'm interested in potentially renegging for a better offer but I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to leetcode since I don't want to do pure SWE and I'm not finding too many opportunities for undergrads for AI internships. I'm considering doing a 1 year applied masters at Cornell (MEng), MSc somewhere, or potentially just working in AI out of undergrad. What do you think is the best path to be an AI Engineer that makes a good salary and growth opportunities ?

Any advice is appreciated and welcome. Thank you so much!

BrooklynBroke · Accepted Answer

Dude, you are a college kid with no work experience. You are no position to 'renege'. Be grateful that you have a cool internship opportunity and run with it. Relevant work experience trumps degrees.

2269892800 · Answer

My son worked at Amazon while preparing for leetcodes back in Feb-Apr this year, earlier this year he received an E4 offer from Meta in Menlo Park with TC over $350k, a lofty bump to his TC with Amazon.  My son said his motivation came from knowing how Meta would help his career and TC that goes without saying.

spr123 · Answer

Google will have it's apprenticeship program beginning March 2025. Apply and interview. Hopefully you get selected 🙏.

moomie · Answer

You dont want to do leetcode? Dude, leetcode is a part of the deal. You do the leetcode so you can get the better job. Ai and ml is just fancy statistics half the time, and a big part of stats is understanding of DS&amp;A. Work on some research at Cornell and get in touch with alumni working in ml

19g6vkzhla632 · Answer

Long term solution: Apply for PhD. Assume you’re 22 and you retire at 60. You have 38 years of working. 4-6 years of PhD is an amazing investment especially if you don’t like regular SWE work.Medium term: Apply for MEng (2years) get an internship and try to convert. 1 year masters won’t do any good to you. Get associated with a reputed AI Lab in a reputed university. Short term solution: Work as SWE for a year and move to MLE role. SWE exp is necessary for you to be a respected MLE

Advice for Aspiring AI Engineer

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