How to build a side-project to get a job in Machine Learning [Storytime Saturdays]
The most important steps to highlight your skills and get your first AI job.
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On Saturdays, I will cover stories/writeups covering various people’s experiences 📚📚. These stories will help you learn from the mistakes and successes of others. These stories will cover various topics like Leadership, Productivity, and Personal/Professional Development. Use these to zoom ahead on your goals 🚀🚀
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So how can you develop your career in Machine Learning?
A lot of people reach out to me with this question. Answering this question is complex and relies heavily on the person’s individual goals, interests, and skills. For example, while I am good at interacting with AI Research- I didn’t like being in college (or any schooling whatsoever). Which is why I never tried to pursue an upper-level degree. This decision means that I am not eligible to apply for research roles at Big Tech Companies, but this is a tradeoff I’m willing to take. Other people really want to work in Amazon’s AI Lab- in this case getting an advanced degree is non-negotiable.
Other factors such as your location, prior experience and your networks further complicate this question. Therefore, it would be impossible to give you a blanket piece of advice that would go beyond generic platitudes. However, we can do better if we break it down by various demographics. In this article, I will focus my advice on the group that I am most qualified to speak to- undergrad students looking for their first role in Machine Learning. Not only was I once in this position, but I’ve also worked with people in similar positions.
The most crucial step to getting your first ML job is to have an amazing side project. So that is what we will be covering in this article. Scrap the boring Iris datasets, no more Titanic.csv- this piece will cover how you can build truly exceptional side projects that will help you stand out. Sound exciting? Let’s get right into it-
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The Ingredients to an Epic ML Project
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