I hire machine learning engineers and data scientists. In my opinion there is a great shortage of truly qualified machine learning engineers. A lot of people are entering the market with a general knowledge of machine learning tools. These people should be considered analysts or product data scientists. When it comes to people that can build machine learning systems that work at scale, they are very rarely available for hire and often are the subject of bidding wars by multiple companies. The key difference is whether the candidate truly understands the mathematical and statistical basis of machine learning, has the programming skills to execute their ideas, and is able to write code that can be used in large scale production systems and can be leveraged by others.
Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
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Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#12I hire machine learning engineers and data scientists. In my opinion there is a great shortage of truly qualified machine learning engineers. A lot of people are entering the market with a general knowledge of machine learning tools. These people should be considered analysts or product data scientists. When it comes to people that can build machine learning systems that work at scale, they are very rarely available…
And that's why I think finance is smarter.
They've long understand that there are the finance analysts on the one hand and the software dev on the other. They get both and make them work together.
Looking for 5 rare skills in a single person is bound to disappointment: maths, statistics, programming, large scale systems, production.
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#13I hire machine learning engineers and data scientists. In my opinion there is a great shortage of truly qualified machine learning engineers. A lot of people are entering the market with a general knowledge of machine learning tools. These people should be considered analysts or product data scientists. When it comes to people that can build machine learning systems that work at scale, they are very rarely available…
> The key difference is whether the candidate truly understands the mathematical and statistical basis of machine learning
Can you elaborate on this, and at what level? Are you talking about a PhD level of understanding of cutting edge mathematics, or do you mean understand the basics, or somewhere in between?
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#14I'm an undergrad at a big university known for CS in Canada. The CS program here has several possible 'focuses'; 4 of 9 are related to ML/AI directly (computer vision, NLP, AI, scientific computing). 2 others require AI/ML/NN courses.
The bias might stem from the fact that we have some huge names in AI doing research here, but the data points seem clear (we say undergraduate education is slow to catch on, right?): the topic as a whole isn't overrated.
However, there seems to be a lack of understanding by people working in tech of the differences (in uses, theory, implementation) between ML, AI, NN, DL, etc. This might stem from a lack of understanding of the foundations of these topics (ex: statistics, vector calculus) or simply because we can abstract a lot of this away (ex: TensorFlow).
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#15I hire machine learning engineers and data scientists. In my opinion there is a great shortage of truly qualified machine learning engineers. A lot of people are entering the market with a general knowledge of machine learning tools. These people should be considered analysts or product data scientists. When it comes to people that can build machine learning systems that work at scale, they are very rarely available…
And that's why I think finance is smarter. They've long understand that there are the finance analysts on the one hand and the software dev on the other. They get both and make them work together. Looking for 5 rare skills in a single person is bound to disappointment: maths, statistics, programming, large scale systems, production.
Companies that have a research division and a separate engineering team to implement the research ideas are rarely successful. Anyone engineer good enough to do the implementation will figure out they can build something better without the input of the researchers. Microsoft and Yahoo both had great research teams whose ideas rarely saw the light of day.
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#16I'm an undergrad at a big university known for CS in Canada. The CS program here has several possible 'focuses'; 4 of 9 are related to ML/AI directly (computer vision, NLP, AI, scientific computing). 2 others require AI/ML/NN courses. The bias might stem from the fact that we have some huge names in AI doing research here, but the data points seem clear (we say undergraduate education is slow to catch on, right?): th…
>or simply because we can abstract a lot of this away (ex: TensorFlow).
That would work up to the point a better abstraction tool/framework comes along. I'd never try to build a career on a single framework, because frameworks come and go.
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
And that's why I think finance is smarter. They've long understand that there are the finance analysts on the one hand and the software dev on the other. They get both and make them work together. Looking for 5 rare skills in a single person is bound to disappointment: maths, statistics, programming, large scale systems, production.
Companies that have a research division and a separate engineering team to implement the research ideas are rarely successful. Anyone engineer good enough to do the implementation will figure out they can build something better without the input of the researchers. Microsoft and Yahoo both had great research teams whose ideas rarely saw the light of day.
I didn't say to put them in two separate divisions. Put both guys in the same place, working closely with each other.
Any engineer will quickly figure out that he's out of his depth in the maths & statistics. Any mathematician will quickly figure out that he's out of his depth in the system building.
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#18I hire machine learning engineers and data scientists. In my opinion there is a great shortage of truly qualified machine learning engineers. A lot of people are entering the market with a general knowledge of machine learning tools. These people should be considered analysts or product data scientists. When it comes to people that can build machine learning systems that work at scale, they are very rarely available…
> The key difference is whether the candidate truly understands the mathematical and statistical basis of machine learning Can you elaborate on this, and at what level? Are you talking about a PhD level of understanding of cutting edge mathematics, or do you mean understand the basics, or somewhere in between?
Somewhere in between. A simple question I use is "how do I decide whether to add a feature to a classification model?" Most candidate are fine until I bring up the topic of correlated features.
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#19I've been working in DS role for a few years now in NYC - and I definately feel the role is more valued on the east coast over SV. SV has a focus on consumer facing applications that are in many ways fancy CRUD. DS roles have thier place but aren't the core of the business. East coast has a b2b / infobroker focus where DS is the product. Media (especially adtech), finance, government consulting are over on this coast.
I think you also need to not confuse the growing ease of machine learning tools with the role becoming more accessible. There is a wide gap between tooling and knowledge to use those tools appropriately and creatively.
And may I never write another HN comment on my cell phone again.
Re: Ask HN: What's the state of the job market in data science and machine learning?
#20I hire machine learning engineers and data scientists. In my opinion there is a great shortage of truly qualified machine learning engineers. A lot of people are entering the market with a general knowledge of machine learning tools. These people should be considered analysts or product data scientists. When it comes to people that can build machine learning systems that work at scale, they are very rarely available…
My colleague focused on machine learning for his phd and this is a very accurate description. Talking the talk can come with experience, being able to understand the math and execute a new system at scale is where the separation in experience will start to surface.