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Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

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Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#111

Post by jeff76 »

agentofoblivion wrote: post #98

I basically did what you’re talking about. Masters in physics, then went into semiconductors as engineer and materials scientist, then switched to Data scientist at a bank for 18 months, and now have been a research scientist in AWS for almost two years. In Amazon, it’s easy to move around, but not between job families. I think it’s a bad idea to join as a SWE and try to transfer because they want people that have do…

Great reply. My question based on this comment,

>My advice is assuming you’d like to be a person that trains/deploys ML models to solve problems in industry. This is much different than an ML Engineer, who’s implementing algorithms in low level languages and squeezing out efficiency. Obviously that would require a much deeper understanding of SWE. And a totally different person is an academic researcher that’s developing theory or technique. It’ll be hard to do that without a PhD

Can one not only train/deploy ML models, but in addition to that be able to implement the algorithms in low level languages and also be able to develop theory?

I’d imagine these are all skill sets that someone in PhD program could pick up.

If they could do all three, what kind of job should they be looking for?

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#112

Post by bitwize »

robertAngst wrote: post #53
DrNuke wrote: post #2

> what should I do to get noticed by recruiters at FAANG and non-FAANG to stand apart from the CS crowd? The usual answer here is look for suitable business / r&d cases within your own EE industrial domain and use ML/AI as any other tool instead of as a black box or a magic wand. Good luck.

I'm just trying to get my first programming job. I cant seem to get past HR. My resume has that I'm a Chem Engineer BS, Industrial MS, 7 years in engineering, 2 years of Electrical Engineering. The first page of my resume is my 10 years of non-career programming experience. Built a Dishwasher(embedded C++), full stack app(RN JS, Mysql PHP laravel), and smaller projects. I cannot get past HR. Every real life programme…

But...but Hackernews keeps telling me any halfway decent programmer should have FAANG-tier companies begging them to work for them!

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#113

Post by bitwize »

ptd wrote: post #68
robertAngst wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just trying to get my first programming job. I cant seem to get past HR. My resume has that I'm a Chem Engineer BS, Industrial MS, 7 years in engineering, 2 years of Electrical Engineering. The first page of my resume is my 10 years of non-career programming experience. Built a Dishwasher(embedded C++), full stack app(RN JS, Mysql PHP laravel), and smaller projects. I cannot get past HR. Every real life programme…

Have you tried cutting down on experience? With age discrimination in hiring you might be better off including 7 years as opposed to 10. Just my two cents.

And don't forget to stock up on Just for Men for the in-person interview. You want to look like a seasoned 32, not a past-his-prime 40-something.

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#114

Post by espeed »

ryanjodonnell wrote: post #31
souljaboytylem wrote: post #27

After reading most of the comments I can try to provide a different perspective. I am a Director of Data Science and Software Engineering for a mid sized firm (~1000 employees and $150-200MM revenue). I started with a Finance degree then shifted into an analysis position at a FAANG (lots of excel, SQL, learning how to query big data). This eventually led to learning more about tech (python, AWS cloud stack, messaging…

We gotta stop saying 'FAANG' when MSFT is the arguably the top tech company around these days.

GANMAF

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#115

Post by agentofoblivion »

jeff76 wrote: post #111
agentofoblivion wrote: post #98

I basically did what you’re talking about. Masters in physics, then went into semiconductors as engineer and materials scientist, then switched to Data scientist at a bank for 18 months, and now have been a research scientist in AWS for almost two years. In Amazon, it’s easy to move around, but not between job families. I think it’s a bad idea to join as a SWE and try to transfer because they want people that have do…

Great reply. My question based on this comment, >My advice is assuming you’d like to be a person that trains/deploys ML models to solve problems in industry. This is much different than an ML Engineer, who’s implementing algorithms in low level languages and squeezing out efficiency. Obviously that would require a much deeper understanding of SWE. And a totally different person is an academic researcher that’s develo…

I think it’s unlikely to become expert in all of those things. If you do, it’s over the course of an entire career, not to get started. I guess it comes down to how much expertise is “enough” for you. Naturally, if you split your time across 3 domains you won’t be as expert as someone who dedicated all their time to going deep in one.

In the context of a big company, I think it makes sense to have a specialized workforce. Why look for the one in a billion person that can publish top quality theoretic papers and then implement them on distributed gpus in an optimal way while also building simple Random Forest models for your business? I’d rather that person do more of the most valuable thing, and then hire someone else to do the rest.

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#116

Post by edouard-harris »

danloeb wrote: post #93
edouard-harris wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there - I'm one of the cofounders of SharpestMinds. AMA! EDIT: Also, I strongly concur with the fast.ai recommendation for deep learning, especially if you're starting from a background in software.

Hi Edouard, interesting concept. Who are the mentors and why don't you list or profile a few of them on the website? (beyond the company logos)

Thanks!

Some stats about our mentors:

- There are about 60 of them now

- Geographic distribution is ~1/3 in the Bay Area, ~1/3 in the Toronto region, the rest across the USA and Canada

- About 50% are deep learning engineers, the other half are a combination of ML devops, data eng, traditional ML (clustering, boosted trees, etc.)

- About half work in (or are alums of) the AI labs of major companies such as the ones whose logos are on the website

Why we haven't listed some of them on our website yet: no good reason. We'll probably do this soon. It's a good idea.

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#117

Post by ptd »

bitwize wrote: post #113
ptd wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried cutting down on experience? With age discrimination in hiring you might be better off including 7 years as opposed to 10. Just my two cents.

And don't forget to stock up on Just for Men for the in-person interview. You want to look like a seasoned 32, not a past-his-prime 40-something.

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but people aren’t machines. My reply rate rose considerably by changing from my first(unique) name, to my middle(common) name. People judge, if you’re going for a new job why give them any chances to ding you?

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#118

Post by bitwize »

ptd wrote: post #117
bitwize wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And don't forget to stock up on Just for Men for the in-person interview. You want to look like a seasoned 32, not a past-his-prime 40-something.

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but people aren’t machines. My reply rate rose considerably by changing from my first(unique) name, to my middle(common) name. People judge, if you’re going for a new job why give them any chances to ding you?

So, should black candidates bleach their skin because "people are not machines"? Making excuses for wrongful prejudice only perpetuates the prejudice.

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#119

Post by fnbr »

heinrichf wrote: post #77
fnbr wrote: post #46

My background is that of an econometrician (ie quantitative economist), and I now work as a Research Engineer at one of the FAANG research divisions. I think the advice about getting in as a hardware engineer is solid. At my workplace, there's a ton of need for people working on specialized hardware for DL, and for people working on the software that works with it (optimizing compilers, etc). If you are looking to br…

> Then, it's just a matter of getting interviews Are you implying that, once prepared well enough, the contents of the interviews are simpler than getting actually noticed in the pile of applicants ?

Performing well on the interviews is a skill that you can acquire through practice. If you do 100 Leetcode questions, read through all of Cracking the Coding Interview, and suffer through 30 phone screens, by the end of it, you'll be a hardened interviewee capable of passing an interview anywhere in tech (you can probably get by with much less practice; I'm being purposefully hyperbolic).

Does this mean you'll be good at the job? No. Is this very wasteful? Yes.

Getting interviews, on the other hand, requires you to read the recruiter's mind, and can vary depending on what the recruiter had for breakfast, or if they fought with their significant other that morning. It's much less formulaic.

Re: Ask HN: Engineers from non-CS background, how did you pivot into ML/AI?

#120

Post by fnbr »

ultrasounder wrote: post #54
fnbr wrote: post #46

My background is that of an econometrician (ie quantitative economist), and I now work as a Research Engineer at one of the FAANG research divisions. I think the advice about getting in as a hardware engineer is solid. At my workplace, there's a ton of need for people working on specialized hardware for DL, and for people working on the software that works with it (optimizing compilers, etc). If you are looking to br…

Thanks and I just subscribed to your Byte-sized videos at aiworkbox.com.

Thanks! Let me know if anything's unclear :)
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