Harsh Reality of AI Jobs No one Tells You The Harsh Reality of AI Jobs However I hope it brings a sense of calm and patience to those who are trying to get into this field Before I start let me give you a little bit of introduction about myself I am currently working as a computer vision engineer at a startup called Abiros for the past 10 months I also make YouTube videos on this channel about machine learning AI and data science to help people upskill and get into this field as well As you learn and upskill yourself in this field you will come across many things happening around you You will see a lot of things on social media that might discourage you and make you feel like you re not doing enough In this video I m going to address these issues and provide my personal opinion based on my experiences I hope it will help you as you try to enter this field The False Narrative of Online Courses One of the things I ve talked about on LinkedIn is the false narrative that some online courses sell There are certain edtech companies running cringe marketing ads that convince you that the moment you learn machine learning or data science AI jobs will be lined up for you However that s simply not the reality Most AI engineering jobs machine learning engineering jobs or natural language processing engineering jobs in good companies are reserved for master s or PhD degree holders or people with certain experience in the field For freshers or people with no experience it s going to be very hard to get a job in this field If you want to become a machine learning engineer you have to stop thinking about top companies like Google or Facebook Getting a job at these top product companies is still doable but not for an AI engineer role These companies have high thresholds of filtering and it s unlikely that you will have learned something significant in college that will add value to these companies in these roles Most of the time top tier companies are off limits for freshers and the only real chance you have is with startups Realistic Timelines When you start learning this field you may wonder how soon you can get a job To be realistic even six months from the moment you start is an ambitious goal considering you dedicate three to four hours of serious study every day For most people one to two years is a more realistic deadline to get a job in this field Even when you re studying for one to two years it should be serious study You need to track your progress learn different things inside AI and progress from one algorithm to another in a planned manner It s important to understand that getting a job at a good company that pays well as a machine learning engineer within two to three months of starting is unrealistic Unrealistic Salary Expectations On social media you may see students getting 30 40 lakh packages but those are unrealistic targets Even if you re getting an 8 12 lakh package as a fresher that s a pretty great salary In small startups where you ll most likely be applying packages of four to five lakhs per annum are more common for freshers This is not bad at all considering you have no prior experience Working on AI projects and gaining experience in the field is more valuable in the long run In your first year you can afford to compromise on salary because in five to six years you ll be making big money if you re skilled enough It s better to work on real projects and learn rather than getting a higher salary but not learning anything new The first job in this field is the hardest to crack so you have to be patient Be realistic with the packages and companies you re targeting The only way to manage this process is if you genuinely enjoy this field and are willing to put in the hard work to upskill yourself So in conclusion be patient and put in the work I hope you do well in this field