← All threads

Would a Machine Learning & AI Bootcamp be a good next step?

2 of Michael's comments in this thread · View thread on Reddit ↗

u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I would recommend no, and I've been consistently recommending against AI/ML bootcamps unless you want to transition to a non-SWE AI role. I posted a poll result here a few weeks ago that shows at the top tier tech companies about 90% of engineers weren't evaluating for AI skills in interviews and had no plans to. MY STRONG ADVICE TO ANYONE WITH EXPERIENCE WHO WANTS TO DO AI: get a normal SWE job at a big tech company that has a lot of AI product or infra and learn internally. They all have thousands of amazing engineers working on AI, breaking confidential research not released to the public or discussed outside, and many have internal courses on AI... it's like better than doing a course in every way. In the face of tanking enrollment, a number of bootcamps have added AI/ML standalone options for existing engineers: BloomTech and Codesmith being two of them. They are popping up as a response to SWE bootcamps grads struggling was to try to whack a mole where the jobs are and we saw Web3/Crypto bootcamps popped up and Cyber Security too. But you don't go to those to become a SWE.

u/GoodnightLondon wrote (the comment Michael replied to):

It's bad if you're not a mid+ level developer. The higher end of mid level(so closer to 5 years of experience) is where people seem to be having fewer issues finding a job, even though it's still a struggle for some people; the lower end of mid level seems to depend on the indiv

u/michaelnovati replied ·
+1 and mid-level = 2+ YOE and not a bootcamp grad that their bootcamp told us mid-level