How to build a side-project to get a job in Machine Learning

The most important steps to highlight your skills and get your first AI job + something on networking w/ side projects.

“Hey Devansh, I’m trying to get my first job in Machine Learning, any advice?”.

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 (it’s what I’m “famous” for)- I hated my formal education (I was trying to convince my parents to let me drop out of middle school onwards).

• This means that I don’t ever see myself pursuing an upper-level degree.

• This leaves me ineligible for research roles at most Companies (which require either a MS or preferably a PhD). This is a tradeoff I’m willing to take. For someone who really wants to work in Amazon’s AI Lab- or wants to maximize their chances of landing a Big Tech job- this approach would not be ideal.

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 beyond generic platitudes.

However, we can do better by breaking it down by various demographics. In this article, I will focus my advice on the group that I am most qualified to speak to- early career 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 (and I’m also not unemployed)-

Tech Made Simple is my second newsletter- where I shared a lot of my own career experiences, and other non-AI Research related learnings. I wrote it pretty consistently until this year, where I decided to go all in on this newsletter for various reasons.

The most crucial step to getting your first ML job is to have an amazing side project. Not 5 or 10 mid-tier projects, but 1-3 very good ones. My projects allowed me to get work without an amazing GPA, a particularly big-name degree (I had none when I started working), or a strong network (my writing only really became a major factor last year after I got a job). I believe that they are one of highest ROI investments for an early career person (the best would be to charm a powerful person, but that’s out of my expertise. If there are any powerful people that want to have me as their eye candy, for scientific purposes, don’t hesitate to reach out though. Go science!).

So, personal projects are what we will be covering in this article. Scrap the boring Iris datasets, no GPT + Vector DB spin-off, and no more Wine Price predictions- this piece will cover how you can build truly exceptional side projects that will help you stand out. Sound exciting? Then I think you’ll like what I have to say-

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