ZippySushi

AMA 🎙️: Hi, I am diffusedbandit, Senior ML Engineer at an Indian Unicorn

Hey everyone, happy to answer any questions around Data Science/ML/AI and making a career within it

A brief about me, I work currently as a Sr. ML Engineer at an Indian unicorn startup I graduated 5+ years ago and have since worked as a Data Scientist / ML Engineer at an ecommerce company and social media company. My designations have changed based on the industry requirements and work too changed based on that.

Would love to take questions on what it means to be an ML Engineer, my early learnings from a career in data science, and thoughts on AI.

Look forward to all questions :)

18mo ago

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SquishyQuokka

Gojek18mo

How much is your pay currently?
Did your ESOPs amount to anything?
Your highest degree? Thoughts on Bachelors/Masters/PhD. and their impact in this field?
Thoughts on Career Progression within the ML/AI space.
Ever wondered to make lateral moves? ➡️ Quant/Analyst/Consulting etc.?

ZippySushi

Stealth18mo

60 LPA
What companies in india have IPOd? I have ESOPs but I value them as 0. Invest in parag parekh flexi cap folks for wealth creation! 3& 4. No lateral moves, I see myself as a product owner (owning not just ml) in the future. I absolutely love the kind of shit companies around me do.

FluffyTaco

Stealth18mo

A simple exploration on growws mutual fund comparison reveals quant active and even quant tax plan have consistently outperformed parag Parikh by a long margin

DizzyMuffin

Google18mo

thanks for doing AMA,

What does a typical day look like?
What are the most exciting recent developments or applications of AI that you find particularly interesting or promising?

ZippySushi

Stealth18mo

With seniority, part of my day goes into meetings - discussions around what is it that we are building, progress checks, brainstorming around what to build next, PRD etc. I also have the added on responsibility of a team lead, where I have to delegate work and ensure timelines are met - in other words - do standups and unblock people. I try to dedicate the rest of the time for coding purposes. Some days hacking things together in a jupyter notebook, other times deploying some change, some days integrating the ML stuff with our backends.

Again, not many people have the role I do, where I have to and can make contributions to model building, production deployment and planning. So the above stuff varies for others around me where some do more hardcore model building & analysis

ZippySushi

Stealth18mo

On question 2,

Gen AI is truly a game changer, ChatGPT, Copilot & the likes enable everyone to ship faster. Designers around me use the Adobe beta image gen functions for their work. I have seen some backend folks generate code from tools like locify from a figma mockup.

Rewording one of the popular sentiments around the recent developments - Gen AI enables the experts to be more efficient.

PerkyMuffin

Stealth18mo

How do you manage to stay upto date on the new emerging technologies and updates in the filed ? Asking as I'm currently facing that issue as a fresher(1yoe))

ZippySushi

Stealth18mo

Twitter!! I can share later the accounts you have to follow to be uptodate. But that's the only platform you have to be on to be aware of what is happening.

SquishyNugget

Juspay18mo

Please share the accounts links

JumpyHamster

Student18mo

As a fresher graduating from college, preparing for ML roles, what specific areas should one focus on especially to crack an interview?

And how does does DSA play a role in interview?

ZippySushi

Stealth18mo

Strangely DSA is something that is never ever useful but rated super highly in your interviews. I would recommend for freshers to continue the leetcode bullshit, and build side projects around to showcase your ML capabilities. Get on twitter and start getting inspired by indie developers hacking things together.

Any company looking at your online work would love to have you, as this separates you from the 1000s of others who also "want" to do AI and fancy shit

JumpyHamster

Student18mo

Ah thats a bit sad...This screening is very worthless I feel and considering the ongoing internships in hand(ML intern @Siemens, AI Product intern at a Startup) it becomes difficult to practice DSA(and frankly I don't like it I'd rather want to experiment with a new model). I've even won Smart India Hackathon'22 and also participated in many other hackathons have other hands on experiences too but just the notion that you've to go through that DSA round despite dev skills crushes me. Can't complain much , have to learn it the hard way :( Still hopeful and working hard 💪
Thankyou.

SillyPickle

American Express18mo

How much value do you think a masters/PhD would hold in the space. I've been working in the space for a couple of years and am a little confused on how to proceed

ZippySushi

Stealth18mo

I personally would do what Thiel does as soon as I get that rich. Which is to sponsor people to drop out from the colleges/universities. Because they are truly waste of your time if your ambition or goal is something else / bigger.

By goal - if your goal is to do heavy research then yes, phd & masters is the way, you can get yourself into google and the likes and get something massive out. But if your goal is to be the data scientist at udaan, I don't think you need masters or phd for that

Having said that I can see why an employer would prefer a masters & phd candidate over a undergrad with some experience.

PerkyMuffin

Stealth18mo

What if the person wants to get the international exposure but can't due to not being from tier 1&2 colleges

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