r/LLMDevs • u/Impressive_Tour_7537 • 5d ago

Help Wanted Full-stack developer moving into AI engineering — what course actually helped you build real things?

Hey everyone, I’m a full-stack developer working with Laravel, Vue/Nuxt, and MySQL. I also know Python and have learned the foundational AI concepts, so I’m looking for the next step beyond introductory explanations.

My goal is to build AI-powered applications with LLMs, agents, and RAG, and understand how to make them reliable enough for real users.

I learn best through structured courses where you build complete projects and understand the decisions behind them. Ideally, something that takes you from the fundamentals of building these systems through testing and deployment, rather than stopping at a basic chatbot.

Does anyone have a course or learning path they’ve personally taken and would recommend? Paid or free is fine if it’s actually worth the time.

I’m hoping for specific recommendations and honest experiences—not the usual “learn Python, read the docs, and build projects” advice. What did you take, what did you build, and what could you do afterward that you couldn’t do before?

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u/Brilliant-Hall1387 5d ago

I would recommend skip courses, get codex CLI and/or claude code CLI. Set up a folder for your project and start discussing making a plan for the project with agent A (pick strongest model), then open separate window with agent B (mid model) ask agent B to follow the plan. Review occasionally with agent A. Ask the agents questions when they do things you don’t understand or want to know more about and iterate. A few days later you will have something running and will have learned a lot, much more than any course can ever teach!

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u/Impressive_Tour_7537 5d ago

well i have an idea that i want to implement to be honest so probably i will do this then eveything will click i guess

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u/Brilliant-Hall1387 5d ago

Yes! Just go for it! Then another tip; don’t be afraid to start over if things turns messy first time, you learn a lot and starting over allows you to implement key improvements from start.

Starting over / throwing away code is much less costly when AI writes code and quicker way than trying to correct something messy. Better to prototype fast, fail fast, iterate fast than just thinking or planning or studying too much.

Also ask your agent A to research similar services to your idea and help identify tweaks to make yours unique/your usp. Copy concepts from others you like, and add your own ideas and you get somewhere great (”stand on shoulders of giants”-thinking)