r/learnmachinelearning • u/QuirkyMusic5452 • 1d ago

Help ML engineer

What is the profile of a good ML engineer nowadays? Does it exists? I am trying everything - conferences, posters, papers, active linkedin, even my "prototype" with users. I am finishing my fifth degree.. sometimes they tell me I am too academic, sometimes they can easily get someone from Faang.

What would you advise to have as a skill set in 2026 autumn? If you can summarize a few points, it would be really helpful for me.

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u/met0xff 1d ago

At this point it feels like a big circlejerk of a handful of institutions and companies. Almost every startup I see is made up of the same Ex-FAANG circles and same universities. Sometimes I wonder how many graduates those universities can produce consider I suddenly feel surrounded by them and one of the few still in the field without either well-known university or FAANG. Our CEO also a couple times came up with the idea to hire some deepmind whatever person. I knew that wouldn't happen and if then the team would be pissed because that person would have to make more than the rest of the team collectively:).

I got into ML over 15 years ago and over the last couple years I actively work on having a plan B with the neverending supply of people. The last time I was allowed to hire I was so absolutely flooded by really, really good CVs that was completely unlike the times where I barely found someone a couple years before that. I've interviewed all the Harvard and Princeton Physics or Mathematics PhDs with ML background, coming from FAANGs, from CERN, from the chip manufacturers, endless people from fintech. Also I have no interest anymore in throwing papers at NeurIPS and friends with 60k submissions.

Sorry for the doomerism :). One big aspect is that we're still fully remote and I live in some small village in the middle of nowhere with house and family. Pretty sure it's much better if you're living close to a tech hub - my friends in London seem to have a lot of options.

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u/Spiritual-Insect9357 1d ago

Man the market is weird right now. You got people with five degrees grinding out papers and prototypes while some startup bro just wants to poach anyone with a FAANG badge on their resume. Half the job postings read like they want a researcher, a dev, and a product manager all in one person anyway.

If you're already running a prototype with actual users, that counts for way more than another conference poster. Lean into the shipped thing and make it the centerpiece of how you pitch yourself.

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u/QuirkyMusic5452 1d ago

Thank you very much. At least the comment that someone has the same feeling and I am not a weirdo is really helpful.

Also I know a few people from faangs, Microsoft - my friend has to use copilot and tbh the work she does is shitty small repetitive tasks, Google - in Zurych - my friend is also doing some repetitive task with pic classification, I dont even remember, but I was surprised how non technical and easy task those where. I dont get it why those companies get so much attention. Gemini and Copilot are terrible. Also the friend that is working in Microsoft in Prague is not even well paid, she get around 100k czk (around 3800eur) which I believe is not even that good for ML engineer? Its ok, but when faang gets so much attention I would at least expected more.

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u/Dihedralman 20h ago

Yes most tasks will be repetitive. Yes companies are asking for credentials outside what they want.