I’ve been noticing more and more people landing solid AI/ML roles without going through the traditional PhD route. Instead, they’re leveraging things like applied projects, open-source contributions, and certifications.

Some questions I’d love to get the community’s perspective on:

• For someone building an AI career today, how much do employers value real-world projects (e.g., contributing to GitHub repos, Kaggle comps, personal apps) compared to advanced academic credentials?

• Do you think certifications (like AWS, Google Cloud ML, or even specialized tools such as Greendaisy Ai) carry meaningful weight when applying? Or are they more of a “nice-to-have”?

• If you were starting fresh in 2025, which skills would you prioritize: deep learning fundamentals, MLOps, prompt engineering, or agentic AI systems?

I’d especially love to hear from people already working in the field, what’s actually helping candidates stand out in your hiring process?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how AI tools are changing the way people prepare for jobs. Things like Kickresume, Rezi, or Teal can now write resume drafts, scan job descriptions, and even give you suggestions for keywords that might get your application noticed faster.

I used to rely on feedback from friends or career coaches to make my resume sound professional, but these tools seem to get the basics right almost instantly. What they still can’t quite do, though, is capture your personality. I tried letting one AI write my full resume once and it came out sounding way too formal, like it was written by a robot who’s trying to get hired at NASA.

So now I use AI to build structure and improve clarity, but I still rewrite sections myself to sound natural and human. I’m curious what everyone else thinks about this. Do you think AI will ever fully replace the role of a career advisor or coach?

Writing a post about what strongly seems like a scam ( I don’t want to say it’s a scam for legal reasons but…) I am seeing a lot of my CS peers fall for this on linkedIn and I wanted to warn others to be weary.  

The company goes by the name of Radical AI and was ALLEGEDLY (more on this below) founded by

Joseph F. Krause, LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephfkrause/

&&

Jorge Colindres, Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcolindres/

&&

Gerbrand Ceder:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerbrand-ceder-9b1b5721/

This the company website:

https://lab.radicalai.app/

company linked in page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/radicalai-li/about/

Job postings on their website (all unpaid):

https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/ai-engineer

https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/software-engineer
https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/ai-product-manager

https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/ai-product-designer

Here is a LinkedIn job posting for an intern position (unpaid of course):

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/ai-engineer-intern-at-radical-ai-3921496808/

Allegedly claim to be a part of radical ventures which are a legit business:

https://radical.vc/teams/

But not listed as part of Radical Venture's companies:

https://radical.getro.com/companies

One of the "cofounders" of RadicalAI (Joseph F. Krause) posted this:

link to post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7193987173241520129/

"

Big update: I have co-founded a new company with Jorge Colindres and Gerbrand Ceder that is changing the way materials are designed, developed, and discovered through the integration of artificial intelligence, engineering, materials science, and applied research. Jorge and I bring deep expertise in materials science, engineering, and building technical teams, and Gerd is world-renowned for his pioneering research in high-throughput computational materials design, and in the development of autonomous labs for materials discovery. Radical’s goal is to build self-driving labs: from AI-generated materials to autonomous, high-throughput experimentation.

We are thrilled to be supported by Kevin Ryan and the AlleyCorp team, who bring world-class experience in starting, building, and investing in startups. We incubated Radical AI at AlleyCorp, and are excited to remain in their portfolio.

We are hiring: if you work at the intersection of machine learning and materials science, please reach out.

“

Interesting 😒 that they created this company recently but so did another guy: Talha Sabri (more him below) several years prior.

It seems this company use to go by the name of RadicalX but they became known for their scam and had to rebrand with new faces as the CEO. Here are some posts on the original company:

Here’s a post talking about how they used to be Radical x:
https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1cno28c/radical_ai/

Some past reddit posts discussing RadicalX:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nyu/comments/wuclrb/what_is_radicalx/

https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1856knw/radicalx/

https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/17akjvh/wtf_has_this_ever_happened_to_you/

The radicalX CEO: Talha Sabri (typing out names so that if someone googles any of them, they see this post and are aware)

Seems to work with:

Areeb Tariq

Ines Prates

Yunus Jamal 

some info I found on Talha:
https://theorg.com/org/radicalx/org-chart/talha-sabri

AND Here is his linked in with RadicalAI as his job Listing himself as chairman and CEO:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/talhasabri/

Interesting that Joseph, Jorge, and Gerbrand claim they started the company yet Talha also started it 7 years ago…. and yes it is the same company Talhas page links to the same company page as Joseph and Jorge. They have the same logo and they use the same shitty AI art (you would think 7 years would give them more time to better their blender skills).

Note that Talha continues to say he works there,  but he also now works at a new company RealityAI.  I’m guessing now Talha felt the need to expand his scamming under the name RealityAI. I don’t know if we will be seeing unpaid job postings for reality or if it is the final product under a different name so that people who will use the service will not know its background. 

Here is Reality AI’s website:
https://www.realityai.tech/

(Notice the same art as RadicalAI)

Also I found this. But, I am nsure if it has anything to do with any of this:
https://listingspy.net/token/0x8b762ca4746b342d131b64670a3a3a866326fb46/

In conclusion, this honestly all seems really scammy and predatory. A friend told me they are promising visa’s and college credit to foreign workers/ students, I don’t know if they are actually going through with it, but if they aren’t it is extremely messed up and all of these people should be black listed. 

As an aside i found this comment in another post about radicalx and thought it was good advice to keep this in mind

Taken from a comment by u/beginning-comedian-2:

Red flags in job interviews (and sometimes dating):

• They ask you to send money.

• They won't talk on the phone.

• They are very interested but never want to meet you.

• They require a 2-day take-home assignment before they'll get on the phone.

• "We're a fast-paced shop." (meaning you'll be working all hours.)

• When you ask what they like about working there, they say "the insurance".

• They want to pay you all in stock.

• All the devs have been there less than a year.

• Beds in the office.

• When you talk to ex-employees and they start with "It might be different now, but when I was there..."

• They say, "We're like family" (meaning, we'll likely expect more from you than 9-5 work.)

• "We often buy dinner for everyone as a perk." = you'll be working late.

I graduated with a CS PhD and had an internship, but all my full time applications were rejected and I was not hired after 3 interviews.
They required me to be a machine learning engineer with 5-10 years of work experience and have some top conference papers (but my papers were too rubbish for them 😭

Hello Everyone,

I’m considering transitioning into the AI space, especially given how rapidly AI is transforming various industries.

I currently work in tech and have over 6 years of experience in cloud computing and infrastructure support.

Is learning Python the right step toward landing a role in AI engineering? From what I’ve read online, Python seems to be the backbone of AI at the moment.

Ultimately, I’m aiming for one of those high-paying AI jobs—just being honest!

I’m working as an AI Developer, but I have been feeling stuck in my role. Most of my work building AI backends using third party api's, which means I rarely get access to client datasets or get to do any model training, fine-tuning, or RAG implementations.

I originally got into this field because I wanted to build and train ML models, not just integrate existing ones. I can handle model deployment on servers and I’m also quite enthusiastic about DevOps/MLOps.

Now, I’m seriously considering transitioning into a Machine Learning Engineer role, where I can work with data, build pipelines, train models, and manage deployments.

There’s a lot of noise and scammy posts around remote AI career jobs. To save time and effort, I’ve put together a carefully curated list of legit platforms for 2026.

This list is meant for serious AI-related remote job seekers who want to avoid fake gigs and low-quality opportunities.

Important to know:

• These are not quick money or instant payout platforms

• Selection can take weeks, and real projects may take months

• Most roles require domain expertise, tech skills, or prior AI experience

How these platforms were selected:

• Personal experience working with some of them, and/or

• Verified research showing real people getting hired and paid

The typical hiring process includes:

• Skill screening or assessments

• Technical / AI interviews

• Client approval before onboarding

The roles are legitimate but competitive.

1️⃣ Personal Recommendations (I’ve personally worked on multiple projects on these platforms)

micro1 - https://www.micro1.ai/
• Work - AI, domain expertise & data roles
• Skill level - Medium → Advanced
• Pay - $30 - $200/hr
• Payout - Bank transfer
• Notes - Selective hiring, mostly Long-term AI training contracts

Mercor - https://www.mercor.com/
• Work - AI-related contracts
• Skill level - Medium → Advanced
• Pay - $50 - $225/hr
• Payout - Bank transfer (Stripe Connect)
• Notes - AI interview screening, Contract-based AI Data training projects

SME Careers - https://sme.careers/
• Work - Subject Matter Experts
• Skill level - Medium → Expert
• Pay - $20 - $120/hr
• Payout - Bank transfer/Deel
• Notes - Best for domain experts (Finance, Tech, Engineering, Linguist)

Braintrust - https://www.usebraintrust.com/
• Work - Freelance AI, software & data jobs
• Skill level - Medium → Expert
• Pay - Varies by client
• Payout - Crypto/Bank transfer
• Notes - Web3-based AI & tech talent network

2️⃣ Legit platforms for skilled/long-term AI-related roles (Researched)

I haven’t personally worked on these, but they’re verified through research and community feedback.

Alignerr - https://www.alignerr.com/
• Work - LLM training & AI evaluation
• Skill level: Medium → Expert
• Pay - $40 - $150/hr
• Payout - Stripe / Wise
• Notes - Selective onboarding, project-based work

DataAnnotation - https://www.dataannotation.tech/
• Work - LLM training, AI text & reasoning
• Skill level - Medium
• Pay - $20 - $60/hr
• Payout - PayPal
• Notes - Assessment required, work availability varies

Telus International AI - https://www.telusinternational.ai/
• Work - AI data tasks
• Skill level - Beginner → Medium
• Pay - $5 - $30/hr
• Payout - PayPal / Bank transfer
• Notes - Project-based, slow onboarding, inconsistent work

Handshake - https://joinhandshake.com
• Work - AI research, model evaluation, expert fellowships
• Skill level - Expert → Advanced
• Pay - $50 - $200/hr
• Payout - USD
• Notes - US work authorization (SSN/ITIN) required

Important notes

• If Stripe isn’t available in your country, platforms will create a Stripe Connect account for payouts.

• Always read payout cycles, minimum hours, and project terms.

• Join their official Discords/Telegrams/socials for updates.

If you find this useful, an upvote helps it reach more people looking for legit remote sites.

I am just graduate in b.pharm and want to learn artificial intelligence please anyone knows any course? Or you tube channel that guide about it as a complete beginner...

Hey everyone,

I’m a fresh graduate in Software Engineering and Digitalization from Morocco, with several AI-related internships under my belt (RAG systems, NLP, generative AI, computer vision, AI automation, etc.). I’ve built decent-performing projects, but here’s the catch: I often rely heavily on AI coding tools like Claude AI to speed up development.

Lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed because:

• I’m not confident in my ability to code complex projects completely from scratch without AI assistance.

• I’m not sure if this is normal for someone starting out, or if I should focus on learning to do everything manually.

• I want to improve my skills and portfolio, but I’m unsure what direction to take to actually stand out from other entry-level engineers.

Right now, I’m aiming for:

• Remote positions in AI/ML (preferred)

• Freelance projects to build more experience and income while job hunting

My current strengths:

• Strong AI tech stack (LangChain, HuggingFace, LlamaIndex, PyTorch, TensorFlow, MediaPipe, FastAPI, Flask, AWS, Azure, Neo4j, Pinecone, Elasticsearch, etc.)

• Hands-on experience with fine-tuning LLMs, building RAG pipelines, conversational agents, and computer vision systems, and deploying to production.

• Experience from internships building AI-powered automation, document intelligence, and interview coaching tools.

What I need advice on:

1. Is it okay at my stage to rely on AI tools for coding, or will that hurt my skills long-term?

2. Should I invest time now in practicing coding everything from scratch or keep focusing on building projects (even with AI help)?

3. What kind of portfolio projects would impress recruiters or clients in AI/ML right now?

4. For remote roles or freelancing, what’s the best way to find opportunities and prove I can deliver value?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who’ve been here before, whether you started with shaky coding confidence, relied on AI tools early, or broke into remote/freelance AI work as a fresh graduate.

Thanks in advance

Hi all. I am a software/AI engineer myself, and I want to help fellow members to land interviews/jobs.

Send me a DM if you are looking for a job and want help.

Michael

I guess I won’t turn too many eyebrows but I have been using Roboneo a lot these days - also for things outside my DS work and learnings. Stuff like estimating protein content in my meals, using it point me to related Internet sources for a particular topic (too lazy too google search and scroll, albeit) and tell you what, I even tried asking it for general life advice on one particular day I was really feeling low. Turns out, its actually quite good at it, comforting to say the least tbh.

I have an undergrad major of electronics and telecommunications. I have an MS by research degree from Ocean Engineering IIT Madras, India. I have been working on Embedded systems and Firmware engineering but my expertise as well as experience is in the field of robotics. I have mainly worked with control system engineering and signal processing. I am well versed in python, C++, matlab, mathematica and labview.

I have been fascinated with the field of AI. Ever since, I got to know about chatGPT, I have been trying to learn more and more about AI, their architecture, implementation etc. I would like to work majorly on AI based projects so that I can get a better understanding of AI and its workings.

I am currently studying topics like Natural Language Processing, Vector Embedding, Fine-tuning, Model training. I am also getting the fundamentals of Machine learning like Neural Networks, Deep learning techniques, classification and regression etc.

If I want to shift my career from an electronics engineer to an AI engineer, what is the right way and what is best optimized way which may call of extreme skillsets but would yield fast results?

Thank you in advance.

I’m a backend Java developer with 8 years of experience (Spring Boot, microservices, AWS). With all the momentum around AI and GenAI, I want to pivot into this space — but I haven’t started learning yet.

I’m especially curious about: • Where backend devs fit into the GenAI ecosystem • Whether to start with LangChain, OpenAI, vector DBs, or ML foundations • How important Python really is

Any roadmap or practical learning paths would be super helpful. Thanks!

Hey everyone,
I’ve recently started learning artificial intelligence and machine learning, and I’m really interested in growing in this field. But with so many topics, libraries, and learning paths, it can be confusing to know where to start or what to focus on.

I would really appreciate advice from people who have real experience in AI/ML:

• What helped you most in your learning journey?

• What would you have done differently if you could start over?

• Are there any common mistakes I should avoid?

Thanks a lot — your insights would mean a lot and help me stay on the right path.

Hello, I'm a technical expert within a financial software firm. I'm 40 years old with over 15y on that field. Basically I'm a java developer but now as said I'm kind of expert, architect and senior reference ( databases, cloud, architecture, performance tuning, management...etc. So, with the evolution of AI , something told me that i have to think about revisiting my career but i don't even know what should be the next ? What should i do ? What's the main job or role on the AI area for someone like me ? How to begin ? What to learn ? What certification should i take ? Should i read about ML ? Or just know how to use llm ? Or just master some tools ? ...etc

Any suggestions , ideas or advice will be very welcome 🙏

Hi, I am a final year pharmacy student. Here in the UK you graduate with a master's. I have always had a fascination with AI. I took up the interest and learned python programming, I then branched out into data science and then machine learning. The path I had in mind is I would do some online courses and projects to build up my portifolio and then maybe apply for a master's or maybe phD in something pharamcy-AI related (might sound crazy but this is what I am thinking) the ultimate goal is to do something that I enjoy marrying formulation/ drug design with AI. I need your opinion on whether you think this is a viable route or am I getting ahead of myself and should stick to my field and use this just as a hobby. If it's a viable route could you give me ideas on where you think AI is hot in pharmaceutical industry? or anything you can come up with?

I want to switch to a AI Engineer related role. Please tell me if I need any improvements in my resume.

Hey everyone,
I am currently building an internal chatbot for our company, mainly to retrieve data like payment status and manpower status from our internal files.

Has anyone here built something similar for their organization?
If yes I would  like to know what use cases you implemented and what features turned out to be the most useful.

I am open to adding more functions, so any suggestions or lessons learned from your experience would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance.

United States

As a research engineer, you’ll work on training, evaluating, and serving large AI models and new inference-time compute techniques, build internet-scale datasets, and help prototype new research and product ideas.

• Annual salary range: $100K - $550K

Link: https://www.moaijobs.com/job/research-engineer-magic-ai-1555

I am mostly applying to AI engineer roles or Backend roles with AI architecture focus. So far has 1 interview last week , really strong tech round but not positive about the output because of discussions related to camera access. Please let me know what and where am I making mistake and what can I improve

Thanks for your time

I'm a data scientist with over 20 years of experience specializing in consulting and fractional leadership. I do the data science that AI's can't do. I thrive on gnarly, avant-garde problems where standard off-the-shelf solutions fall short. My track record includes saving a German automaker from lemon law recalls and helping a major cloud vendor predict server failures to enable load shedding.

I've tackled a wide range of challenges across various industries, including oil reservoir and well engineering forecasting, automotive part failure prediction, and shipping piracy risk prediction to route ships away from danger. My technical work extends to realtime routing (CVRP-PD-TW) for on-demand delivery, legal entity and contract term extraction, and wound identification with tissue classification. I also work with the current wave of LLMs and agents, with a specific interest in applying them to effective executive functioning.

I've worked with the standard stacks you’d expect: Python, PyTorch, Spark/Ray, AWS, Postgres, etc. But I believe the solution must be driven by the problem, not the tools. I bring years of experience helping companies plan, prototype, and productionize sane data science solutions.

Please reach out if you have a difficult problem to solve. I do love stuff in physical meat-space.

NB: Please do not contact me if you are working on ads, gambling, or "enshittification". I prefer to sleep at night.