So many great takeaways from this video! Moumita Bhattacharya, a senior research scientist at Netflix and former AI engineer at Etsy, shared valuable advice for aspiring AI/ML professionals. Here are some key takeaways:

Finding Your Passion

Moumita’s journey into AI started with a fascination for mathematics and computing during her electrical engineering undergraduate studies. Taking a machine learning course in her first semester of graduate school sparked her interest further, leading her to pursue a PhD specializing in machine learning. Her advice? “Take a class, build projects, see if you even like it. That’s the best indicator of whether you should pursue it.”

The Value of a PhD

While not absolutely necessary, Moumita believes a PhD or graduate degree can provide a strong theoretical foundation, time to deeply study the subject, and opportunities to hone critical skills like technical writing and communication. However, she acknowledges it’s a personal choice based on one’s circumstances and career stage.

Balancing Technical and Soft Skills

In addition to technical expertise, Moumita emphasizes the importance of soft skills like clear communication, collaboration, decision-making, and overall being a pleasant colleague to work with. These skills are instrumental for success in the industry.

Emerging Trends and Excitement

Moumita is particularly excited about the potential of large language models and foundation models, which can be fine-tuned for specific tasks using proprietary data. This could lead to high-quality innovations across various domains, including healthcare and recommendations.

The Evolving Role of Software Engineers

Rather than becoming obsolete, Moumita believes the role of software engineers will expand to include skills like prompt engineering as AI capabilities grow. She sees AI as an opportunity for engineers to take on more creative work and tackle new challenges.

With the rapid pace of innovation in AI/ML, Moumita’s insights offer a valuable perspective for those looking to navigate this exciting field. Her advice on building a strong foundation, continuously learning, and developing a well-rounded skill set resonates as key ingredients for success. Check out the video above for the full interview! Subscribe to my website to get more learnt in AI, machine learning, data science, and programming. ❤

If you are just starting in the data science industry, or just want to expand your data skillset, then check out DataCamp! This is the website I used to really get an understanding on how to get a handle on data science.