AI’s Hottest New Job Pays Up to $250K a Year. So I Applied. | WSJ

[@Makes_me_wonder]

Prompt engineering probably won't become a standalone job, just a skill that employees are expected to have.

[@DamianC]

THIS ^^^ It's just going to be the thing real thing that sets you apart from who to hire and who to weed out in the future of jobs. I already see people that are going to have a hard time getting hired. They say things like, "People are just going to be more stupid because they depend on that stuff."

[@ai-connexa]

Yes, BUT - there is a difference between an engineer hired for prompting an AI to refine parameters, and the general public adopting new research methods for their work.

[@DamianC]

@@ai-connexa Also very true

[@DamianC]

@@ai-connexa kinda like when people would search things in general but didn't know the differences in isolating exact phrases and whatnot

[@mf--]

I do not suggest using the term "engineer" as most governments consider it a protected term. Could be sued for practicing engineering without license or education.

[@somedayitsgonnamakesense]

companies today want you to have 5+ yrs experience in Prompt Engineering to begin with

[@Avant402]

Exactly! Which is impossible because Prompt Engineering is still pretty much a new niche.

[@amevaio92]

@@Avant402well not really. i was a prompt engineer :)

[@cybertruck2008]

Prompt engineering aint a job, its a skill that just requires trail and error and good English.

[@amevaio92]

@@pin65371 umm i dont think so. how you gonna train them to self audit themselves without the prompt engineer to do ML and audit the self audit AI.

[@cybersphere]

People were prompt engineering before prompt engineering actually became coined as a new term. GPT 1 came out in 2018, so as funny as it sounds, some people really do have 5 years experience.

[@XShollaj]

The worst misleading one can get - no one will pay you to ask questions to a chatbot. You need to know at the very least core development work & machine learning - and even then you would be competing with PhDs with multiple years of experience for "Prompting" positions

[@DarkP1]

yeah this was an ad for that company basically

[@mshark2205]

Yep, it’s called engineering for a reason. I just hate all those websites telling it like it’s a simple job with a huge pay.

[@4agewise120]

This is why they stop showing the amount of thumbs down. It helps them dumb down.

[@beanpasteposts]

That’s the most dystopian aspect of it all. The fact you need a PhD to feed questions to a glorified web scraper 💀

[@marinmaths3826]

Ive already gotten paid by outlier wdym i don’t have any bachelors

[@bvssrsguntur6338]

What did I learn: Joanna Stern is the best of the journalists and I would always watch her editorials because she is best at dumbing down to my level. By the way, I too did prompt engineering course, tried applying and got a rude awakening that I need to learn 90% more or maybe 99% more!

[@ontrada]

What would you need to learn? Coding?

[@GolderiQ]

Yeah what did they ask for more?

[@jumpy2783]

It's not even just that. You'll be super shocked when you find out that these jobs aren't in as much demand as you might think. Why? Because the people up top will be the ones to type in the prompts. There's absolutely NO reason companies would hire people to mindlessly type in prompts. No reason at all when it's a 'skill' anyone with a slight proficiency in English could do

[@kcdiazWTV]

I wanted to apply for a junior prompt engineer job but the company was asking for minimum 5 years experience.

[@impyrobot]

Just write you have 5 years experience worst case scenario you don't get the job anyway.

[@DARQAURA]

​@@impyrobotHe/she was being sarcastic I think. These jobs just hit the scene a year ago and these companies are already expecting 5 years of experience.

[@brandon_youtube]

😅

[@raventail2205]

That 5 years experience is just a wishlist do just apply it.

[@abdullaahmed096]

@@impyrobot😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@yijiequ662]

who else agrees that Joanna Sterns videos are always informative, at the same time, entertaining, those few minutes are gone so fast!

[@jaybee9054]

Joanna rulez 👍

[@DK-qf6pr]

Yes she has improved her videos a lot

[@bobbab5759]

I just can't imagine how prompt engineer is a job for any longer than maybe 2 years as we transition into using gen ai across organizations. Plus, at $250K salary there is a huge incentive to make that role obsolete.

[@efexzium]

Someone can buy a house with that 😂

[@Deeprajpb]

As a Software Engineer, I see great value in this information. Developers incorporating prompt-based adaptation gain an extra skill, boosting productivity and enabling the creation of high-quality software at a rapid pace. While it may not become a standalone job profile, it certainly adds to the expanding skill set of developers.

[@KV45355]

Why not Just be a Machine Learning Engineer?

[@TheAlchemist1089]

​@@KV45355mlops engineering is where it is

[@GreatTaiwan]

@@KV45355 "just" an actual ML Eng is a senior job, and actually requires a Phd in real-world away from people thinking that running a pytourch/tenserflow ready model and knowing basic calculus & statistics = you are an ML Eng

[@jonassteinberg3779]

A senior AI engineer at OpenAI, Nvidia, etc makes about 600K - 700K per year at least. Senior folks at OpenAI tend to make more like 900K.

[@magispitt]

Love this reporter, the content is always clear and concise.

[@davidmacgown321]

This sounded great until I learned the job is located in NYC. Between taxes, Rent, and the cost of living that 250k would be equivalent to 50k.

[@beanpasteposts]

It’s everywhere, not just NYC. She just went there because WSJ is based in NY.

[@alex_smallet]

At least Joanna can still keep her WSJ job.

[@mbg9650]

But she'll always be unsatisfied working at WSJ since she could have been Promt Engeneer.

[@olwenpuralena4576]

Coursera!!! Awesome platform :) used it to change careers myself back in 2016/2017.

[@ramsyrama]

Wooow what do you do nowadays??

[@cxxbxng591]

what career?

[@olwenpuralena4576]

@@ramsyrama I'm a UX researcher :)

[@josiewyn]

how did it work

[@olwenpuralena4576]

@@josiewyn I got a job at Google, Meta, and now work for Coursera! So very well 😀

[@LordOtorai]

How to write solid prompts - Clear Objective: Start with a clear and specific objective. What do you want the language model to do? This could be answering a question, generating text, or providing explanations. Context: Provide necessary background information. This helps the model understand the scenario or the specific context in which the question is being asked. Specificity: Be as specific as possible in your request. Vague prompts can lead to vague responses. If you have particular requirements or constraints, mention them. Examples (if applicable): If your prompt is complex or you're looking for a specific style or format, provide an example or describe it in detail. Politeness (Optional): While not necessary, being polite in your prompts can make the interaction more pleasant. Brevity: While providing detail is good, try to be concise. Unnecessarily long or convoluted prompts can be harder for the model to parse effectively.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

No one is gonna pay you 250k for this. Not unless you're already an AI expert for whom the prompting is just a side activity.

[@alcar32sharif]

Thats exactly what an requirements engineer does. Asking questions clean (precise+concise) and structured.

[@jaelee5352]

This job is gonna pass in a year or two

[@mandisaw]

Once they realize a "highly detailed and accurate prompt" = a program lol 😅 Folks should stash their money while it's flowing.

[@slider9499able]

You are being VERY generous by giving it one year. By Easter 2024, this job will have been "a thing."

[@mandisaw]

@@slider9499able Nah, it might go all the way to Summer/Fall '24. A lot depends on whether interest rates remain high, and whether any of these big players manage to make genAI profitable (outside of "blank checks" like State/defense, which don't seek an ROI in terms of money).

[@cxa011500]

If you can make 200k a year, a year or two would still be a lot better than a lot of jobs.

[@jumpy2783]

​@@cxa011500 Yes but understand that many raise their standard of living not long after they achieve a higher salary. Once they get fired, the drop will be tremendous

[@drickzee]

I always enjoy watching Joanna's videos. They are always informative, interactive and entertaining at the same time.

[@Kevft]

Congratulations Joanna, you are music to my hears.

[@HaseebHeaven]

Joanna as Prompt engineer hilarious 😂 she explains very well how this tech is going on

[@posthocprior]

The details, of how similarity and dissimilarity are calculated, were left out. Why is this important? Because unlike the measure between two points in Euclidean space, measuring distance between two word vectors or two documents is subjective. That is, this relies on how you weight the words being measured, the probability density functions that are assumed, etc. So, although the reporter said that some coding is required, I suspect that this is a very mathematical job that requires a good understanding of measure theory, of how distance metrics are subjectively applied.

[@joshuaharris1120]

I feel that the prompt engineering job is only one GPT agent away from being obsolete

[@highcollector]

"Act as a prompt engineer and so on and so forth... so yeah...

[@elsavelaz]

I’m an AI engineer and yes it’s still Lots of code knowledge but it’s my skills in prompt engineering that put me above lots of competition

[@allanwind295]

The last time we tried programming in a natural language it was called COBOL. Unlike the current bots, it was at least documented and you would get same output for a given input. You could run your code on any computer not just the service provided by a single vendor. Yes, there are different bots, and each are their own silo. If the prompts are useful how will they do in time, say, in a couple of years? Do you want to pay to execute your program? Will the service that execute your program be around?

[@mancerrss]

Interesting comparison. I didn't know COBOL was considered natural language. I thought it was just an ancient programming language, made for business applications?

[@mandisaw]

​@@mancerrssCOBOL was sold as a way to reduce/eliminate the need for expensive technical staff, by making it possible for "anyone, even the secretary or CEO" to talk directly to the machine. Any lay employee would be able to quickly formulate their prompt and get usable domain-specific answers back. Turns out, they just created more programmers. 😅 The job has always been about translating between what humans want [imprecise, poorly-defined, social/economic context] into what computers understand [precise, well-defined, pure data context]. All these folks are chasing a dream that was disproven over & over again since their great-grandparents' day (1950s)

[@the_expidition427]

@@mancerrss It is vendor neutral don't mix up the two it being decades old designed for business apps doesn't change that

[@BoolrVids]

Software engineers would be naturals at this; solid Googling skills are integral to a productive software engineer

[@circuloviciosamente]

I think the main thing we need for a good Prompt is to understand very well the problem we are working on. Then, with practice, we will get along with those Chat bots

[@wayne8797]

Fun fact: you can ask it to write you the prompt. But ye, that also takes prompt engineering to get the best prompt out of it 😆

[@AyushSharma80001]

😂

[@kcdiazWTV]

promptception.

[@SolaceEasy]

I am disappointed that the reporter did not challenge the president of the company when he referred to the chat AI models as "them".

[@Eoin-B]

The following prompt is incredibly useful. I didn't create it, but it's invaluable to me and my colleagues and even my father uses it in a totally different field. It creates a back-and-forth to keep narrowing the scope of what you are truly looking to convey to the LLM for your perfect answer: "I want you to become my Prompt Creator. Your goal is to help me craft the best possible prompt for my needs. The prompt will be used by you, ChatGPT. You will follow the following process: 1. Your first response will be to ask me what the prompt should be about. I will provide my answer, but we will need to improve it through continual iterations by going through the next steps. 2. Based on my input, you will generate 3 sections. a) Revised prompt (provide your rewritten prompt. It should be clear, concise, and easily understood by you), b) Suggestions (provide suggestions on what details to include in the prompt to improve it), and c) Questions (ask any relevant questions about what additional information is needed from me to improve the prompt). 3. We will continue this iterative process with me providing additional information to you and you updating the prompt in the Revised prompt section until it's complete." NOTE: One big warning is to always ask it for the source of real-world examples or statistics you request but VERIFY IT always in Google AND the source link it gives to make sure it's not from an unreputable source. It makes up real-world examples and sources fairly often. They are called hallucinations and you will embarrass yourself if you don't.

[@Imraphael_]

Commenting so I can come back to this

[@adiadiadi]

do you happen to remember where you got this prompt from? I'm curious if there's more to where this came from....

[@Eoin-B]

@@adiadiadi It was a blog about chat GPT and it's applets, with tips etc. I lost the bookmark since then. The site helped me use Chat GPT better when I was first learning it and since becoming more proficient I stopped reading it. It was a commenter who made it, so the writer highlighted it in another post. Sorry I can't remember it though. Try Google the prompt and it might take you there. The guy who wrote it shows that prompt technicians are actually needed.

[@tamjeanell]

Ty

[@MadofaA]

that is very useful! Thank you!

[@TheRealUncensoredTravelGuide]

That class is helpful, but just the tip of the iceberg. I earned the basic degree 📜. I’m in an advanced class with a private firm, it’s 10x the amount of information and use of sandbox examples. I’m getting more interviews due to multiple Coursera classes and the 3rd Advanced class requires a Smart Chatbot to be created using AAA methodology.

[@salvadorginez3246]

I love the videos produced by Joanna! She talks about very interesting subjects, helpful and really practical to real world! I loved as well her video about IPhone security! Excellent journalist!

[@007thematrix007]

@ 2:02 " ... seems like something i can be pretty good at." sign of being unsure! [*rejected] 🤣

[@Heather_Vazquez]

I am looking for a job in AI. I am a super connected person and able to engineer great prompts. Highly intelligent person who is passionate about solving complex changes.

[@rajeevdsamuel]

This is like blogger jobs in the late 90s 🤣

[@onekycarscanners6002]

Now we talk to not too intelligent bots Llms there is a time in the future where the prompt Eng will now be Reverse Prompt Eng. As in Interpreting the massive intelligence of Ai back to human intelligence or understanding.

[@currentphonograph7487]

I got a job rejection letter today too

[@zb2747]

Prompt engineer will soon be intertwined with general SWE job

[@akob3349]

The short tire replacement period means that dust is emitted quickly. And how much cost will the government collect when recycling a battery in the US?

[@swaggery]

Why did't you put the job requirements in the video?

[@jimj2683]

To young people getting suckered by high salaries in the tech world: Only the best of the best earn these salaries, the rest make only $50-70k. If you want a guaranteed great salary you should become a doctor or a dentist. My cousin travels the country and works short periods at remote hospitals in strong need of doctors. He makes $15k per week! It allows him to get giant loans to leverage real estate investments and it also allows him the time and flexibility to be a founder on the side.

[@sandro-nigris]

Love your videos! Nicely done. Very informative, thanks!

[@Abebil3]

The best in your search. No pun intended.

[@sreejikm]

I have done prompt engineering course. To understand how prompting works. But to be a prompt engineer you need to understand left and right first😂

[@TheDoomer666]

well, I can tell left from right 96% of the time, does that make me ready to jump onto the $250k offer? 😮

[@BU_IDo]

The tech industry really likes to toss around the word engineer into a lot of the things they do which I think is a slap in the face of regular engineers. With them, a four-year degree is not really required to be an engineer LOL.

[@nikoladd]

Someone that knows how to talk in a highly structured way... That's literally what coding is. As the old saying goes - Computers don't do what you want. They do, what you tell them to.

[@Dom-zy1qy]

Prompt engineer role would make more sense if it was a role that focused on analyzing the actual inference & activations of the LLM based on the prompt. However, that's more of a scientific/research type thing. Not an engineering skill. Basically nobodies going to pay you money to do something anyone can do themselves.

[@sacgeekgirl]

Awsm Info! ❤❤❤

[@pauldannelachica2388]

that's why the open source AI model is the right way to go

[@jaybee9054]

Job title "AI Whisperer"...

[@mandisaw]

More like "VC startup programmer"

[@EmeMemYT]

so now I need to apply as well.

[@CleoCat75]

The dog's name is Browser?! lolol, that's awesome.

[@RyansBlock]

Job shortage right now in the US AI will help take the jobs we don’t want, at least initially

[@BW4EIRE]

Excellent, informative, entertaining.

[@anispinner]

- how long did you want to become a prompt engineer? - i wanted to apply for this job my whole life! - well, this title is only one year old -

[@JayceeBoucher-l6w]

At least Joanna can still keep her WSJ job.

[@ben_car_8115]

“It’s like a translator between the human and the machine”. Like a programmer…?

[@Xizlle]

Best Coursera Ad

[@piotrek7633]

i don't get the difference between software engineer and prompt engineer, like software engineers will prompt either way, in which universe does a prompt engineer do more? The better foundations of knowledge you have the better you can prompt because you know what you want to look for

[@imthenomad]

Wait until mass layoffs and market crash due to over saturation 😂

[@rishisharma8311]

Seriously? 250k!! Trust me when i say its overhyped. You just need to write good english sentences

[@drinkingpoolwater]

they'll never hire anyone though. these companies keep ads out just to test the waters.

[@ReverantSinner]

If only software engineers could.

[@rishisharma8311]

😂@@ReverantSinner

[@Kajehart]

Yeah, there's a lot to it, I'm finding out. I took that Dr White course, too. Im gonna also take his Data Anaytics class and his third class. Though I have a front-end web designing background, Python seems to be a prerequisite, too. Yeah, it could be outdated by the time GPT5 and AGI happens. Because then, API will quickly train itself to become ASI but, I'm gonna see if it will take me anywhere.

[@bobfearnley5724]

Getting an interview is the most unrealistic part of the video. They got a deal so that's why this exists

[@EmeMemYT]

I also graduated from this course.

[@ChrisBlogs1]

Amazing video looks that she learn so many things in this video...

[@SuriLee-zd1lx]

我没有任何技术基础，但是我非常会提问，结构化地提问，那么请问可以做prompt工程师吗？

[@MystifulHD]

"Prompt Engineer" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 basically a job that tells a robot what job to do. What happens when they automate this?

[@AiUnveiled106]

Thanks for the information

[@jena.mw48]

@ 4:44 Swetha could use AI to help her write a better (more personal) rejection email.

[@hugogonzalez8690]

This Job and likely this company will only be around till Q* is publicly deployed.

[@LanguagesWithAndrew]

Your dog's name is *Browser?!* Bwahahaha that's great!

[@cesarjlisboa7586]

Excellent!!❤

[@iuseyoutubealot]

i wanted to be a prompt engineer since i was a kid

[@3thinking]

I have an MSc in Prompt Engineering, 15+ years Prompt Engineering experience (with GPT-5 and 6) and am a Certified Prompt Engineer with the Prompt Engineering Certification Board. Where's my $250K job? 🤣

[@ddHPE2020]

You always wanted to a prompt engineer 😃😃😃

[@LCTesla]

I don't think we're going to have "prompting" much longer. We'll probably move on to visual UIs that make you pick from a list of options or dimensions that are relevant to your question, or a dialogue between the bot and the prompter. We'll get rid of all the trickery and esotericism around prompting and make the ways you can influence a bot's response open and accessible. The fact that we need a 250K earning expert for this is a liability to the process.

[@jonathanrosado8874]

It seems like a natural evolution, but I wonder… the core of the technology is centered around text and written language. If we do build UIs around this tech, it would still have to “compile” into written text to perform actions. So, even if we add UI layers on top, theoretically you’d still need prompt engineers. Text is to LLMs what code is to computers, essentially.

[@inbornwanderlust1076]

​@@jonathanrosado8874 I think so too. Probably why this is currently a 250k job. Most people today know how to interact with devices visually while writing skills are declining. As a prompt engineer you would need to have strong writing ability and also know how to structure your inputs in a way that the backend of a chat bot would understand. You need to know how information is stored and accessed and also how to effectively and efficiently extract what you want through your writing and language skills. I honestly don't see a lot of people, especially younger ones, today having this skill set.

[@navypinkdesign]

That was, for me, a very unsatisfying answer from the CEO about job security after the work has been mastered

[@Daroqe]

I think I lost brain cells listening to that CEO

[@sainadhjasthi2164]

I know English & Python. Can i apply ? 😢

[@ryhanon7]

Did I catch that right? Your dog's name is Browser? Great name.

[@FASTDTpodcast]

Everyone is going to need critical thinking skills and technological literacy. Companies are leaning heavy on AI to complete task efficiently. Sadly, we have already been using AI like with Google Maps and these algorithms.

[@maryshane8023]

The CEO is a hunk more on him please.

[@tylerdurden9411]

I have news for you, it's no longer available, because another Ai take it already

[@antoineford1185]

I took that course! Great

[@themoon1886]

Hi did u find a job? Do u have a high salary?

[@kbkesq]

Good job.

[@Helen_590]

Lol even in the fake job experience, and talking to the ceo, she was still denied the job 😂

[@JD-zw5os]

This is sooooo erroneous I could spit! Prompt engineer - “engineer”, good Lord! Companies require some sort of computer /IT degree for this role. Very disappointed with wsj. Any student seeking careers would be completely misled! This is ridiculous.

[@GhostruckerX]

250k in NYC ain't that impressive.

[@mbg9650]

What is the trade?

[@patricksears163]

I can't believe this is actually a job

[@CoachStaci]

What we learned: Journalists don't have tech skills - their training is not transferable.

[@NewzNow1]

They had ChatGPT write her rejection email.😂

[@gregnixon1296]

I can't understand how this is a job. The LLMs will tell you how to ask them questions.

[@veronicasmemories]

This is so cool!!

[@ahmedog219]

I really dont know where to start and become a prompt engineer lol

[@AlexdeSoto]

Great video!

[@BisheshBhowmick]

Didn't Nvidia CEO just hinted about this?

[@allanperalta7984]

Wondering why every company are becoming obsessed by AI. Imagine how the world survived the past decades without these tools, it's killing livelihoods in general

[@dianepuri870]

so what was the result when she applied

[@GBakerish]

Great story

[@R-ok3cl]

Can’t we use AI to generate the best prompts for an AI?

[@utubes720]

Why are there so many ignorant disgruntled comments about Prompt Engineering? If you knew the role, you'd know it's a skilled role often combining programming skills, data science, and AI knowledge. You playing around on ChatGPT prompts is NOT the job, nor qualify you to make snide comments that only illustrate your complete ignorance.

[@tfozo]

when the GPT gets very very fluent and spot on then what?