University Education Is Not Ready For AI Job Change WhatCanYouDo? | MIT/UCL Alum Quit DS Follow-up

[@SeanTechStories]

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[@uchennakingsley1354]

Thank You, For the Upload Sean 👍🏽

[@SeanTechStories]

No worries!

[@weiimyi]

Hi Sean, I completely agree with this video! It's amazing how much easier it is to access knowledge now. I recently graduated with a degree in Data Science, focusing on ML/DL algorithms. Streamlit and Gradio were the go-to UI tools for data science guys. After building a JS app with Cursor in just 30 minutes, I decided to pivot to software engineering. While there’s still plenty of messy code out there from LLM, understanding system design and core software engineering concepts remain absolutely essential! Thank you for your valuable insights.

[@SeanTechStories]

Agreed with what you said and best of luck on your career! I think the next few years will be very exciting!

[@hadaraly]

really some good words of wisdom there. Thanks Sean for your thoughts. Being a DS Major . I really wished you 'd make this video . Gave me alot of clarity

[@SeanTechStories]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alaminerca]

Thanks. I'm happy i understood these cool things you highlights early in my Bs Cs journey. From tweaking FPGA board, learning finance, data analysis to Bio-Informatic. Today i feel very confident. Not even worry about getting job after graduation, i started my own tech business. CS is very reliable bridge, if one is open minded. “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend” (Bruce Lee)

[@SeanTechStories]

Sounds great!

[@arifaakter9882]

I'm going to take CSE next year. But I'm a bit worry about the job market specially when everyone is saying the jobs are collapsing. Can you please give me advice about if I should take CS degree or not??

[@SeanTechStories]

Coding is no longer a very expensive skill, that’s for sure. Now the question is, how would the job market shift over time to adjust the current salary market. I’d say it’s still really important to know CS basics, but def it’s becoming more and more important to understand customer needs and build things fast to fulfill those needs as smaller teams, rather than relying on hiring a very large Eng team.

[@arifaakter9882]

@@SeanTechStories So you are saying, after taking CSE, I should try to build startups and try other things rather than traditional jobs?? Thanks for your advise. I was worring about it so hard. I also thinking about trying side hassle besides studing

[@SeanTechStories]

Try everything. Now nobody knows what would happen to the job market in the next 1-5 years:)

[@williampeoch465]

Super insightful especially since o3 just raised a lot of question the last few days

[@SeanTechStories]

Thanks!!

[@djintotjandra247]

Thanks for sharing...You are awesome!

[@SeanTechStories]

No worries!

[@ChimiChuri-k2o]

I noticed the old material aspect at my university. I am currently in panic trying to gather skills through extracurricular activities.

[@SeanTechStories]

I totally understand that. But you know what’s funny in life is that I didn’t get to use much of the stuff I learned in university eventually and most of the stuff I’m using now are things I learnt from extra curricular activities. Stay strong and keep doing what motivates you 💪

[@juls313]

hi Sean! I’m a fan of your content and really thankful for your story and insights. I was wondering what you thought about the point that developing specialized expert-level domain knowledge might become even more valuable than before, especially in large organizations, because this knowledge is irreplaceable (currently) by LLMs and results in actual improvement. E.g., senior SWEs benefit from the huge productivity boost LLMs grant them by automating less complex tasks, understand how to fully put systems together and debug the potential bugs in LLM code, and would be able to do the multi-skill learning better than junior SWEs, while non-specialized junior SWEs, even those who may be multi-skilled in a lot of domains are replaceable by LLMs(though this still might be valuable in startups). Again, thanks a lot!

[@SeanTechStories]

I think your point is super valid. In my view, specialising with deep knowledge is definitely important but sticking with only one skillet is not recommended. Absolutely go for it if you can be an expert in certain specialized SWE skill set but for people who are less technical like a DS role, it’s important to equip ourselves with more than just DS knowledge.

[@tamdinh9263]

Have u needed traditional higher math like proof linear algebra and real analysis? Switching from CS to statistics major

[@SeanTechStories]

For the major yes, for jobs no;)

[@hanzo7616]

Im not going to drop out. Ill just do a masters for a better degree. Gonna convert my CS degree to Masters in Engineering or something.

[@SeanTechStories]

Go for it💪

[@khangduong2413]

I'm not gonna lie, university education does not have to do anything at all. It's better to keep the sake of having a job this challenging. In fact, I don't think the job market wouldn't have been this terrible if they hadn't praised tech sector 5-10 years ago. Just be silent and let everyone figure their own way out of this inevitable consequence. It's not about having a job, it's about knowing what values we give to deserve one. What comes up indeed goes down, resistance is of waste.

[@SeanTechStories]

You might be right;)

[@krislai7453]

Hello, I’m a new subscriber and a recent graduate. I started working as a Data Analyst two months ago at a large non-tech company in US, where I occasionally work on machine learning tasks as well. As the only data person on the team, I’d appreciate any advice on how to effectively demonstrate my value and earn trust from my team and manager. Thank you!

[@SeanTechStories]

Hey thanks for subscribing and congrats on starting your career! I can definitely relate to this feeling of wanting to earn trust and demonstrate value quickly. I used to be on the only data scientist on a product team at Google for some time and I guess here are the few things I learnt from my colleagues and my org’s managers: 1. Make sure you talk to as many of your stakeholders as possible. They need to know who you are first before they trust you. You need to understand what their priorities are first before they prioritize helping you. 2. Understand what DS really means within your team. If you are the only DS, do they expect you to be the data expert who knows where the data are or do they expect you to deploy ML models that can do magic for them. Manage their expectations well and don’t be afraid to tell your manager early what your career goal is, I.e. what do you really want to work on 3. Participate in discussions early. If the product , UX, Eng are discussing the roadmap or what’s next, join them and try to support them with data first. Even if things are at early stage, you can keep chiming in by adding values such as what metrics they should use, what features could be launched and how do we measure or test them. Keep things organised and documented. 4. Don’t be afraid to host some office hours or seminars if people ask you repeated questions. Sometimes this is a way to showcase your knowledge and work. And also helps you avoid double working. 5. Keep learning new things. Never ever ever ever settle on the tools you feel comfortable using. Keep learning new techniques for DS, product and even a bit of development.

[@krislai7453]

@@SeanTechStories I really appreciate the advice! Do you think having a mentor is important for analysts just starting their careers? Should I consider reaching out to Data Scientists or Analysts from other departments, or is it better to focus on figuring things out on my own? Our product is really niche and we are really early in integrating data analysis into our process. Thank you!

[@SeanTechStories]

Yes it’s important to have mentors. Go talk to other DS and ask them what challenges they are facing and what tools they are using etc. You got nothing to lose!

[@ryancxe]

I’m in a weird spot. I have stumbled through life without exposure to any of the world I am seeing now, I worked in Sales and landed a role in auditing in Big4 for 3yrs now. Now I am best friends with a Product Manager and I am exposed to many people in start ups and random projects with all these different companies. I see everyone who are doing interesting projects and are working as Solutions Architects or Product Managers, and I can’t help but feel deeply lesser than, and that I feel nothing for everything I have achieved over my life this far. I can’t helped but feel my time is wasted when I don’t value any of the things I have been doing over the last years. I hate to be a downer but I going through a rough stage.

[@SeanTechStories]

Don’t be. For PMs and folks in startups, what’s lacking is sales skillsets. Startups need sales but they also need generalists who can build and sell. Pick up some technical skills and use that to make your sales expertise shine even more!

[@SeanTechStories]

Previous video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWLGn4R9ZZJ_hpY (I Was An MIT/UCL Trained Data Scientist Now Quit DS, Self-Taught As Full-Stack Founder HowDidItWork?)

[@manunitedred8912]

Am starting my next masters in computer science. I got a bachelors and masters in Aerospace Engineering. Next masters degree will be mathematics after the computer science one.

[@SeanTechStories]

Best of luck!

[@Md.MujiburRahman-q9b]

I agree with your opinion.

[@mzikayisentuli4449]

Hi Sean,i just did Diploma in data analystics, i am at the Network Operations Centre working as network engineer,i would like to learn more in AI, Data, and Machine Learning....which certification do you recommend for me ?.Thank you

[@SeanTechStories]

Hi there! Thanks for sharing your background and what you’d like to learn! Tbh at this moment I don’t recommend any course or certificate, but just to understand some basics of the knowledge, and then just try to prompt your way through Cursor or ChatGPT or Claude by building something from the ground up, whether it’s a ML model in a Jupyter notebook or a full stack app/website, doesn’t matter, these days any course or certificates could be outdated in a short period of time, the most important thing is to develop the habit of trying new ideas by just building it with AI. You will learn through the journey from a beginner to an expert with conversations with AI.

[@abhishekdas8807]

Hi Sean, I'm 22 and really confused, cuz some of these data engineering, data scientist roles require a masters and PhD... however, I'm more of an indie dev, pls recommend me what should I do to stand-out?

[@SeanTechStories]

Tbh I’m not sure how to stand out as these days HRs could just filter out resumes who don’t fit into their criteria. But from my personal experience it’s def doable to just reach out to hiring managers on LinkedIn directly and convince them you can do the job better than those with masters or phd degrees. As an indie dev, why would you like to be a DS or DE?

[@abhishekdas8807]

@@SeanTechStories building real-time analytics systems and designing machine learning pipelines is something I enjoy, along-side working on my ideas... will you as a startup founder prefer an indie dev or someone with a pedigree degree (what qualities/things you look for when you hire someone)

[@SeanTechStories]

@@abhishekdas8807 I won’t care what degrees people have if I were to hire someone. I would rather observe how they solve a problem independently and how they work as a team player with my team.

[@enghimanshu]

but suppose i want to get a job at a company they still req someday who is good at a particular tech stack! how to deal with that ?

[@SeanTechStories]

Then learn that:) But keep your knowledge base flexible. TBH I wouldn’t worry too much about tech stack because at the core of it it’s always about understanding how to build software. Frameworks or programming languages are just the interface.

[@connor43057]

I agree that people shouldn’t confine themselves to being specialists, but relying on AI the way you’re suggesting is not a good idea. It prevents people from understanding the fundamentals and creates learned helplessness

[@SeanTechStories]

Fair point, however my suggestion was that it’s important to be multi-skilled, rather than feeling safe by sticking to one skill set that is traditionally sufficient to be a stable job.

[@Tay-ho6sg]

Well then provide solutions to unlearn helplessness then. You're an engineer/scientist. Go figure

[@SeanTechStories]

Indeed

[@Ynerson9003]

What do you think about pursuing thinks like ethical hacking? It’s hard to find what to focus on in the new ai age. Thanks for the nice video

[@SeanTechStories]

What is ethical hacking?

[@Ynerson9003]

@@SeanTechStories penetration testing/ red teaming cybersecurity type stuff.

[@Ynerson9003]

@@SeanTechStoriesalso I love what your doing becoming a founder and creating things. I think ai will enable us to create things we are curious about, as well as helping me self learning. Do you think there is any point getting a cs degree now?

[@SeanTechStories]

Ah I see! Thanks for explaining! I think ethical hacking is a skill that is good to have, unless you are really really passionate about it. Try to keep an open mind;)

[@SeanTechStories]

I think if you can get a CS degree, that def set you away from people who still feel scared of building even though AI is already powerful. You’ll be surprised how many people would just proudly claim that they will never touch code in their entire life. IMO they are missing out to some extend. But if your goal for getting a CS degree is to get a better job or be competitive in SWE roles, I think that’s not very easy any more.

[@kaivalyaagnihotri-gk1hv]

I have a bachelor's in chemistry and did PGD data science. Any advice for me. Currently unemployed

[@SeanTechStories]

What kind of advice would you like to hear? If it’s about finding jobs in DS, I think it could be hard these days because as far as I know there is a gap between supply and demand of DS jobs since Covid. But I think the best thing we can do is to reach out to as many people as possible, on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, alum network etc etc. I was doing job hunting during Covid for DS roles and it was super difficult and I couldn’t find a job for almost half a year. But eventually ended up with a DS role with a major company through LinkedIn networking. I feel like it’s gonna be very hard but don’t ever lose hope and all you can do is keep looking and keep talking to new people. Good luck!

[@parnpat7650]

Hey Sean, I am from India and going to Monash University Australia for bachelors in computer science.it’s a three year degree.my goal is to pursue my masters degree in computer science from MIT.it would be great if I can have your advice to achieve my goal🙏🏻

[@SeanTechStories]

Hey! I went to Monash for a semester before UCL! I really enjoyed Melbourne it is a beautiful city! I think for MIT you need to check which degree you are considering for masters or PhD. Let me know if you have specific degree in mind. Overall it is a place that appreciates research a lot so in general I’d recommend doing more research and trying to find your favorite topics in CS and go deep with it. And try to do more company internships or research interns.

[@parnpat7650]

@@SeanTechStoriesthanks for the reply.i want to pursue masters degree at MIT. As for monash,did you liked your time as a student there? It will be helpful to have your insight as I am starting there in February 2025.

[@SeanTechStories]

I enjoyed my time there as a student. But I’m not very familiar with the job market in Australia and how do graduates from Monash feel about job hunting. I think you need to figure it out by experiencing it yourself;)

[@dungeonmir]

Is learning fortran syntax an old material...

[@SeanTechStories]

I don’t know 😂

[@Philosophy_IQ]

few will understand

[@SeanTechStories]

?

[@sizwemsomi239]

100%...

[@SeanTechStories]

;)

[@FRANCIS-b1d]

wow