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As tech companies shell out millions for top AI talent—even reportedly billions—regular rank-and-file employees are left wondering how to get in on the action and land a job in artificial intelligence.
One report found that job postings that mention needing at least one AI skill had salaries 28% higher than other jobs. Jobs that required two AI skills had a 43% salary jump.
To begin with, it’s worth considering where the AI jobs are and how this intersects with your interests and existing skills. Many jobs in AI can roughly be divided into five different categories:
Researchers bring a deep understanding of neural networks and algorithm design to the table and can push the technology forward, but this is a very small pool and typically requires a PhD.
Engineers typically have programming skills that they can use to build AI applications.
Business strategists can fold AI into their company’s workflows and processes, or spearhead product development.
Domain experts understand how to apply AI to their field, while policymakers can craft AI ethics and use guidelines.
But what do you do once you’ve identified where you want to go?
Getting experience in AI, and developing skills in it, is a tricky proposition because the field is still so nascent. Plus, things are evolving at breakneck speed; what worked a couple of years ago may not be a silver bullet today. But some strategies—being scrappy, curious, and adaptable—could prove timeless. We interviewed both HR and recruiting pros, as well as people who have managed to build up their AI skills to land a job in the industry, to learn:
While companies such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Thomson Reuters are rolling out company-wide initiatives to ensure their entire staff gets trained in AI, that isn’t true of most companies. Only 2 in 5 employees report receiving AI training on the job.
If your company doesn’t have AI training, get on projects that do involve AI.
“Get some experience at your existing company before you try to jump into a truly AI-focused role,” says Cheryl Yuran, chief human resources officer at Absorb Software, an AI-powered learning platform provider. “Have something on your résumé to talk about from an AI standpoint.”
Yuran points out that Absorb isn’t able to find enough people with AI experience for all of their teams. That’s how few people are out there in the workforce with an actual background in it.
Instead, the company makes sure there are one or two members with AI experience on their teams. The remaining jobs go to candidates or insiders who demonstrate they can add value, whether it’s deep product knowledge or excellent communication skills.
If there aren’t AI projects or initiatives at your job, create them. Or experiment with ways to use AI to help you do your job.
Gabriel Harp, a former product manager for multiple companies in academic publishing, oversaw the launch of an AI-powered writing assistant in 2023 at Research Square, an Inc. 5000 company. “Although my degree is in English and German, I’ve spent more than a decade building software products,” Harp says.
For the AI writing assistant, Harp set the initial vision and scope of the project, working on the branding and go-to-market strategy, conducting quality analysis, and much more. Harp wasn’t an engineer, yet he still leveraged his background to get great AI experience just before it was popular (or needed) to have any.
Since then, he’s served as head of product strategy at a startup that uses AI to build privacy tools.
When Harp went on the job market, he had plenty to discuss during interviews, although he has a degree in the humanities. “Since I’d been using AI in the workplace, I was more familiar than the average person with these tools,” he says.
He recently landed a senior staff product manager job at Mozilla.
“We’re seeing a lot of emerging talent or people who want to shift their career path,” says Prashanthi Padmanabhan, VP of engineering at LinkedIn, who regularly hires for AI talent. “Nothing beats showing you’ve actually [used AI] on the job.”
If getting close to an AI project at work isn’t an option, you can always take courses.
Right before the pandemic, Amanda Caswell was working as a copy lead at Amazon when she became interested in AI. She started listening to podcasts about AI and signed up for courses, including an online prompt engineering class at Arizona State University, an AI boot camp by OpenAI, and a generative AI and prompt engineering master class by LinkedIn.
“Start at the 101 level, even if you have some experience,” she says. “That way you’ll know industry best practices, which can help you teach others. Because who knows? You might have to do a job in AI training.”
In 2020, Caswell started getting gigs as a prompt engineer at Upwork and has made close to $200,000 on the platform, only working about 20 hours a week. In addition, her knowledge of prompt engineering helped her land a job as an AI journalist at Tom’s Guide.
Similarly, Cesar Sanchez, a full-stack engineer (who is now an AI engineer) became interested in AI in 2023. He immediately signed up for a Coursera course on generative AI with large language models to get an understanding of the fundamentals.
“It was a great decision. It offered me a strong foundation and helped me understand the theory,” Sanchez says. He also signed up for another course that offered him access to a network of AI engineers. “While I didn’t necessarily learn new things, I was able to connect with other engineers and compare my skills to what else was out there in the market,” he adds. “Plus, I got lots of free credits for using tools and platforms.”
This article has been edited...if you would like to read the entire interview with Frankel click here!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shalene Gupta is the staff editor for Fast Company's Work Life section. She reviews contributor essays for Work Life and writes about the way we work now and how this will change in the future.
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