How to Transition from Software Engineering to AI Engineering
Dan has been a software engineer for 25 years, more than 15 of them at the same telecom company. He wants to move into a senior AI role, and for three years he’s been hoping a layoff would make the decision for him. I loved that. I told him he was the first person I’d […]
Is AI Engineering a Good Long-Term Career? Lessons from Hadoop and Spark
Data engineer, 15+ years, doubting AI engineering will last? The answer is sitting in your own resume: Hadoop and Spark. On a call this week, a data engineer with 15+ years behind her told me her honest doubt about the move into AI engineering: “I doubt how many jobs will be there after three, four […]
How to Return to Tech After a Career Break with AI Engineering
Back from a career break, and tech looks nothing like you left it? Here’s how one developer turned that gap into an AI engineering plan. I spoke with a developer this week — 15+ years across back-end and data engineering. I’ll call her Priya. She was laid off last year. Instead of rushing straight back […]
Do You Need Machine Learning to Become an AI Engineer?
Senior engineer, avoiding AI roles because you never did ML? AI engineers don’t build the brain. Here’s what they actually do. On a call this week I spoke with a senior architect — 20+ years across Java, cloud, and microservices — who is actively moving into AI engineering. Even he had the map of these […]
AI Engineering Certifications vs Projects: What Actually Gets You Hired
20 years in tech, still collecting certifications to prove it? An architect chasing AI engineering roles told me why that fails. I spoke with a senior architect this week — 20+ years across Java, cloud, and microservices. I’ll call him Sam. Sam is preparing for a major AI certification right now. So what he said […]
AI Engineering for Front-End Developers: Your Path In
Every AI application needs a frontend. Front-end devs: here’s why that’s your path into AI engineering. On a call this week, a senior front-end engineer asked me what the chances really are for someone with his background. Fair question. Almost everything written about AI engineering is back-end: pipelines, deployment, infrastructure. From the outside it can […]
Front-End Developer to AI Engineer: How to Make the Transition
Front-end dev in your 40s, and worried AI is shrinking your field? Here’s the way out: AI engineering, learned by building. I spoke with a front-end engineer this week — six years in, React and TypeScript, uses Claude Code at work every day. I’ll call him Andre. He’s in his 40s, and he told me […]
How to Learn AI Engineering: Why You Should Start Without Frameworks
Are you learning AI engineering by starting with a framework? Here’s the advice I gave a data engineer this week. It probably applies to you too. I’ll call him Sameer. 3+ years of building data pipelines at a large insurance company, now moving into AI engineering. He asked me a simple question: what should my […]
Data Engineer to AI Engineer: Why Now Is the Time to Make the Move
Are you a data engineer watching AI do your job in minutes? Here’s why one engineer I spoke with is moving into AI engineering now — not in three years. I’ll call him Sameer. Data engineer at a large insurance company, 3+ years of building production pipelines. Python, SQL, Databricks, AWS, Snowflake. Six months ago, […]
Why Software Engineers Should Learn AI Engineering Now
I spoke with a software engineer whose company is being sold in 12 to 18 months. Here’s why he’s building AI engineering skills now, while his job is still safe. Call him Marcus. A few months ago he tried to build something with RAG, and in his words: “I realized I didn’t know what I […]