> which is much harder than it was in 2016 due to increased competition, and the requirement for Masters/PhD nowadays
The requirement for most ML jobs in 2012 (when I graduated) was a Ph.D. I took literally every course on machine learning my university offered (six or so) as an undergrad with the hopes of landing an ML position when I graduated. I gave up on trying to find a position because they all required Ph.Ds.
I even had a solid portfolio, as I had successfully applied neural nets to solve a couple of problems by then. One involved real-time image processing and it was on github.
It seems much easier to get a job in the field now.
The requirement for most ML jobs in 2012 (when I graduated) was a Ph.D. I took literally every course on machine learning my university offered (six or so) as an undergrad with the hopes of landing an ML position when I graduated. I gave up on trying to find a position because they all required Ph.Ds.
I even had a solid portfolio, as I had successfully applied neural nets to solve a couple of problems by then. One involved real-time image processing and it was on github.
It seems much easier to get a job in the field now.