The Harsh Reality of Being an ML Researcher

Author(s): Boris Meinardus

Originally published on Towards AI.

What you need to expect when entering the field of ML research.

We all know that Machine Learning is the hottest thing to work on right now. And if you are a researcher, especially at a famous lab, start-up, or big tech company, you are literally at the frontier of developing the arguably biggest technology of mankind while earning a lot of money.

So, with this post, I definitely don’t want to talk down the ML researcher career, but I want to shed some light on what the harsh reality of being an ML researcher can look like and whether it is something for you.

For context, I have been an ML student researcher for the past 3 years, am collaborating with a researcher at Google DeepMind, have published a paper at a top conference, and have had 2 papers rejected.

Sigh… The last rejection was so stupid… I just have to explain it to you in a second.

Okay, let’s directly address the elephant in the room. How likely is it that you will become an ML researcher or even engineer who earns multiple 100k a year at a top company like OpenAI, Google, or Meta?

The short answer and harsh reality is: it is difficult. Very difficult. But not impossible.

Of course, for some, it is… Read the full blog for free on Medium.

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Published via Towards AI