Down Angle Icon An icon shaped like an angle pointing downwards. Supreet Kaur
- Supreet Kaur received a job offer from Microsoft after interviewing at 15 companies.
- After two years working in AI at Morgan Stanley, Kaur saw a major shift in the market for AI roles.
- He stressed the need for LLM experience, networking and understanding a company’s AI needs.
Supreet Kaur, 29, has interviewed at 15 companies over the past few months and has just received an offer from Microsoft.
Before landing her new role, she spent the past two years developing and managing data and AI solutions at Morgan Stanley. She said the job market for AI roles has changed dramatically since she started looking for them about two years ago.
As Big Tech CEOs scramble for AI talent, some candidates are fighting for a place in an increasingly competitive job market.
Kaur has a graduate degree in data science, worked in AI at a large bank, and is an ambassador for Google’s WomenTechMakers program — yet she said she didn’t hear back from companies when she started her job search.
Once Kaur made some adjustments to her approach, she was able to start seeing results and eventually landed the position of cloud solutions architect at Microsoft. If you’re looking for a job in AI, Kaur said these are the four key things you need to know.
The LLM experience is now an industry standard
Kaur said that when she interviewed for AI positions two years ago, companies were looking for machine learning experience. Now, companies are looking to develop AI products. She said companies are more eager to see that a candidate has worked with a chatbot or a text classification system.
Kaur said experience in generative AI or an LLM is now a basic standard, and she didn’t start receiving interview responses until she was trained in this area.
When Kaur saw how many recruiters were asking for this, she volunteered at an organization and completed a three-month master’s in law project. While many applicants looking to enter the field now participate in AI workshops or boot camps, Kaur suggests doing a use case project. Kaur created her own enterprise-level project out of the volunteer experience so she could talk about it in depth in interviews.
Cold applications may not work this time
Kaur said she didn’t send out too many cold requests, but she didn’t get a response from the ones she did send. Instead, she said she spent her time networking and reaching out to recruiters. She said she aimed to send out at least two messages and three to four personalized connection requests every day.
He also tried to spread the message that he was looking for work by telling people in professional settings that he was available.
“The best way to look for a job is when you don’t need one,” Kaur said. “You should go to events, to meetings.”
Be specific
Kaur said companies have seen a shift in mindset in recent years. Today, they are looking for a much more targeted experience, Kaur said.
“When I interviewed in 2022, people were more interested in what I had done in data science,” Kaur said.
“This time all my interviews were super specific about what the companies wanted,” she added.
With companies’ hiring portals flooded with qualified candidates, Kaur said she needed to narrow down her options. Kaur said she narrowed her search, moving from product manager to solutions architect, once she realized her first attempt was too broad.
Kaur also recommends networking with employees at the company you’re applying to and asking them what the company is looking for. She said this is crucial to understanding their needs and the type of experience they’re specifically looking for in a candidate.
Having an online presence helps
Kaur also spent the past few years building an online presence.
She said she has spoken at dozens of events and that many of them led to subsequent interviews. They also helped her stand out in the application process.
“During the interview, a hiring manager told me, ‘You’re the 100th candidate I’m interviewing for this position,'” Kaur said. “So it’s obviously very competitive, so it’s important for you to stand out.”
Kaur said she started by reaching out to the university she attended and telling professors she was available to speak about her experience. From there, she was able to start building a following and booking regular appointments, including AI Summit New York, BNY Mellon, Re-Work New York, Women in Data Science Series, and Women in AI Series.
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