Lesson 10: AI Career Paths

Roles, skills, portfolios, and how to get your first opportunity

Popular Roles in AI

Data Analyst

Turns raw data into insights with dashboards and reports.

SQLExcelTableauPython

ML Engineer

Builds and deploys ML models in production systems.

PythonScikit-learnTensorFlow/PyTorchAPIs

Data Scientist

Explores data, prototypes models, and communicates results to stakeholders.

StatsEDAMLStorytelling

MLOps Engineer

Automates training, deployment, and monitoring of ML systems.

CI/CDDockerCloudMonitoring

AI Ethics/Policy

Focuses on fairness, transparency, and compliance.

PolicyRiskAuditing

NLP/ CV Specialist

Builds models for language or vision—chatbots, OCR, detection.

TransformersCNN/ViTDatasets

Skill Roadmaps (Beginner → Job-Ready)

Core Foundations

  • Python basics (lists, dicts, functions), Git & GitHub
  • Math essentials: algebra, statistics, probability
  • Data wrangling with pandas; visualization (Matplotlib)

ML Essentials

  • Model types: regression, classification, clustering
  • Model evaluation: train/val/test, metrics, cross-validation
  • Feature engineering, overfitting, regularization

Deep Learning

  • Neural networks, CNNs, RNNs, Transformers (intro)
  • Transfer learning; fine-tuning pretrained models
  • Compute basics: GPUs, batching, optimization

Production & MLOps

  • APIs, containers (Docker), CI/CD
  • Monitoring, data/ concept drift, retraining
  • Security & privacy best practices

Build a Hiring-Ready Portfolio

Starter Projects

  • Spam classifier (text)
  • House price predictor (tabular)
  • Digit recognizer (vision)

Real-World Projects

  • Support ticket triage (NLP)
  • Store demand forecasting (time series)
  • Defect detection (computer vision)

Showcase Tips

  • Clean README with problem, data, metrics, demo GIF
  • Host a live demo (Streamlit/Gradio)
  • Write a short blog post per project

Quick Quiz

1) Which role focuses on putting models into production and monitoring them?

2) A strong portfolio should include…

3) Which skill is most relevant for Data Analysts?

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