HACKER Q&A
📣 nextUpFANG

What AI/ML domain should I choose at FANG?


I have a neat opportunity to join an AI/ML team at FANG, where I can choose the team. I have no formal AI/ML background, so would very much be learning on the job (I realize it won't be a walk in the park).

The issue is, that there's mindblowing tech all over the company, and I'd like to learn all of it. How should I think about zeroing in on a domain? Domains include Ranking, Computer Vision, NLP, Personalization, among others.


  👤 AlDante2 Accepted Answer ✓
Ranking is more specific to the particular company. At Netflix and Amazon it is obviously very important, as it is part of their recommender systems. At Google, probably less so.

Computer Vision and NLP are both extremely hot research topics. Knowledge gained in either one is highly applicable elsewhere. If you go into NLP I recommend learning about the problems other languages pose, don't just learn NLP for English, if you can.

Personalisation is not something I can say anything about.