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Data Scientist / AI Engineer
Turn data into decisions and build AI products
Typical pay
₹8L–₹40L+ per year
To first job
8–18 months
Difficulty
Challenging
Data science and AI is the fastest-growing field in the world. You build models that predict, classify, and generate — from fraud detection to ChatGPT. India is at the centre of this wave with thousands of ML jobs at Zepto, CRED, Google, Microsoft and more.
Step by step
Your roadmap
1
Core skills
0–4 months- Learn Python: NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib.
- Learn statistics: distributions, hypothesis testing.
- Complete Andrew Ng's ML course.
- Learn SQL — every data job needs it.
2
Build & specialise
4–10 months- Build 3 end-to-end projects on Kaggle or real data.
- Learn PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Explore LLMs: fine-tune a small model, build a RAG app.
- Write about your projects on Medium or LinkedIn.
3
Job search
10–18 months- Apply for data analyst roles first — an easier entry point.
- Contribute to open-source ML projects.
- Prep for ML interviews: coding + ML system design.
What you'll get good at
Skills you build
PythonSQLMachine LearningDeep LearningStatisticsLLMs / GenAI
Where it leads
Roles you can land
Data Analyst
Data Scientist
ML Engineer
AI Engineer
Research Scientist
Let's be honest
Myths vs. reality
You need a PhD
Most industry ML roles need a strong portfolio, not a PhD.
You must be a math genius
You need intuition for stats and linear algebra, not proofs.
Start here
Where to learn
Andrew Ng ML SpecializationPaid
fast.aiFree
KaggleFree
StatQuest (YouTube)Free