The Software Engineering Accelerator Podcast #4: How This 22-Year-Old Got a $250,000/Year Job at TikTok (AI Engineer)
In episode 4 of Lift Off with Aman Manazir, I talk to Sourish Kundu. We discuss how he landed a machine learning systems engineer job at TikTok, what it's like to work there, and how AI will transform the software engineering industry. Enjoy!
If you're a dedicated programmer who wants to land your dream internship or job in 2024 without spamming LeetCode, spending hours at career fairs, or building a personal website, join the Software Engineering Accelerator and work directly with me. Click this link to book a call: https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching
💌 Free weekly productivity insights/advice - https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter
📕 Get all my free Notion templates discussed here - https://www.amanmanazir.com/notion
📄 Get my free resume template - https://www.amanmanazir.com/resume
📝 Sign up for Notion - https://affiliate.notion.so/2nh3pjr6l5l6
📷 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amanmanazir/
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/amanmanazir
0:00 - Introduction
0:58 - How Sourish got into Reinforcement Learning
6:29 - The Value of a Passionate High School Teacher
8:28 - Would Sourish Consider Teaching
9:59 - How did Sourish Land his First Software Engineering Internship
13:40 - Advice for Freshman/Sophomores Looking for Internships
16:55 - How to Supercharge your Experience with Personal Projects
18:40 - Recommendations for Contributing to Open Source
20:30 - How Sourish got Prestigious Internships at Amazon and Capital One
22:48 - Discord Bots Help to Prepare for Interviews
23:40 - How many Practice Problems do you need for an Interview?
26:05 - How Sourish Started at TikTok
28:02 - Advice for a Software Engineering Interview
30:00 - Sourish's Experience as a TikTok Intern
31:52 - Sourish's Advice for Getting a Return Offer
39:20 - Day in the Life as a TikTok Machine Learning Engineer
42:20 - How is Sourish's Time Allocated?
45:49 - How has Sourish Improved at TikTok
48:45 - How Engineers at TikTok are Different
51:12 - How is ML Different than Other Fields?
53:30 - Best Resources for getting Deep in ML
55:18 - Machine Learning Papers
57:18 - Advice to Prepare for an AI Future
59:12 - Sourish's Experience with Public Speaking
1:01:00 - @3blue1brown Inspiration
1:02:00 - Sourish's YouTube Channel
1:03:25 - How Sourish Gets Ideas for Videos
1:07:03 - How to Get Started on YouTube
1:09:31 - The Value of Mentors
1:11:24 - How did Exercise Help Sourish?
1:13:23 - Advice for People to Improve their Fitness
1:18:35 - How did Self-Improvement Content Help Sourish
1:20:42 - Living in California
1:22:40 - Starting a Social Life in a New City
1:25:31 - What Makes a Close Friend?
1:26:50 - Sourish's Advice for his Younger Self
1:27:40 - Where to Find Sourish
1:28:10 - Outro
I'm Aman Manazir, a career coach and former software engineer. I make videos about making it as a computer science student and landing your dream job. I post new videos regularly, run a tech interview podcast, and run an email newsletter (https://amanmanazir.com/newsletter).