When Hamza Mostafa started studying computer science at university, he pictured going into traditional software engineering at a Big Tech company after he graduated.
As time went on, though, he decided to specialize in AI. In 2024, he landed a three-month internship at OpenAI for the following year.
In an interview with Business Insider, Mostafa, 21, who is based in San Francisco and works on his own AI projects, shared his tips for people who want to take advantage of the AI boom and specialize in the field.
3 steps for breaking into AI: Go broad, specialize, and build
As AI and machine learning are quite broad topics, Mostafa suggested gaining a general understanding of the field before zeroing in on a specialization.
“For me, that was agents,” he said.
Once you’ve chosen your specialization, dive deep into it and start building projects around it. This can help identify gaps in your understanding and gain practical knowledge.
“The best way I learn is by doing and by building,” Mostafa said.
These projects can become something concrete to discuss during interviews to show employers you’ve explored the field, he said.
People who can show they “understand things at a very deep level” and follow the three-step formula of gaining a broad understanding, followed by picking a specialization, and building projects, are “highly employable,” Mostafa believes.
Ask AI to teach you about AI
When building an understanding of the AI field, AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can help teach key concepts, Mostafa said.
“I still do this every day. I’ll go on Claude or ChatGPT and have it explain these concepts to me to make sure I really understand to the deepest level, but also to a level where I can explain it to my mother, for example, who doesn’t really understand AI,” he said.
When Mostafa was beginning to research AI himself, he made use of YouTube, searching for “intro to AI” videos that could explain natural language processing and large language models.
“I’m sure there’s probably tons of other blogs or resources that are great too,” he added.
Courtesy of Hamza Mostafa
Focus on what you can control
“The tech ecosystem sometimes can be a bit toxic,” Mostafa said, adding that opening LinkedIn and seeing people talk about the rough job market or the hot job they’ve landed can be demotivating.
Though he knew he couldn’t control the job market, he concentrated on getting his résumé in order and trying to network.
“For me, what really helped was focusing on what’s in my control,” he said, encouraging students and job seekers trying to break into the industry to do the same.
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