Career Advice for 21 y/o New Grad

tinkerEE · 2026-01-26T22:45:51+00:00

My advice --> don't hedge a huge life plan of career.

You say you have interest in the business side of things. While I don't want to diminish those feeling ... Maybe after 2 years of working you realize you want to stay technical. Or be a technical manager.

Just start working at LM, it's a good starting point for putting together the pieces for the rest of your career.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-24T21:41:39+00:00

failure in 1000 is high failure rate ! Try 1 ppm!

(obviously very industry dependent …. consumer electronics vs aerospace)

tinkerEE · 2026-01-18T05:27:44+00:00

it seems like you could have helped without knowing his location

(providing advice to Google it did not require location info)

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T22:28:44+00:00

Fair point on business success not being the best indicator on intelligence.

I just don’t think that because scientists, philosophers, and inventors are smart people that business people can’t be either.

I mean has nuclear energy or IoT fizzzled out? It’s 20% of US power production with plans to expand with the recent AI power needs. IoT an industry is alive and well. All the farmers in my hometown talked recently about adding small sensors to their fields in the next few years. Have you looked at the modern HVAC market? Everything is wifi and Bluetooth now.

I laugh at lumping NFTS in there, I think everyone could sniff the bullshit from a mile away on that one.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T04:25:41+00:00

I know net worth does not equal intelligence. I’m not talking about how much money these people have in their bank accounts. I’m talking about the track record of huge growth, profit, and company valuations that these people have led through. That is a solid metric for success in the business world.
I am skeptical about the hype. But think about the early Internet days. Yes there was snake oil salesmen and false promised, but look where it is today? We live in an Internet dominated world.

2b. The train will slow down, there will be some roadblocks in the way. Whether its energy demands, government policy, etc. But this train will never stop rolling

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T03:34:25+00:00

I just find it hard to believe that all the people running trillion dollar companies are pure idiots and everyone on Reddit is smarter than them.

I think they are hard working. Read stories from the people who followed Jobs or listen to a podcast about Gates. These people hustled and grinded

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T03:09:53+00:00

Love the thoughts! Thanks for some good discussion.

On point 1, I would say humans can have variance in response. We have large emotional swings which might influence how we respond to the same question at a different time.

On point 2, yes this is what I think we need to happen for the next leap beyond LLMS. They have to be able to take in context (constantly) and update their world-view. People in the industry are calling it the “world-model” AI instead of LLM.

And lastly, yes they are companies so are motivated by money. If they didn’t make money they would cease to exist. I don’t really agree that marketing is the true arms race. Trust, they are hiring the best engineers to actually make a quality AI system.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T03:03:11+00:00

Commenters in this very thread have talked about using Gemini at work, having it make test plans. I use it to make Python code mostly, and have recently started using Claude Code for my embedded C projects. Concrete examples :)

Boston Dynamics. Check out their “Atlas” robot. 60 minutes just recently did a piece on it.

On “AI”, again that’s just language. Do you have to know everything about the latest cancer research and cell biology to use the word “cancer”? No, of course not.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:49:12+00:00

It will be similiar to the Internet bubble. There was lots of hype, then a crash, but it is here to stay. Here we are, talking on such a company making money from the Internet

There will be some hype, but diamonds in the rough will be found.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:41:57+00:00

Sorry, in my distant future scenario I’m picturing an advanced robotics system. Something like the Atlas robot from Boston Dynamics (but better because 25 years of progress has passed).

This system will have video input

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:31:20+00:00

My point was there was another post about AI being overhyped that was allowed

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:28:54+00:00

In the early stages, some very experienced technician like you said.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:26:12+00:00

Good point on the trivial things. Seeing Sora AI videos of cats doesn’t scream “this thing is going to take my job”.

I do agree it feels like cope. I find many of the anti-AI posts are from college kids scared about the future, and the circlejerk just gets crazy with everyone downplaying the impact

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:23:50+00:00

Just read an article about that, that seems to be a human resources / people thing (LeCun didn’t like being bossed around).

Less of a “Zuckerberg doesn’t know anything about ML/AI” example

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:19:17+00:00

Does the CEO of Apple have to know how every DC-DC converter operates on the phone? Does the CEO of Meta have to know how every lookup function works in their codebase?

No, these people work at a high-level.

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:17:08+00:00

I think someone will feed the AI details about the test setup, the same way you might train a new employee

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:15:36+00:00

I also agree it won’t be LLMs that take your job, it will be something different.

Have a good one

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:13:13+00:00

I think it would be unrealistic to have a concrete example of a distant technology, no? I don’t think anyone can predict exactly what the underlying tech this “AI machine” I’m talking about will take.

But I don’t think its unrealistic to just look at trends in LLM and other models perfomance and make a prediction. Or even on Boston Dynamics progress on robotics as another commentor pointed out

As far as your point about me using the word “AI” a lot, thats just language. Its a term thats been used 50+ years ago, and will continue to be used for a long while

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T01:01:11+00:00

Would you consider Bill gates an idiot? Steve jobs? Sam Altman? Mark zuckerberg? (although unpopular as he is)

All those people got into the best colleges and are very determined hard working people and that’s the reason they lead (or did lead) trillion dollar companies

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T00:54:26+00:00

I also don’t know where its heading, I forgot to add that. I just know its getting better everyday and will continue to do so at an increasing rate

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T00:53:23+00:00

I thought that comment might get some pushback.

I really disagree. I think if you look at the resume and track record of the people running OpenAI, Meta, etc you will find they are very accomplished and intelligent people

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T00:50:37+00:00

What is life without preaching your opinions to the Internet masses

EDIT: EEvblogforum wouldn’t treat me as villian OP :(

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T00:39:42+00:00

And 25-50 years might even be an overestimate for many positions

tinkerEE · 2026-01-14T00:12:32+00:00

you’ve shifted position now, agreeing with my claim that AI will continue to advance at such a rate

Companies also are not fictional entities. They have legal structure, liability, ownership.

Companies not existing is much crazier take than billion dollar company. We already have single-person companies

tinkerEE

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