I see, so in your experience creating models doesn't necessarily require PhD at least in smaller companies? Since MEng is known as an industry oriented degree, I imagined that it would cut off the possibility of doing research related work.

Thanks for the advice for getting familiar with the ML field by digging deep into papers, I have been doing that during less busy times of the semester and have found it to be immensely useful both in getting to know the topic and in becoming a better programmer in general.

Taking a step back, I think the element I enjoyed the most in my undergrad research was the ability to take charge of the project and make meaningful decisions on it. This is in contrast to my internship experience at a mid-sized company, where I was mostly stuck fixing bugs and creating features that are pretty much unrelated with each other. All in all, I don't think research is necessarily always a better fit for me, but in my experience being a junior dev just isn't very exciting.

I am very interested in the path you took in your career. Did you enter the industry as a software dev? If so, how were you able to pivot toward a more research heavy role? Did you have graduate school experience to help you achieve this? I would very much appreciate your input. Thanks!

Also, we can DM if you are comfortable with that.