3 Worst Mistakes When Trying to Land an AI Engineer Job

Bashiri Smith · Facebook reel · 2026-09-17 · 0:53 · 9,966 views · Open on Facebook

Topics: Resume, Job Search & Interviews, Start Here: Roadmaps & Strategy, Programming & ML Foundations · Level: beginner

Summary

Bashiri Smith lists three mistakes that hold back aspiring AI engineers. The first is skipping software engineering fundamentals. The second is spending too long on tutorials when you should be building projects. The third is waiting too long to apply for jobs. He says to learn the core AI engineering topics, build 2–3 good projects, put key AI terms on your resume and apply right away.

Key points

• Mistake 1: skipping software engineering fundamentals. AI engineering grows out of software engineering, so without the basics you're 'pretty cooked'.
• Mistake 2: spending too long on tutorials. AI changes every week, so you could keep learning for years without ever being done.
• Learn the basics of RAG, agents, ops, evaluation, safety and machine learning, then learn by building projects.
• Mistake 3: waiting until you feel ready before applying for jobs.
• If you have 2–3 good projects, an internship or past engineering experience, start applying now.
• Put key AI terms on your resume and let the job market tell you whether you're ready.

Resources mentioned

• The Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Exact Courses + Step-by-Step) · video · youtube.com · free
  Bashiri Smith's free YouTube training on upgrading your skills and becoming competitive for AI engineering roles, with specific courses listed step by step.
  Also in: SWE-to-AI Engineer Plan for 2027: LLMs, RAG, Agents, Evals, Job Search (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Pointer to Bashiri Smith's Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Software Engineer to AI Engineer Before 2027: A 5-Step Career Plan (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 19 more
• BASWE.Ai Engineer (Skool community) · community · skool.com · paid
  The creator's paid community and program, with an AI learning roadmap (including the full ops and evaluation track), daily calls with engineers and recruiters, resume and portfolio help, and a job-search pipeline.
  Also in: Basic RAG Pipeline in 60 Seconds: From Documents to Grounded Answers (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Pointer to Bashiri Smith's Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), How to Evaluate a RAG Pipeline: Retrieval vs. Generation (Interview Answer) (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 76 more

Try this

• Build solid software engineering fundamentals before focusing on AI.
• Learn the basics of RAG, agents, ops, evaluation, safety and machine learning, then stop doing tutorials.
• Learn by building projects instead of watching more tutorials.
• Get 2–3 good projects on your resume.
• Add key AI terms to your resume.
• Start applying for jobs right away and let the market judge whether you're ready.
• Watch the full AI engineering roadmap video.