@mylifcc: Alisa Liu (UW NLP PhD) just got an offer from OpenAI as a Research Scientist! She wrote up her entire job search process in a note, packed with insights. Especially the following points are particularly valuable for those aiming to get into top AI labs: • Build breadth first...
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Alisa Liu (UW NLP PhD) shared her job search experience of getting an OpenAI Research Scientist offer, including suggestions such as systematic learning, deep practice, hand-writing Transformer, etc.
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Cached at: 06/27/26, 07:59 PM
Alisa Liu (UW NLP PhD) just received an offer from OpenAI as a Research Scientist!
She wrote up a detailed note about her entire job search process, packed with valuable insights. The following points are especially useful for anyone aiming to join a top-tier AI lab:
• Build breadth first: Watch all of Stanford CS336 Language Modeling from Scratch to form a complete framework
• Then dive deep: Master each concept thoroughly + write lots of code from scratch
• Most critical point: Practice implementing and debugging Transformers until it’s muscle memory — coding practice must be done with no AI assistance (since in real interviews you have to code on your own)
• Keep structured notes + do targeted review before interviews + make sure to get enough sleep
Her interview rounds mainly tested: ML Coding (the most frequent), General Coding, Technical Discussion, Research Discussion, Behavioral, etc.
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