2024 will be the year of change. Both on private and professional level. It's going to be a bumpy ride with a lot of new things to learn and discover. In the first half of the year I will be doing an internship at ML6 and finish school. During the summer I hope to participate in Open Summer of Code '24. Finally at the second half of the year I will start my professional career in tech.
Let's dive in deeper!
ML6
While writing this post, I'll be kicking off the last semester of my academic career by doing an internship at ML6. A company that connects AI with business by providing consulting services and developing custom AI solutions for various industries. It's a fast-growing company that has a team of 100+ experts and took home the belgian tech scale-up award in 2023.
Why ML6?
ML6 is a company that's doing a lot of cool stuff. They are working on the most innovative topics in the world and are always looking for new ways to improve and learn. I believe that it has a team with big brain and executing power where I can learn and get feedback from. That's why I hope to improve not only my tech skills but also my soft skills.
I'm pretty sure that ML6 is the perfect place to be in at this moment in my life.
Want to learn more about ML6? Check their website.
Open Summer of Code
After several years of being a lifeguard during the summer, I wanted to do something different. Last summer I planned to join Open Summer of Code (OSOC). Unfortunately, the event was cancelled due to a lack of organizational power. This year I will try again and hope to be selected.
But what is OSOC exactly? It's a 4-week summer program where students and mentors work together on open-source projects. It takes place in July and is a paid student job. However, I see it more as a learning experience and a way to meet new people while doing things I already like. There are limited spots available so I hope to be selected.
Why OSOC?
There are several reasons why I want to participate in OSOC. The biggest reason is that I want to learn new topics, share ideas and meet new like-minded people who are excited about the future and love to be part of it. I believe that OSOC is one of the best environments for belgian students to achieve this by contributing to open-source projects and building stuff that's meaningful. Besides that, I want to have fun and enjoy my summer. For me, OSOC is the perfect place for this.
Want to learn more about OSOC? Check their website.
Work
After the summer I will start my professional career in tech. I'm not sure yet what I want to do. There are several options in my mind right now so I'm still figuring that out. I'm thinking about a job as a ML engineer, Data Scientist or software engineer.
I also see myself more like a product-first engineer rather then a code-first engineer who is always looking for the best tech stack or diving deep into code/tech topics like researchers. That's why I also have the software engineer job title in my mind. I like to ship stuff people can use and is valuable for them.
As for ML engineer, my preference lies in making AI solutions within the NLP space. I always tended to do something with language in my side projects while I was learning AI at school. Maybe that's also why I got it as the specific domain for my internship at ML6.
Lastly there is also the Data Scientist. I see it more of a mix of both previous job titles where I can build AI models or analyse topics fast by using data but also building small projects that are useful for others.
Side projects / other
If time allows, I hope to work on side project for myself, references for my OSOC application or my future job. I got a whole list of ideas that I want to build from my time at school that I've not started yet. My internship and future job will get priority but I hope to work on them in the weekends or evenings.
Conclusion
I'm still figuring out what I want to do in the second half of the year but I'm sure that I want to work in tech and build stuff that's meaningful. Maybe everything will change within a few months during my internship. Who knows? We will see.
PS If you have any thoughts or remarks on these objectives/views on 2024, feel free to reach out! I'm always open for discussions or nice talks.
