Becoming a Research Engineer at a Big LLM Lab

Max Mynter shares his strategic 18-month journey to becoming a Research Engineer at Mistral, a billion-dollar-funded large language model lab, emphasizing the importance of both long-term strategic actions (like building portfolio projects and a professional network) and short-term tactical preparations (like LeetCode practice and CV polishing). He outlines a detailed roadmap covering goal-setting, networking, the application process including interviews, and the mindset needed to secure career-defining roles in AI research.