Indian-American Engineer Manoj Tumu Leaves Amazon for $400K Meta AI Role, Shares Career Tips for Aspirants

New Delhi (India) August 30: Manoj Tumu is a 23-year-old Indian-American machine learning engineer at Meta. He opens up about his professional path. He also gives helpful guidance to students and job seekers who want to pursue careers in artificial intelligence.

From Amazon to Meta’s AI team

Tumu is a member of Meta's advertising research team. He quits Amazon to work for the social networking giant. It pays more than $400,000 or ₹3.36 crore in Indian rupees.

According to Tumu, Amazon provided him with a strong foundation, but the attraction of Meta's ambitions was too much to resist. He says, “Though I had learned a lot at Amazon, I just thought there was more interesting work going on at Meta”. He did not hesitate when the offer came in June.

Tumu describes the lessons that influence his professional path and how he handles the competitive hiring process.

According to Tumu, the machine learning method has undergone a significant transition in recent years. It moves from traditional methods to deep learning driven by neural networks. The emergence of ChatGPT and other similar tools has increased competitiveness. It has given rise to a variety of job titles, including research scientist, applied scientist, and machine learning engineer. His role at Meta combines execution and research to keep the business at the top of artificial intelligence.

Resume strength over side projects

Tumu emphasizes that professional experience is more significant on resumes than personal interests. He urges students to find internships during their undergraduate years. Manoj states that although projects are helpful in the beginning, they should eventually be put on hold. 

Manoj had completely eliminated projects to emphasize work experience by the time he applied for jobs at Amazon and Meta. He adds that a solid CV performed the hard work and that he applied directly through LinkedIn and corporate websites rather than depending on recommendations. 

Key advice for interviews and jobs

Tumu says that one of the major mistakes candidates make in behavioral interviews is to be unprepared. He suggests adjusting responses to be consistent with company values. 

Tumu makes it clear that interests rather than merely salary have influenced his job decisions. He initially preferred the lower-paying machine learning position over the higher-paying software engineering position because he was more excited by the work.

He claims the decision cleared the way for his final journey to Amazon and, more recently, to Meta.