Yeah I've been looking at internal positions too but my company barely does any AI work. We have like one 3-person ML team that does fraud detection and they're not hiring. Feels like I'm trapped tbh. Can't get ML experience without an ML job, can't get an ML job without ML experience.

ngl this is gonna sound harsh but 6 months of coursera + side projects isn't gonna cut it for those $400k-$600k roles. Those are going to people with top tier credentials (Stanford PhD, published papers) or folks who've been doing ML at FAANG for years. If you want to realistically break in without going back to school, target smaller startups or non-tech companies building out their ML teams. The pay won't be $500k but at least you'll get real experience. Then lateral to big tech after 1-2 years.