Hello everyone,

I'm currently getting into AI. I know the basics of Python, but not much beyond that. I asked a few people and AI chatbots about the prerequisites for becoming an AI/GenAI Engineer, and they suggested learning things like:

• Statistics
• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• DSA
• SQL
• FastAPI
• Docker
• Cloud
• Git/GitHub
• Linux
• RAG
• AI Agents

The list feels quite overwhelming, and I'm not sure what depth is actually required for an AI/GenAI Engineer role.

For those already working in AI, what prerequisites are genuinely essential before diving into LLMs and GenAI? Also, if you were starting from scratch today, what learning roadmap would you follow?

Graduated in 2025. During placements, things were a bit tough with the AI impact on hiring, so I upskilled and completed a course about 2 months ago.

Since then, I’ve been actively applying on job portals, reaching out for referrals, and networking.

I’ve also cleared multiple interview rounds and reached final rounds at companies like IBM, 42Gears, and a few others—but ended up getting rejected at the final stage.

Not sure what I’m missing at this point. Still trying to stay in tech and improve, but the job search has been pretty draining lately.

Would really appreciate any feedback, advice, or guidance from people who’ve been through this.