The AI Pivot: Fresh Grad → AI Career (Full Free Roadmap, Zero Job History)

Fresh grad or student wondering if you should go straight into AI? You have more time than anyone else in this series — and the least experience. This episode provides a defined 12-week, full-time plan to move from zero job history to an AI Engineer role. We cover a portfolio-first strategy (GitHub, Kaggle, open source) built in from week one. This roadmap is scoped for applied AI roles and includes a second path for those seeking a deeper specialization track. In the world of "entry-level" AI, proof-of-work beats a job title every time. This is Episode 3 of "The AI Pivot" — a series giving 9 specific careers a practical roadmap into AI. No hype—just what to learn, in what order, and what to build. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Introduction: Transitioning into AI as a Fresher 01:02 - What we'll cover: Coursework, Projects, and Timelines 01:24 - Mapping Coursework to AI Skills (DSA, Math, Stats) 02:30 - Reality of Entry-Level Roles & Portfolio Building 03:29 - The Honest 12-Week Full-Time Roadmap 05:22 - Top 10 Must-Have Skills & Free Resources (Python, Stats, ML) 06:41 - Specialization Tracks: LLMs, Computer Vision, MLOps 07:11 - Path B: Deep Specialization for Research/Infrastructure Roles 08:21 - The Project Ladder: 5 Projects to Build Your Portfolio 10:48 - Summary of Free Resources (Harvard CS50, Andrew Ng, Karpathy) 11:51 - Final Advice: Building in Public & Networking 13:02 - Next Episode: Python Developer to AI Pivot FREE RESOURCES MENTIONED BELOW Programming & CS Fundamentals: CS50x (Harvard): https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/ CS50 Python: https://cs50.harvard.edu/python/ MIT Missing Semester: https://missing.csail.mit.edu/ Math for ML (Linear Algebra & Calculus): 3Blue1Brown - Linear Algebra:    • Essence of linear algebra   3Blue1Brown - Calculus:    • Essence of calculus   Imperial College (Audit free): https://www.coursera.org/specializati... Probability & Statistics: StatQuest - Stats Fundamentals:    • Statistics Fundamentals   StatQuest Channel:    / @statquest   Core ML & Deep Learning: Andrew Ng’s ML Specialization: https://www.coursera.org/specializati... fast.ai (Free): https://course.fast.ai/ Karpathy - Neural Networks: Zero to Hero:    • Andrej Karpathy Neural Networks: Zero to Hero   Build a GPT from scratch:    • Let's build GPT: from scratch, in code, sp...   Applied ML & Portfolio: Kaggle Learn: https://www.kaggle.com/learn DataTalksClub ML Zoomcamp: https://github.com/DataTalksClub/mach... GitHub Student Developer Pack: https://education.github.com/pack DEEP SPECIALIZATION TRACK (PATH B) LLM/NLP (Fine-tuning): https://huggingface.co/docs/peft/index Computer Vision:    • Building a Vision Transformer Model from S...   MLOps/AI Infrastructure: https://github.com/DataTalksClub/mlop... scikit-learn Contributing: https://scikit-learn.org/stable/devel... Dive into Deep Learning (Textbook): https://d2l.ai/ Modern AI Engineering & RAG (YouTube + GitHub): Dave Ebbelaar (AI Engineering & RAG): YouTube:    / @daveebbelaar   AI Cookbook (GitHub): https://github.com/daveebbelaar/ai-co... Patrick Loeber / Python Engineer (LLMs & Streamlit Apps): YouTube:    / @patloeber   ML & AI Tutorials (GitHub): https://github.com/patrickloeber Nicholas Renotte (Applied ML & Computer Vision): YouTube:    / @nicholasrenotte   Applied AI Projects (GitHub): https://github.com/nicknochnack Deep Learning & Transformers from Scratch: Daniel Bourke (PyTorch Zero to Mastery): Full Course:    • PyTorch for Deep Learning & Machine Learni...   PyTorch Code Repo: https://github.com/mrdbourke/pytorch-... Umar Jamil (LLMs & Attention Explained Line-by-Line): YouTube:    / @umarjamilai   Code & Slides (GitHub): https://github.com/hkproj Andrej Karpathy (Neural Networks: Zero to Hero): Code Repo: https://github.com/karpathy/nn-zero-t... Full-Stack Machine Learning & MLOps: Krish Naik (Complete Machine Learning & End-to-End MLOps): YouTube:    / @krishnaik06   ML Projects Repo: https://github.com/krishnaik06 CampusX (100 Days of Machine Learning): YouTube:    / @campusx-official   100 Days of ML Code: https://github.com/campusx-official/1... 📘 My book — Governance & Production for Agentic AI & Enterprise RAG: Kindle: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GRD8XTHH Paperback: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GTLDQSSW Subscribe for the rest of "The AI Pivot" — a new career track every episode. 🔗 Let's connect on LinkedIn:   / maneesh-kumar-69694566   #AICareer #FreshGraduate #MachineLearning #Kaggle #AIRoadmap #ManeeshCodeLab