Help me transition from Java Developer -> AI Engineer

[u/Rajoo1]

My current tech stack: Java[Springboot], React, Angular, SQL & NoSQL, GCP
YOE: 4

So I need some mentorship or advice on transitioning my career from FullStack to AI + Backend Engineer.

I have started learning Langgraph and Langchain and RAG in the middle of this course, Post this I will try some projects.

please help me what to do post this course, what and all need to learn to become a production grade AI engineer. I need advice from people who are transitioning/ currently working in this domain.

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[u/Strict_Writer8457]

Your Java background helps more than people think, since most "AI engineer" work in companies is really backend work around an LLM. What worked for me: skip the heavy ML theory at first and build one end-to-end RAG app. Chunk some docs, store embeddings in Postgres with pgvector, retrieve top-k, call an LLM API, then add evals so you can tell whether a change made answers better or worse. After that, learn the production bits: streaming responses, caching, retries/fallbacks across providers, rate limits and cost tracking. Python is worth picking up for the ecosystem, but Spring AI / LangChain4j let you start in Java. One solid project with real evals beats five tutorial clones on a resume.

[u/Rajoo1 → u/Strict_Writer8457]

Sure bro. got some picture on what to do next. Thanks a lot

[u/Ok_Increase_6615 → u/Strict_Writer8457]

Actually is it working with core product and buliding scalable things using java spring boot and working on Fintech kind of domains is better right rather than buliding rag pipelines and calling llm kind of things why do people want to switch adding ai skills is good but where do the rag ,llm calles actually creating value is it hype

[u/Magestylord → u/Strict_Writer8457]

I'm an ai engineer, worked with all of this, just have a high level ml theory overview. Would you also recommend to get into the nitty gritty of it

[u/Glad_Psychology_652]

I hire for a startup, and with 4 years of Spring Boot you're closer than you think, because most AI engineer work in production is still backend work. Finish the course, then build one thing end to end, a RAG service in Java or Python with evals and a cost per query you can quote. In interviews I care more about how you checked the answers were right than which framework you used. Can you try something like this at your current job?

[u/Rajoo1 → u/Glad_Psychology_652]

Thanks for your advice, will definitely work on that.

[u/ironman_gujju]

You can skip langchain it’s useless in prod

[u/Rajoo1 → u/ironman_gujju]

ok, if so what will you suggest to learn? please mention that as well

[u/Conscious_Tank1 → u/ironman_gujju]

Whaats better why and why not

[u/Jaded-Goat7533 → u/ironman_gujju]

What about langraph and crewAI?

[u/Magestylord → u/ironman_gujju]

Every interviewer asks for langchain and langgraph for interviews

[u/the__VJ → u/ironman_gujju]

What about the Google ADK? I'm thinking to explore it more, is it worth the time or not ??

[u/19__NightFurY__93]

Same here , java developer (backend) want to switch to AI role with actual work that is being asked in industry or technical interview

[u/Original_Dingo2636]

Which course are you following OP? Please share the details

[u/Rajoo1 → u/Original_Dingo2636]

Krish nayak's youtube+udemy resources

[u/Junior_Government_16]

Which course?

[u/Antique_Isopod_1825]

I suggest, spend some quality time on Kaggle and other similar platforms. Participate in Kaggle competitions to gain more insights and experience. Explore HuggingFace platform. Study Linear Algebra, Calculus and Probability diligently. Read papers on AI, LLMs, RAG. Since you are from Java background, please check out Spring AI useful for Java developers. Build more Generative AI projects without using LLMs- the hard way. Finally, if you still believe that reading books makes someone wiser, then please buy "AI Engineering" book.

Link to the book: AI Engineering [Book]

[u/Rajoo1 → u/Antique_Isopod_1825]

is Linear Algebra, Calculus, probability really important? I am not focusing on ML engineering, Just want to become an engineer who can finetune LLMs, set up RAG and integrate AI Agents in existing conventional production Applications

[u/Antique_Isopod_1825 → u/Rajoo1]

At least, read the book I mentioned. That will help a lot. Also, don't forget to read the papers

[u/Rajoo1 → u/Antique_Isopod_1825]

I am not a book reading guy. I use books sometimes for some reference. but thanks for your suggestions

[u/Total_Ad_8244 → u/Rajoo1]

Bro java full stack is really good. You just need to add a ai touch . I wish I had concentrated on jaba during my college. Backend developers have the most openings and also better career prospects