Is machine learning in demand in Russia?

Question

Machine learning

Hello.
I have been "doing business" with friends for several years, and we have built several small companies that seem to be working, but less and less like to participate in and manage them. I want to occupy my brain with solving more abstract and deep problems.
Googling and trying on different industries, taking into account my own background (Baumanka, CAD, 2008 edition), I settled on two options: web development (especially backend) and machine learning.
If everything is clear with web development - what to study, and what are the prospects, and there is already little experience - then nothing is clear with machine learning. Therefore, the question for specialists:
- where to start training? Corsera? My mathematical base is limited to the basics of matan and linal. I skipped theory and statistics at the institute :)
Where can you get a job with this? Google gave only a few vacancies, all in giant corporations like Svyaznoy and Avito, and everyone needs work experience.
- How much will it be needed at all if the Scoop finally returns and only state-owned companies remain on the market? After all, state-owned companies in this case will hire fresh graduates from specialized universities, and people like me are unlikely to be needed.
Thank you!

Answer 1

The world market is about two more than the Russian one. I don’t see the point of looking in Russia at all. Even if in Yandex, salaries are much lower than in the world. This is judging by open vacancies and reviews of friends. As for the market in general, specialists are in great demand. Half a year ago I had 4 clients and they all wanted full time. There was not enough time, I had to refuse.
1) Where to start learning. Better with coursers. Understand the applied part, how to apply algorithms. Then you can dig deep. I do not agree with the previous commentator, because without a background, it’s hard to read Vorontsov right away. It may be normal for the boys from the ShAD, but there are seminars there, and this makes the task much easier. But in practice, delving into the details of convergence in probability and almost everywhere, when there is nothing to eat, is a dubious pleasure. But the lectures, in general, are excellent, so that after the coursers settle in your head.
2) To odesk
3) see above, I see no reason to discuss

Answer 2

Demanded, but experts are in demand, not specialists.
ShAD, cs-center, Machine learning (a course of lectures, KV Vorontsov), machinelearning.ru
> will hire fresh graduates
Very debatable. Rocket science too topic.
> only state-owned companies will remain on the market
as long as there is Yandex and Meilru. Meilru is very state-owned, like Gazprom and Sberbank.

Answer 3

> where to start learning? Corsera? My mathematical base is limited to the basics of matan and linal. I skipped theory and statistics at the institute :)
There are many courses on Coursera and edX, not all of them are good. Given your background and coding experience, I'd give the MITx course on Statistics and Probability a try - it's complex enough to be interesting and useful. They also praise the specialization from Yandex and MIPT on the Courser - Machine learning and an... . I went through it a little myself - I liked it.
New educational platform from Yandex – Practicum. They have a specialization in Data Scienceand analytics. There are very simple topics (such as an introduction to Python) that may not be of much interest to you. There are more interesting topics: machine learning algorithms, feature preparation and data cleaning. A peculiar package of information for the jun.
> where with this it will be possible to find a job? Google gave only a few vacancies, all in giant corporations like Svyaznoy and Avito, and everyone needs work experience.
There are many vacancies in analytics / DS in different companies (large and smaller) on the headhunter. Yandex has, for example, a junior position to "enter" the industry. Again, given your experience and background, if you pull up Python and understand the main libraries / methodologies, you can apply for vacancies. In my experience (I do not live in Russia), in Russia there are still a lot of vacancies and cool specialists (from whom you can learn). And in terms of RFP in St. Petersburg / Moscow is no worse than in Europe.