Leland+ for Break Into AI Careers

AI Monthly News Update - January 2026

This is the first of a series of monthly news updates related to advancements in AI. This update covers AI tools and LLMs, global AI and infrastructure, robotics and gadgets, and the impact of these advancements on daily life and business. Work with Solomon or join his upcoming bootcamp (AI Mastery - March 2026) at this link: https://www.joinleland.com/bootcamps/ai-mastery-bootcamp

Job Search Operating System | Prompt Library

Build Your Own Job Search OS — Companion Guide — the underlying system from the May 13 Build Anything session, packaged so you can recreate it from scratch. Inside: - Step-by-step build for the 6 trackers in Notion or Excel: full property lists, view filters, exact column headers - The full prompt library, every prompt mapped to a specific moment in your search (spotting a role, auto-filling an application, weekly inbox sweep, interview prep, reference calls) - A 7-day runbook to get the whole system live inside a week - Scheduled-task templates for the morning brief, weekly sweep, and Sunday retro - A failure-modes table for when the prompts don't behave This is for anyone running a real job search who's tired of holding 50 active threads in their head, rewriting "why this company" for the 47th time, or losing track of which recruiter said "check back in a month." You walk away with working trackers, prompts you can actually run, and daily/weekly cadence prompts to keep you up to date so you can focus on networking, prep and the more important human components of a real-life job search.

Career Pathways in Trust and AI Safety

Trust and AI safety roles are growing quickly, but the paths into them are often unclear and highly interdisciplinary. This session is for students and professionals who want to understand how to break into this space and what backgrounds actually translate. You’ll learn how to map your current experience to relevant roles, identify the core skills and knowledge areas that matter, and position your interest in AI safety in a credible, differentiated way.

OpenClaw for Beginners: Build AI Agents from Scratch (Free)

A complete beginner-friendly course on building and running AI agents using OpenClaw Architecture — 100% free to set up. In this course, you'll learn how to: • Install and configure OpenClaw on a DigitalOcean droplet (cloud server) • Connect your preferred language model (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Qwen, and more) • Understand the core anatomy of an AI agent: soul, identity, skills, memory, heartbeat, and cron jobs • Add Perplexity-powered search capability to your agent • Troubleshoot terminal errors in real time using a "fail fast" methodology • Manage costs and token usage to keep your monthly spend under $50 • Think like a builder: define your success outcome before writing a single line of config This course is built for non-technical beginners and power users alike. You'll watch a live, detailed setup — including real errors and how to fix them — so you know exactly what to expect when building your own agent infrastructure. By the end, you'll have a self-hosted AI agent running autonomously in the background, capable of handling research, sales outreach, content, and more — amplified across everything you do.

Breaking into AI with a Non-Technical Background [5/6/2026] (Recording)

Breaking into AI can feel out of reach if you don’t come from a technical background, but there are more accessible paths than most people realize. This session is for professionals looking to transition into AI without coding-heavy experience. You’ll learn how to position your existing skills, identify entry points across roles, and build practical experience that signals capability in an AI-driven landscape. Join live to ask questions about your own background and get guidance on how to make the transition. The speaker works with individuals navigating career pivots into AI and will share the patterns they see across those who successfully break in. Expect practical advice and insights similar to what’s discussed in 1:1 coaching conversations.

Which AI job is the right fit for me?

Reading to understand roles and impact on things like work-life balance, focus time vs. meetings, and more. Includes a research assignment and table laying out different aspects of each job.

Building Your AI Portfolio & Outside-In Projects

Detailed strategies for engineers, designers, marketers, and data scientists to craft projects showing value aligned with target companies. Includes best practices for packaging and sharing work and an action-oriented assignment.

Creating Impactful Pre-Job Projects

Walkthrough of building and presenting portfolio pieces that resonate with AI employers, featuring tips on storytelling, technical demonstration, and networking through project sharing.

How to Land a Job as an AI Product Manager

AI product management is one of the most exciting and fast-evolving roles in tech—but it can also be one of the hardest to break into. In this panel, Jeff N. (Principal PM @ Amazon), Nina O. (Former Lead PM @ Google), and Sonya K. (Former PM @ Microsoft) will share what it takes to land a PM role in the age of artificial intelligence, from building technical fluency to showcasing strategic thinking and cross-functional leadership. ​You’ll learn how top candidates position themselves for success, what hiring managers at companies like Meta, Google, and OpenAI are looking for, and how to stand out even without a traditional AI or engineering background. Whether you’re an aspiring PM or looking to transition into AI-focused products, this session will give you actionable insights and a clear roadmap to your next big opportunity.

From Applicant to AI Marketer: Your Blueprint for Landing a Dream Job

Landing your dream job at the intersection of AI and marketing demands more than just a sharp resume—it requires strategic positioning, domain fluency, and an ability to tell your story through data. Join Arthur B., seasoned product marketing leader with experience at Meta, TikTok, Adobe, and now Google AI, to get the inside scoop on what it really takes to break into the AI marketing world. ​Arthur will walk you through how to identify and build the right skills, tailor your narrative for AI-driven roles, and structure your application to land attention in a crowded field. ​Whether you’re pivoting from a traditional marketing role or entering the AI space for the first time, this session will give you a clear blueprint to differentiate yourself and move confidently toward your ideal role.

Introduction to Roles in AI — How It Differs from Traditional Tech

This reading introduces you to key roles like research engineer, forward deployed engineers, and different GTM jobs at AI companies. It includes an assignment designed to teach you how to better understand these roles.

AI Job Market Noise, Networking Strategies & Referrals

Examines challenges posed by imprecise AI job listings and teaches targeted networking practices, referral system insights, and rapport-building with insiders, plus an assignment to initiate connections and refine messaging.

October Series Session 7: Negotiating Confidently

This session teaches you to treat salary negotiation as a normal business conversation about your value.

Walk through of AI Company Landscape with Live Examples

In this live guided walkthrough, we'll walk through Bessemer's AI market map to understand the entire landscape of how these AI companies operate together, and talk about different considerations in taking jobs in different parts of the AI stack.

Introduction to the AI Company Landscape & Assignment

This will introduce the AI jobs landscape and also share reading to help you dive deeper to understand the entire AI market. There is an assignment to research three companies of interest to better understand what companies in this space do.

Forward-Deployed Engineers & AI Services-Led Growth

Explores the FDE role in detail: client-facing integration, technical implementation, rapid prototyping, and serving as a bridge between engineering and GTM, supported by insights from a16z and industry examples. Assignment encourages role research and personal reflection.

Mastering AI Networking & Referrals

Guide to building meaningful relationships in the AI ecosystem, overcoming hiring noise, and securing referrals through thoughtful engagement and value-add interactions.

Navigating AI Salary Data & Market Trends

Walkthrough of key salary datasets and trends, explaining what drives compensation differences and how candidates can evaluate offers and align career goals with compensation realities.

Inside the Forward-Deployed Engineer Role

Interactive session dissecting the FDE role with real-world examples, skill mapping, and discussion on how FDEs accelerate AI adoption in enterprise environments.

Understanding AI Compensation Data 2025

Provides updated, accurate AI salary ranges across roles such as AI researcher, MLE, and FDE, based on Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and recent industry reports including the NYT's superstar compensation story. Includes assignment to benchmark target roles against market pay.