Prompt Engineer: A Guide to Becoming One

People are making up to $335K on prompt engineering. Maybe it's time to roll in.

Oct 31, 2024

∙ Paid

I think it's time to discuss prompt engineering. This profession has been around for less than two years, but it is already considered one of the most in-demand in the AI industry. Companies are hunting specialists worldwide, and in some cases, the salaries reach $300K or more.

So, let's look at this topic in more detail.

In this edition:

What is prompt engineering, and why is it important?
A guide on how to become a prompt engineer.
Valuable tools & sources that will help you learn a new profession.

And no, we won't discuss countless courses from platforms whose names start with “U” and end with “demy” or something similar.

Keep your mailbox updated with practical knowledge & key news from the AI industry!

Who is a Prompt Engineer?

A young adult coder, likely in their mid-twenties, with short, dark brown hair and a subtle, concentrated expression, sits in front of a laptop with a mesmerizing glow, surrounded by empty coffee cups and scattered sheets of crumpled paper on a cluttered desk, wearing a worn-out, comfortable-looking white graphic t-shirt and faded blue jeans, with a few streaks of highlights on their forehead, suggesting a long, intense coding session, set against a warm, dimly lit background with a subtle gradient of blues and whites, evoking a sense of late-night productivity, with the laptop screen radiating a soft, pale blue light that illuminates the coder's face, accentuating their determined features. — Damn it, man, just clear the table.

If you work a lot with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok, you are technically already a prompt engineer. Well, apart from the fact that you don't make money from it and only use the data you get for your own benefit. However, let's clarify that prompt engineering is the intelligent use of prompts to make models better understand (and produce) the desired result.

In a more global sense, this work is about making communication between humans and AI better. And that sounds pretty meaningful.

From a practical point of view, a prompt engineer dives deep into conversations with different models, creating quality prompts and analyzing how the AI generates its responses. Sometimes, the professional does this by chatting with chatbots like a regular user, and in other cases, they study how the models work at the code level.

If you're already raring to go, you might want to jump right into our prompt engineering guide:
Prompt Engineering Is Easy
Anvar Abrarov
·
May 9, 2024
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But What About Money?

Let's not deny it—things are pretty good as far as money goes.

But, as I said, this is a new profession, so the skill requirements and list of tasks vary greatly depending on the employer. In some cases, companies pay at the level of an average coder, and in some cases, they offer really impressive compensation even for those who don't have too much experience.

Here's an example of one of the prompt engineer jobs Anthropic offered last year.

According to Glassdoor, the estimated total pay for a prompt engineer is $182,262 per year, with an average salary of $133,426 per year. Of course, entry-level positions earn slightly less, but some highly skilled professionals earn significantly more. One Velents AI study says prompt engineers earn an average annual salary of $300,000, making them one of the highest-paying professions in the AI industry.

So, let's break down what it will take for us to become a part of this story.

How to Become Prompt Engineer (+ Tools & Sources)

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