Reading comments like this is a bummer. I am currently doing my masters with a focus on NLP. At this point I'll be pretty happy to get a job even if it just boils down to only deploying ML models. Even for such a role of companies expect years of experience or a PhD I don't know how I can even get a job in the first place
I sometimes interview candidates for ML engineering roles, and let me tell you most of them have trouble with basic concepts. It's great when I find someone fluent, for a change.
All these fields have that problem. There are people who are great at aping the signals (and even beating publication metrics) but really don't know anything. When they show up on a job, they get put into a PM (or actual management) role to limit the damage they can do. They learn enough lingo to be able to convince 90% of people they know what they're talking about (congrats on being in that other 10%, though) and will move up forever. Meanwhile, people who actually know their shit are usually too busy actually being smart to play the games necessary to get themselves hired in a hyper-competitive job market. So it goes.
