From Zero to AI Engineer in Less Than 6 Months!

Some career changes take years. Others can happen in months with the right plan, dedication, and support.

That’s exactly what one ZTM student did. He went from zero programming experience to landing a job as a Junior Gen AI & Prompt Engineer at Deloitte in just 5 1/2 months.

When I saw this message in our student Discord, I knew I had to reach out and find out more.

(Click to open high res).

This is his story.

Meet Konstantinos

Hi, my name is Konstantinos Tournas, I live in Thessaloniki, Greece, and I recently landed my dream job as a Junior Gen AI & Prompt Engineer at Deloitte.

How long have you been in that role?

I just got hired! This is my first job in AI and tech.

What did you do before you got your current job?

I had no background in programming. In fact, it was quite the opposite. My academic path was in Forestry, a field I eventually left because it didn’t resonate with me.

It’s not like I was super into tech either though. At least not at first. In school, I had no interest in programming; in fact, I actively disliked it. That all changed when ChatGPT was released, because I was fascinated by how a machine could generate human-like responses, and for the first time, I was genuinely interested in AI.

However, I knew that AI involved programming and that held me back from wanting to try, but then a friend encouraged me to try a course on programming that he had started.

Out of curiosity, I looked into it and stumbled upon the Complete AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science course by Zero to Mastery.

Diving into AI & the ZTM Community

That one decision changed everything. The course not only fascinated me but also ignited a passion for AI and machine learning. I wanted to dive deeper, so I explored the ZTM platform further and discovered their structured AI & Machine Learning Engineer career path.

(Basically the roadmap walks you through what to learn, in what order, to get hired ASAP, and links to resources to learn from at each step).

I’m not sure what the sudden motivator was. Maybe it’s because I was finally looking into it after being worried, but because I could see a path to follow - something changed. And so in that moment, I set myself a goal to complete the AI & ML career path as fast as possible, with no excuses.

I fully immersed myself in the ZTM learning experience. I joined the Discord community, where I found an incredibly supportive network willing to help with any challenge I faced.

The instructors made even the most complex topics easy to grasp, making my learning journey much smoother.

That said - with learning anything new, there were a few challenges…

My learning journey

Since I was starting from absolute zero, one of the biggest challenges I had was learning how to read documentation and troubleshoot issues that arose constantly. Every day felt like a new problem to solve, but through persistence and countless hours of practice, I gradually became more comfortable.

This attitude and the support meant that I smashed through the entire career path content.

The average completion time for that career path is about 7 months, but due to my intense daily study routine, I managed to finish the entire roadmap in exactly 5 months — all while adding extra courses to my schedule!

I also completed the Complete Python Developer in 2025 course, and the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for LLMs course.

Editors note: To complete the career path in 5 months instead of 7 is one thing, but to add on 2 other courses on top is next level effort!

After completing the core technical courses on machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI, I realized that Generative AI was what truly excited me.

From learning to landing my dream job

As I reached the final course on mastering interviews and algorithms, something incredible happened: I saw a job posting for a Junior Gen AI Engineer — the exact job I had dreamed of.

The timing was perfect, because I had just learned how to craft an optimized resume and cover letter in the roadmap. So even though I didn’t feel ready, I applied without hesitation!

The hiring process

After the initial application was a success, I then went through the standard interview process for tech jobs:

I started off with an online Python coding test with three LeetCode-style problems that I passed
That got me through to the next round, where I had two interviews covering both technical and theoretical AI concepts

And then, I got the news… I landed the job!

How do you feel now you got your new job?

The feeling is indescribable! In just 5.5 months, I went from knowing nothing about programming to getting hired as a Junior Gen AI Engineer — on my first-ever job application.

I never imagined that the first company I applied to would be the one to hire me. I’m beyond excited to start this journey and apply everything I’ve learned.

If I can do this, so can you!

To anyone considering joining the ZTM Academy, my advice is to not even think twice about it. It was the best decision I ever made, and I genuinely believe it could be yours too.

You just need to never stop learning. Keep pushing forward, stay consistent, and trust the process. Your dream job might be closer than you think!

I can’t believe how much my life has changed in under 6 months…

So what are you waiting for? Start your own AI career in today!

It’s as easy as:

Follow the same roadmap
Build your own projects (after getting the hang of things from completing the course projects)
Apply for jobs

We’ve got your back with all this and more. In fact, by becoming a member of ZTM, you have access to every course in the Zero To Mastery library, so that’s every course in this article and many more.

Not only that, but you’ll get access to the ZTM private Discord community, where you can ask questions from your course teachers, as well as chat with other students and working AI Engineers!