OpenAI offered me a job. Meta reached out just hours after I posted about it.

• AI engineer Yangshun Tay posted about an OpenAI offer and got a near-instant email from Meta.
• He says Meta is behind on AI — and there's an opportunity cost to being an employee, too.
• It's just one example of how Silicon Valley's talent wars are hotter than ever.

Meta is making headlines for poaching leading AI researchers and offering some compensation packages that reach into the nine figures. Hiring AI-focused software engineers is becoming intensely competitive across Big Tech and AI startups.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Yangshun Tay, a 35-year-old AI engineer currently based in Singapore. Tay previously worked for five years at Meta and now runs GreatFrontEnd, a startup that helps software developers improve their skills.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Meta and OpenAI didn't respond to requests for comment.

I interviewed with OpenAI a while ago, but I only decided to post about their offer on Tuesday. Within the next 12 hours, Meta sent me an email congratulating me on my OpenAI offer and asking if I'd be interested in working with them.

What was amusing to me was that I initially thought they didn't know I had previously worked at Meta. But when I replied to their email, they actually noted that they knew about my background there. They knew exactly who I was.

I worked at Meta for over five years before leaving to build my own company, GreatFrontEnd, which is a platform for front-end engineers to upskill themselves. We have around 10 people now, though we're not looking to scale it extremely big. We're keeping it running while we explore new ideas and products.

Meta isn't leading the AI race

I was very surprised that Meta reached out so quickly because I don't actually have a background in AI research. I'm more on the applied engineering side. Even for the OpenAI role, it's for software engineering — building ChatGPT and working with those teams. So I was surprised Meta was also hiring for AI engineering positions.

But I'm probably not going back to Meta. I don't think they're leading the AI race right now, even though they've made a lot of high-profile hires. I'm just not too bullish on Meta after working there for over five years.

The Meta outreach wasn't really an offer anyway. Since I've been gone for more than two years, I'd have to re-interview if I wanted to join back.

The opportunity cost of being an employee is high

Being in demand as an AI engineer is great, but it's also a little stressful, and I'm not sure if it's sustainable. To be honest— I'd prefer to build my own things right now - maybe start new AI products or ventures.

The opportunity cost of being an employee is quite high because AI is moving so fast. By being an employee and building ideas for somebody else, you're losing out on the opportunity to build a product that could eventually become very big.

I think it's great for top talent, but there are a lot of engineers struggling to find jobs, as well. Based on my experience, AI advancement really relies on breakthroughs that come from just a few people. You don't need too many — just a few smart, cream-of-the-crop people to have major breakthroughs and extremely disproportionate impact. That's why Meta is willing to pay so much for top talent.

But talent moves around so frequently in the Bay Area between tech companies. Even if Meta has a breakthrough, it's not going to stay within Meta's walls for long. Every big company is building their own AI models now. There's a model arms race going on right now. You see companies beating each other every other day in terms of benchmarks.

I think it's overall good for humanity and AI advancement — so Meta is actually doing everyone a favor.

AI is changing how teams work

Many CEOs are claiming they're replacing their workforce with AI, and those without special skills are definitely more at risk. AI is great at doing stuff that's well-practiced and has been done many times. A lot of work in software engineering falls into this category — there's already a solution, you just need someone to implement it.

AI handles that well, which leaves people to focus on what matters more: creativity and innovation. That's where top talent comes in — they're the ones innovating.

The hiring environment now is nowhere close to what I experienced during my previous years at Meta. The salaries were great back then, but nowhere near what Meta is paying for AI talent now.

I posted to raise my profile

After I posted about my OpenAI offer, it wasn't just Meta that reached out. Several other companies, mostly smaller companies I hadn't heard of, sent cold emails.

Posting about the offer was more for marketing purposes. My plan was to say I have some offers, but I'm not taking them. It's just to raise my profile and for future projects.

I was seriously considering joining OpenAI, but ultimately I think the timing is too good to pass up. Right now is a great time to build and start a company.