[Chronic9q]

> If you are a great software engineer that can solve hard problems yourself [...] then people will hire with no questions asked.

False. Being a great software engineer is not enough to get a job in deep learning. For the same price, or a little more, you can hire an "expert" scientist or engineer with a PhD in CS/stats/ML.

[stephensonsco]

Good point. Should probably say "you'll get an interview". I think you snipped out something pretty important though. The fact that you have done something nontrivial with DL is actually a big tell for the employer. If you just 'want to learn more about DL because it seems interesting' then employers aren't interested. But if you say "I am a good engineer and I have already done something nontrivial" then you have a much better chance of getting an interview and then the job.