[udba]

I'm currently applying for co-op jobs (internships) and while trawling the university job board I've seen many positions requiring big data this or machine learning that.

What's not clear to me is why companies who don't seem to have any need for machine learning team (i.e. a subscription box company) are looking to hire one.

Surely part of this can be pinned down to the hype associated with ML that may well die out, but the proliferation of these tools doesn't bode well for Maciej's dream of a weird, creative, and interesting internet.

[teej]

These companies aren't looking for someone to develop new machine learning techniques, they are just looking for someone who can slap together existing utilities to meet their goals.

Companies that run on subscription literally live and die by their churn rate. It is both feasible and reasonable for a subscription box company to hire someone to use machine learning to build a predictive churn model. That may seem trivial to you but that's the reality behind those job posts.