The 3 AI Skills That'll Actually Get You Hired in 2026 (Level 1, 2, and 3)

A few years ago, my advice to developers would've been simple: learn the fundamentals, get good at system design, master your language of choice. And honestly? That advice still feels good to give. But it doesn't feel right anymore.

Knowing how to code is table stakes now. It's not enough to get you hired.

In this episode, I break down the three levels of AI skills I'd be investing in right now if I was a new grad, a bootcamp grad, or even a senior engineer looking to transition — and why the bar for "hireable" has shifted dramatically in the last few years.

Level 1: Actually getting good at the tools. Not being a prompt monkey — having opinions on Claude, Cursor, git worktrees, and knowing why you accept or push back on what the agent gives you.

Level 2: Building on top of AI. MCP servers, RAG pipelines, agents. This is where the biggest career opportunity is right now, and it's where the smallest pool of people actually know what they're doing.

Level 3: The deep end: data engineering, pipelines, model hosting, fine-tuning. Less sexy, fewer positions, but massively defensible if you get in early.

If you're trying to figure out where to put your time right now, this one's for you.