I’m only one data point, but I’m finding it extremely difficult. Every company is chock-full of PhD’s. It feels like a PhD is the new masters degree. I’ve been an unpaid intern for 6 months coding bleeding-edge models in Theano for a pharmaceutical startup, and learned TensorFlow and PyTorch on the side. Callback rates for applications is maybe 1 / 20. Of those, maybe 1 / 5 turns into an in-person interview. Every in-person interview has been with a team where I’d be the first non-PhD hire. These are not top-tier firms either. It’s entirely possible that New York City is just extremely competitive in this regard. So, I’ve been seeking Houston jobs lately, but fairing no better.