Job Hunt as a PhD in AI / ML / RL: How it Actually Happens

Combine a supposedly good tech hiring market with a Ph.D. from Berkeley AI Research and let's see what we get. In the vein of transparency, I wanted to share my experience in the job search and some notes specific to reinforcement learning as an area. Is there something you want to know about and I didn't share? Please let me know (note, I won't directly share the compensation of the offers I received, please see aipaygrad.es). This post is broken into a few major sections (that may feel somewhat disjointed), and if you're reading on a computer you should be able to see the TOC to the right.