Career Menu

Three career tracks at Interaction Company of California and beyond. Each path uses value-based compensation - you are paid for the outcome (a shipped feature, a delivered artifact, a happy client), not for hours traded. Every route includes the daily mechanics, financial structure, honest expectations, and a phased roadmap.

No fluff. No empty promises. Pick one, follow the phases, and track your progress.

Full Comparison

Career PathEstimated Monthly IncomeWhat the Day Looks LikeFinancial Model (Outcome-Based)Key Strengths FitLearning ResourcesLearning CurveCognitive DifficultyWeekly Commitment
Claude Corps Fellow$4,000 - $7,000/moYour mornings start with a standup alongside Interaction's engineering team - you review incoming product requests and identify which ones benefit from AI-assisted workflows. You spend the core of your day building with Claude: drafting prompt chains, scaffolding React components via Claude Code, writing API integrations, and iterating on AI-generated prototypes. Afternoons go to documenting your methodology - what prompt patterns worked, what failed, and how the fellowship's output feeds into the broader product. You publish weekly artifacts (demos, writeups, open-source prompt libraries) that serve as your fellowship portfolio.Fellowship stipend: $4,000-7,000/mo paid for delivered artifacts - working prototypes, prompt libraries, technical writeups, and shipped features. Value is tied to output, not hours: each milestone (a working Claude-powered feature, a published prompt kit, a documented case study) triggers the next payment tranche. Fellows who ship consistently graduate to MTS-level compensation or independent practice.
  • You talk to AI tools like they're pair programmers, not search engines
  • You can take a vague product idea and turn it into a working prototype in hours
  • You document and share what you build - your process is part of your product
  • You thrive in ambiguity and define your own scope
4-8 weeksModerate20-30 hrs
Interaction MTS$6,000 - $12,000/moYour morning starts with a technical standup - you sync with the product and design team on current sprint goals, then dive into the codebase. You own full-stack features end-to-end: from schema design and API contracts to React components and Tailwind styling. Midday you review PRs, pair with the Claude Corps Fellow on AI-assisted workflows, and unblock teammates. Afternoons are deep work: shipping features, refactoring legacy code, writing integration tests, and keeping the build green. You contribute to architecture decisions and write technical proposals for the next quarter's roadmap.Salaried MTS compensation: $6,000-12,000/mo base + equity grant. Compensation is tied to impact - shipped features, system reliability, and team leverage - not hours at a desk. Includes full benefits, professional development budget, and conference attendance. Performance reviewed on delivered outcomes: feature completeness, code quality, on-call reliability, and mentorship output.
  • You ship code that works in production, not just on your machine
  • You care about the full stack - database queries to CSS transitions
  • You leave code better than you found it and write tests without being asked
  • You communicate clearly in PR descriptions, technical specs, and async updates
12-16 weeksHigh35-40 hrs
Sovereign / Local Hermes Track$2,000 - $6,000/moYou run your own practice - no manager, no standup, no sprint board. Mornings go to client work: you might build a website for a local coffee shop, set up a Zapier automation for a real estate agent, or write a marketing sequence for a solo lawyer. Midday is business development - you DM local business owners on Instagram, drop into neighborhood Facebook groups, or walk into storefronts offering a specific service. Afternoons are for delivery and learning: refining your offers, studying Alex Hormozi's frameworks, and building reusable templates that make your next job faster. You are the founder, the closer, and the delivery team.Project-based pricing for local businesses. Website builds: $1,500-3,000 per site. Automation setups: $500-1,500 per system. Monthly retainers: $500-2,000/mo for ongoing support, content updates, or system maintenance. You set the price based on the outcome, not the hours. The Sovereign track's ceiling depends entirely on how well you productize your offer and how many local clients you can serve concurrently. Typical solo practitioners clear $3,000-6,000/mo by month 6, with top earners scaling to $8-12k/mo by year 2 through retainer stacking.
  • You can sell as well as you can build - you're comfortable pitching your services face to face
  • You spot problems local businesses have (ugly website, manual processes, no online presence) and see them as offers
  • You work without a safety net and like it that way
  • You'd rather own a small piece of your own thing than a large piece of someone else's
6-10 weeksModerate15-25 hrs

Actionable Roadmaps

Each path includes 4 progressive phases. Expand a career to see the full plan.

Claude Corps FellowAI-assisted development with Anthropic's Claude ecosystem
Learning Curve:4-8 weeksDifficulty:ModerateWeekly Commitment:20-30 hrs
1

Skill Acquisition

  • Work through Anthropic's Claude API docs and cookbook examples - focus on function calling, tool use, and prompt caching
  • Set up Claude Code in a real repo and use it for daily development tasks for 2 weeks straight
  • Learn prompt engineering patterns: chain-of-thought, few-shot structuring, context window management
  • Study Interaction's existing product codebase and identify 3 features that could benefit from AI augmentation
2

Micro-Portfolio Creation

  • Build and ship 1 working prototype of an AI-assisted feature (e.g. AI-generated onboarding copy, automated code review assistant)
  • Publish a public prompt library or cookbook with 5 reusable Claude prompt patterns
  • Write a technical case study documenting your build process and the before/after metrics
3

Free Outreach / Beta Projects

  • Identify 3 internal product areas where Claude could reduce manual work and offer to build a pilot
  • Run a 2-week 'Claude sprint' - build prototypes for real tickets alongside the engineering team
  • Share your results in a fellowship demo day: working prototype, methodology docs, and lessons learned
4

Transition to MTS or Independent Track

  • Compile your fellowship output into a career portfolio: shipped features, prompt libraries, case studies
  • Choose your next step: interview for Interaction MTS role or spin your AI-assisted workflow practice into independent consulting
  • If going independent: productize your offering - 'AI Workflow Audit + 4-week Integration Sprint' at $6,000 per engagement
Interaction MTSMember of Technical Staff at Interaction Company of California
Learning Curve:12-16 weeksDifficulty:HighWeekly Commitment:35-40 hrs
1

Skill Acquisition

  • Deep-dive into the existing codebase - understand the routing, data flow, styling system, and deployment pipeline
  • Ship 3 small features end-to-end (schema -> API -> UI -> deploy) to learn the full workflow
  • Study the team's technical specs and architecture decision records to understand system design philosophy
  • Pair with senior MTS on code review standards, testing patterns, and performance budgets
2

Micro-Portfolio (Internal Track Record)

  • Own and ship 1 medium-sized feature independently: requirements, implementation, tests, documentation
  • Write 1 technical proposal or architecture decision record for an upcoming roadmap item
  • Contribute to the team's on-call rotation and resolve 3 production issues with postmortems
3

Team Integration / Ramp-Up

  • Take ownership of a code area (a page, a service, a system) and become its go-to person
  • Mentor a new hire or Claude Corps Fellow through their first feature ship
  • Propose and lead 1 internal improvement (test infrastructure, CI speed, dev tooling)
4

Sustained Impact

  • Ship consistently each quarter with measurable impact on product metrics or developer velocity
  • Contribute to team-wide technical strategy: reviews, proposals, cross-team coordination
  • Deepen expertise in 1-2 areas (performance, accessibility, AI-assisted workflows, design systems)
Sovereign / Local Hermes TrackBuild your own practice serving local businesses and creators
Learning Curve:6-10 weeksDifficulty:ModerateWeekly Commitment:15-25 hrs
1

Skill Acquisition

  • Read $100M Offers and define your first productized service (e.g. 'Website in a Weekend' at $1,500)
  • Build 2 sample projects you can show prospects: a simple business site and a basic automation flow
  • Study local business outreach - join neighborhood Facebook groups, browse Google Maps for businesses with no or terrible websites
  • Define your offer packaging: what exactly the client gets, the timeline, and the fixed price
2

Micro-Portfolio Creation

  • Build 1 real website or automation for a friend's or family member's business at a steep discount in exchange for a testimonial
  • Create a simple 1-page case study for the project: before state, what you built, outcome, client quote
  • Set up a basic CRM (Google Sheets or HubSpot free tier) to track prospects, outreach, and pipeline value
3

Free Outreach / Beta Clients

  • Identify 20 local businesses with clear needs (no website, no booking system, manual processes)
  • Offer each a free 15-min audit - walk them through 3 specific things you'd fix and the outcome it would produce
  • Close 3 beta clients at a reduced rate ($500-800 per project) in exchange for detailed case studies and referrals
4

Transition to Full-Rate Practice

  • Raise prices to your target rate ($1,500+ for websites, $800+ for automations) once you have 3 case studies
  • Add a retainer tier: $500-1,000/mo for monthly updates, backups, and 24hr support response
  • Stack retainers until you hit your income target, then raise prices again for new projects

Quick Resource Index

All the key learning materials referenced across every career path.

Anthropic Docs - Claude APIClaude Code CLI GuideReact + TanStack RouterTailwind CSS v4 DocsBase UI React DocsAlex Hormozi - $100M OffersAlex Hormozi - $100M Leads