Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably because it's specialized enough that the available positions tend to be for experienced people, or those with degrees in related technical fields like EE. I've been primarily an embedded developer for the majority of my 25+ years in the software field with occasional forays into desktop, web and app development. The only newbie devs I've seen doing low-level MCU development already had backgrounds in EE or C…
On a related note, I get the idea that a lot of the companies working on embedded products have a culture where that degree is valued regardless of whether you can do the work or not. Additionally, I very rarely see roles in that area listed that someone from another fields could “break into”. Often they’re looking for someone who has significant domain experience, and by domain experience I don’t just mean my embedd…
Re: Ask HN: What if you hate web development?
#41One way I've seen people "break in" is by being hired into a related role then expanding into the embedded side. e.g., someone I know was hired as an app developer, but the guy writing the firmware that the app connected to got sidetracked by another project. The app dev learned enough about the chip & the firmware to get the bit he cared about working, then discovered he liked doing firmware and started working on both the device firmware and the app on future projects.