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Career Path for Embedded Software Developers?

Posted by Cliff on from the when-existing-exp-is-necessary-for-further-exp dept.

timmgrant asks: "Inspired by a love of technology I have always wanted to develop embedded software for consumer electronics. I have just finished a computer science degree and have now been looking for work in that industry but it seems that every job in this field requires previous professional experience in embedded programming. For those that have made it into this field (or any other specialised field) what path did you take? What steps do you propose would take me closer to my ultimate goal?"

2 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Basic Stamps by stephend · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What you're saying is build a portfolio, which I think is very interesting.

    I think it was in Steve McConnells (excellent) After the Gold Rush that it's pointed out that in a lot of industries expect them (artists, photographers, models, mainly arty type stuff), but it's not something that the IT industry bothers with. With web and embedded project I really do think that this makes sense.

  2. prove yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I got in by having worked on GPL stuff for videogame consoles. Nothing major, just too much time hacking around with remote gdb sessions, and lots of low level z80/arm (gameboy) and mips (ps,n64) assembly. Experience counts, and coming straight from a CS degree where everyone else had ~0 experience made it easier. It also shows that you are interested, most of the graduates from my course couldnt give a damn about programming, yet I spent my nights and weekends hacking away at demos and disassembling the proprietory libraries so I could reimplement my gpl libs. The HR people might not realise how important this kind of stuff is, but engineers should, self motivation is important!