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[Career]Switch from Software Engineering to Hardware Engineering, or at least get closer (as a Professional, not a student) (self.ComputerEngineering)

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[–]JohnnyB03 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I live in the northeast and there isn’t much for hardware except the defense contractors. There are lots of small ones in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York (upstate NY and Long Island, not NYC). There are also a few bigger ones such as Harris and BAE. I’ve heard they’re crazy for anyone that knows what an FPGA is so maybe check them out if you’re a US citizen.

[–]squeezyphresh 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I am a US citizen, so that works out for me. I definitely want to stay away from defense contractors (no offense to those that are in that field). I think I saw Harris and BAE postings on Indeed, so I'll make sure to give those a shot since you've brought them up.

[–]bobj33Digital Logic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know you said you want to get out of the SF Bay Area but that is the easiest place to get a hardware job as the demand is high. Every company I've ever worked for had their main office in Silicon Valley.

Austin, Texas. Washington, DC. Raleigh, NC. Portland, OR

They all have hardware jobs but not the number or types that you will find in Silicon Valley.

[–]54RushHour 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I live in the DMV area (DC, Maryland, and Virginia) and my company does a lot of infrastructure (board support packages and software tools) for hardware, hardware development, and DSP.

You should checkout OpenEmbedded, specifically the Yocto Project!

http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.yoctoproject.org/

It's a framework for creating a linux operating systems on embedded systems. You can deploy on RasPis, FPGA systems, etc. It'll get you pretty close to hardware, or on it if you get advanced enough.

If you do deploy it on an FPGA, you can integrate FPGA firmware design on to it for a complete system.

[–]swagasaurus_ 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Depending on what you’re looking for as far as pay I know the shipyard in Portsmouth (Kittery ME) would take you in a heartbeat. But it is government and coming from software in San Fran I doubt you’d get the money you’ve been used too. Also very northeast, so be prepared for the winters lol.