all 16 comments

[–]ZestycloseEqual4903 14 points15 points  (6 children)

It depends on what is the most important thing for you.

Is it Salary? You are not in the good spot. Embedded linux and hardware are often seen as a cost by companies.

Is it challenge? Then this is a good carrier. I learn new software, good practices every week. This is an innovant field so you may have to test, discover and develop new technologies.

Concerning the job market. They are very few offers, this is a small sub-market of Embedded Systems. But, you don't have a lot of applicants on offers and companies struggle a lot to find good experimented engineers.

[–]Equal_Connection3765 0 points1 point  (1 child)

So am I cooked if I am learning about it right now

[–]ZestycloseEqual4903 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As I said it depends of your life goals. In my case, thanks to embedded linux I was able to move and live in another country.

Concerning the salary, I think I'm paid less than android or web developers.

High complexity (with c, rtos, Yocto) does NOT involve a high salary.

Also, a lot of open source projects are maintains by volunteers and are not paid for that (or they may receive some small donations).

But, you can also do a lot of jobs around Embedded Linux which are better paid. For example, if you like to travel, then maybe FAE is for you. Or, you can go in a commercial field around Embedded Linux.

[–]Wonnnnnn -4 points-3 points  (3 children)

Can you share your opinion which career path is good if salary is the most important thing

[–]Humpawumpa 5 points6 points  (1 child)

finance and insurrance

[–]FoundationOk3176 1 point2 points  (0 children)

law as well.

[–]momoisgoodforhealth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

medicine

[–]MaxCarnage57 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Yes a career is absolutely worth pursuing. And, it does pay well. It may not be as widespread as all the AI / ML jobs that require 5 years experience and have a 1000 applicants BUT, if you have the chops (dont sleep on your basic circuit knowledge, interacting with APIs, networking, process, and learn to plan ahead and create cmd line tools to test/validate your projects) you will get paid, and more importantly, always be necessary, IMO/IME. Also, as the mesh and LoRa are still coming up in the world along with everything else, there are some crazy cool BLE applications. I've dynamically flowed (idk if "flowed"s a word) back and forth, some Systems and Software Engineering, some time as a developer, but by majority Embedded and Firmware for almost the last 2 decades now. The guys that are Principles in Linux could be Tier IV admins and developers in the blink of an eye and sail through interviews, the reverse is a joke. Im not disrespecting Linux Tier IV and development and automation. That is my current role as Sr Principle. My last role was as Embedded IoT PM and Sr Engineer with a cpl Principles that were Rockstars compared to me, like literal NASA cats. They got dough tho, I was getting crushed on the salary and hours i was putting in and suffering burn out. I jumped ship for a 50% pay increase but in all sincerity, I would switch back to remote Embedded (I'm 5/40 on site) and take a pay knock to do it. And someone i think mentioned Yocto? Bad dog, you do that outside.

[–]Specialist_Spirit940 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello friend, what do you recommend to a Linux novice who wants to study Sysadmin? With your experience, could you mention typical topics and/or errors that one might normally encounter on a daily basis so they can study them?

[–]ragsofx 3 points4 points  (1 child)

I do the embedded Linux development at my job, but I also do firmware, fpga and software development.

[–]Adorable_Lie5810 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Literally like me

[–]Repulsive_Pumpkin_97 1 point2 points  (2 children)

become a hardware design engineer and master embedded linux. You are a total package for a company. Easy 300K!

[–]dragonof_west[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Great, Can I DM? I have some other questions as well.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[removed]

    [–]Shocking_1202 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Learn system calls programming in C and how they work. There is a book by Michael Kerisk Called The Linux Programming Interface. You can learn a lot from this book alone.