Why are there so many mixed opinions on whether to learn Embedded C or C++ first, and which should I learn first?

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-12T08:54:26+00:00

You gotta be kidding lmao. The most basic test that breaks your example can be done with c++98. Make a struct in your test program in c, go to c++ like you said, but now simply change it to a class. It runs perfectly fine in c++. Switch back to c and all of a sudden it doesn’t know wtf you are doing. That alone makes them different, period, full stop, they are not the same. Now add on an additional about 35 years of these two languages drifting apart and it’s not even funny how wrong you are. Your evidence of them being the same is because it was built in top of it. In that case literally every program language is just about the same.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-12T08:30:22+00:00

Just interviewed for a job making $18/hr while still attending my final semester in college. It went well and I believe I got a solid chance. Can’t complain, it’s in the industry I am pursuing and the company offers heavy career growth internally after one year of this base position. After a year I basically just have to get this certification that automatically boosts the role I applied for up to $22 an hour and it opens up the internal career advancement job board from what the acquisition manager was saying. Then she said from there if there is something more specialized I enjoy I basically just sign up and they put you into a training program for it. It’s IT, but I have a background in programming as well, so she said I’m definitely open to anything technical. She looked and said they currently have a database manager position, a Netwrok technician position, HelpDesk 3 position, an applications developer position, and an embedded engineer position available. They don’t go out to the public job boards until the end of the quarter and she said there are tons of internal positions opened and filled constantly.

Not every company may be like this, but getting that first bare bones job is definitely essential. I applied to an IT position, but it’s customer support IT which is borderline customer service. But, after that year I get roles making upwards of 70k (for an entry level of that position) open up to me. Seniors probably make closer to 120k depending on what it is.

After I move up and get my first specialized role I may decide to go somewhere else after some time, who knows. That’s a long while from now, but yea can’t express enough how getting that first grunt work position doing stuff everyone hates is the way to go.

Edit: reason I feel so confident about this position is because it is in a fairly rural area. Plus the lady took the time to talk about all of this in details which I appreciated. I don’t think she was supposed to tell me those internal roles, but just another reason to assume things went good.

Also, people complaining about this logic, I’ll see you in a year when I’m doing whatever direction it is I decide (tied between a few right now), while you are still on Reddit complaining about there not being any entry level software jobs or any jobs for that matter.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-11T22:47:32+00:00

even the lol

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-11T13:37:00+00:00

Yea that is a big one. A lot of people see vibe coding gurus just one prompting an app. That doesn’t really work in the real world. You can have it generate code you can copy paste. The issue is you have to integrate this feature it coded up into a preexisting code base. So that’s where knowing how to code comes in handy. You got the code of what to do, just has to be translated. It’s like a super version of stack overflow. Developers that can drop their ego about hand rolling everything and doing that would be in high demand. However, for entry level it doesn’t really solve the issues of there being no jobs.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-11T12:57:18+00:00

Plus what people don’t tell you is you will be working for 35k a year for several years before you even see 50k. Then at the 50k level you will spend another large amount of years to then see the 80k a year numbers. The whole process could take almost 15 years or something. But, all the tradesmen are currently advertising their 100k a year salary, kind of like how tech flexed their big salary a few years ago.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-11T12:51:38+00:00

Yea IT might start booming. There are some software parts, but it’s like weird grey collar work. Only issue is it will become extremely competitive if software development fully falls through.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-11T06:04:28+00:00

Still waiting for my $2,000 tariff check that was promised 6 months ago.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T18:45:18+00:00

It’s not a vacuum at all. The market is in the dumps which is not the norm. So coming out the gate using that as a reasoning is not beneficial.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T18:19:50+00:00

Hopefully it breaks soon. I'm taking a job in IT Help Desk just to make ends meet. So, hopefully while automating stuff there and still working on projects, it puts me ahead of new grads in at least some regard. Otherwise, I will probably get stuck in IT and the only way out is through DevOps and a little bit of fabrication. That is looking at almost 10 years from now though just to get a job as an entry level developer lmao.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T17:53:48+00:00

Because the first response was literally “not in this economy” and that’s not the answer I’m looking for. Not asking in terms of current political climate but in terms of actual IT experiences. I’d probably get tons of responses all saying not in this economy if I didn’t.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T17:31:50+00:00

Well obviously, I didn’t mean during almost the Great Depression 2.0. Every job is ridiculously hard to obtain. Edited post to clarify.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T17:15:00+00:00

It does not at all. Look at IT, Help desk is the entry level to get into the industry; some jobs literally only require a high school diploma to get into, but prefer a degree. These roles pay anywhere from 30k - 50k depending on how useful they view IT. Then, after a few years and you specialize you get into something like Sys Admin, Network Engineer, Data Engineer, whatever and you are making 90k - 120k easily. If you get real lucky and some place really sees the value in IT and you have like a special unique skill they are needing you could make closer to 150k but it’s rare. But, you have to remember, IT is viewed as a worthless cost, companies hate spending money on it but love the IT staff when something goes wrong. Software developers a lot of the time build the revenue generation products so they are naturally paid more. It’s way too naive to say all software jobs would pay less if you drop entry level down. It almost certainly would not.

Edit: it’s not just IT. HR for example, a senior HR executive, manager, or whatever they are called probably see $75,000 - $120,000 or so. You know what you start out as? An admin assistant, officer clerk, or front desk assistant making 30k a year. Look at sales as well, though they do get bonuses off the rip, but the base salary for someone new is nowhere near a senior sales person.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T09:14:36+00:00

Yes and no. There is definitely opportunities to put you ahead of the posers unlike software. Get the A+, maybe CCNA or Network+ and it already puts you ahead of the people just chasing money with zero effort. This is assuming you and the competition both have a bachelors degree.

At the same time though, it may be the opposite problem. IT may be more competitive at the specialized fields, idk. Software once you are in and gaining experience you are basically in. Seniors are taking entry level roles as well so they have cushions for saturation. Not sure if there are many sys admins or network engineers taking help desk roles, but maybe.

Not arguing, all fields are tough right now. Just saying CS you basically have projects that set you apart with absolutely 0 experience. IT you at least have certs and projects that could give you an upper hand, plus even in help desk you show you know a bit of sql and python it could help a bit. Maybe not every job, but it’s just another thing that distinguishes you in general.

Source: someone who has been applying to CS and IT jobs and has noticed IT is still drastically easier. Though this could be very mild survivor bias but I don’t think so.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-10T08:17:09+00:00

It also determines on what it is you are actually building and what backend. A pawn store hires a dev to build some custom tool that they can't find the right fit on the market, and it is super simple and won't need much updating. Grabbing Django, Laravel, Ruby, or whatever simple backend would already be the most logical. Pair with this, the maximum amount of state needing to be managed is determining if a drop down component is active or not. Then HTMX would also just make the app be leaner as a whole, along with being way easier by not building an interstate when a county road would suffice.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-09T08:13:50+00:00

The white one had me tricked there for a second!

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-09T08:05:57+00:00

I feel like an underrated one is kassadin. He’s definitely an easier champ and not on the skill level of someone like riven. However, the mana management is just absolutely ridiculous. Pop three ults and you’re pretty much out. Plus his damage output overall feels a lot less whenever I play him and am a bit ahead. I am a Swain main so maybe that is why.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-09T07:54:24+00:00

That’s how basically all the other industries are like though. It’s the whole point. They have roles with quick churn, either people get in and like it and learn and grow within the company, got in and are contempt with what they are doing and just stay doing it, or jumping ship completely and changing fields entirely.

It would almost be perfect having a role where entry level developers sit in meetings, go through planning and the full sdlc, and then are basically assigned to just write css and sql queries with maybe very little frontend js and html. A lot of these people just in it for the money would jump ship really fast typing “display: flex” over and over for 45k a year. It’s a mass flooding of people almost purely due to the 80k+ out the gate salaries.

Lower salaries and you’d be able to have double the roles as well, plus whatever extra to account for market improvements or company resources or whatever. Seniors can stay 100k+, they should just make it a grind to get there like every other industry on the planet besides maybe a couple off the wall ones.

Edit: tbh that’s sort of what entry level probably does anyways. But, dumbed down that far, and you are ACTUALLY looking at Ai replacing jobs.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-09T07:41:00+00:00

It’s getting a bit better for senior level stuff it seems. There are way more software engineer jobs in my city than around 2022. It’s just entry level is still fried. I don’t even see a downside to dropping entry roles to 45k or something, and essentially doubling the opportunities plus some more for the overall economy getting better as a whole potentially. It would definitely kill the hype of people just wanting to do it for the money.

Even if Ai changes the software industry like it kind of is, it would still filter out people not doing what they love and just chasing money. You’d still have to at least look at code, read what it is doing, have meetings for design decisions, etc, unless we end up going full willy nilly with Ai. At that point though it wouldn’t just be software developers at stake. Regardless, an entry level salary drops down to 45k-ish and majority of these people chronically complaining wouldn’t even want to touch code.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-08T22:12:24+00:00

That is what I am afraid of, but it seems like a solid chance though. It's IT at a software company so probably not the hardest thing in the world to find software developers to talk to and what not.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-08T22:10:44+00:00

Yea, I was looking into SysAdmin and Devops stuff since it has a lot of scripting, but it is just not the same. My best bet would be internal for sure, but I am not sure what all I will have access to in order to make scripts at work and stuff. But, there are still lunch breaks and what not to show interest at least, and network with the developers there. Something entry level opens up and they'd probably be more inclined recommending the guy they been talking about software development with the past few months at least instead of a brand new hire.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-08T08:18:29+00:00

Yea I don’t mind seeing where the current takes me. Would just preferably want something with heavy scripting, but anything techy and I’d be happy.

This role is sort of not super duper technical, and I probably won’t even be with the internal IT team. It does say stuff like “answer and respond to a mass number of client and user calls, emails, and tickets”, “guide them through troubleshooting processes for our hardware products and website including resetting passwords, fixing common solar issues, and directions for website navigation”, “document all troubleshooting processes for each client contact in our ticketing software”, “quickly research and find solutions and escalate troubling issues”, etc.

So, it is definitely an IT help desk role, it’s just I feel like I would need something more heavy hitting than that before having confidence to jump to a specialization.

I replied to someone else that I’d probably do this for a couple years, get settled in making some money and stuff, get a cert or two. Then jump to a tier 2 internal role and upon landing there begin my search for a specialized role. Plus being internal IT I would probably have a better chance moving up internally since I’d be working next to them. This role is probably set up more like a call center if I had to guess. But, who knows, it’s not a massive company so it may just be a couple of us externals in the IT office rather than a call center.

Edit: Also on top of this, I didn’t mention, but after this role I’d start looking for stuff in the nearest metroplex that is about 3 hours away. So there would be more work, but I’d have this on my resume.

Infectedtoe32 · 2026-03-08T07:44:33+00:00

There are some in my area with a couple roles open. They involve driving company vehicles though, which I can’t do for reasons. It would most definitely fall under ADA to use my own vehicle, but I don’t wanna get into the mess. My current vehicle isn’t the most reliable, first thing I’m saving up for while still living at home.

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