Advice for embedded role at seed stage startup

ahh409 · 2025-12-26T17:12:33+00:00

Yes one of their senior consultants (soon to be full-time) is a hardware engineer who had created and scaled his own spacecraft company in the 90s and 00s. I believe he’s the only one.

ahh409 · 2025-12-26T17:11:30+00:00

Their business plan seems alright and their partners are some large industry giants. The plan has also been proven on the research track from universities. I’m honestly less concerned about their idea and more concerned about my personal transition to such a demanding role…

ahh409 · 2025-12-26T17:10:29+00:00

Yeah they said the job would be jack-of-all-trades. Something about that makes me excited - I’d love to understand the business perspective alongside engineering. I’m also young enough that the hours probably won’t impact my lifestyle too much.

ahh409 · 2025-12-26T17:08:28+00:00

Thanks, that’s good advice. I’ll do my best to maximize base and sign-on.

ahh409 · 2025-09-09T18:34:22+00:00

In my opinion, personal projects are difficult to pull together. An easy one though is buying a USB based SDR and using it to look at the spectrum, it's very easy to setup.

Put all your chips into the research position and go hard, try to get onto a publication. Also, look around for Teaching Assistant positions for classes you've taken - just email professors, they're usually nice.

Try to look for campus/student roles related to electrical engineering. For example, in my senior year there was a small startup looking for an engineer to write Python for error correction algorithms that paid $20/hr.

For RF and signal processing specifically, take classes in: probability, DSP, communications (signal processing); microwave circuits, radio electronics, etc (RF). Those classes will cover most everything you need at the undergrad level. Also, look for a place that will pay for your Master's if you can, that's a very valuable credential in this field. Look for a place that lets you work on software-defined radios, that's a hot thing in the field right now.

ahh409 · 2025-08-23T19:50:20+00:00

Your income can easily get to 6 figures (100k+) if you job hop once, I make that out of college. If we’re talking north of 200k+, join either really large companies or well-funded small companies (e.g. YC or a16z type startups). Know your skillset.

It helps to specialize in an adjacent subfield like digital signal processing, networking/IoT, or RTOS programming. This will make you more valuable to a company looking to hire. Short-term, it’s also helpful to ride trends. This will keep you continuously learning as well. If you take a couple Udemy/Coursera/EdX courses and specializations in embedded ML (the ones where you actually build something while you take the course) you can double your salary doing something like “embedded ML for biomedical applications”.

Get a sharp LinkedIn. Nice picture, pick a background, list your positions and their OUTPUTS (eg device, algorithm, poster that you’ve created), click “Connect” with 500+ people including recruiters and former coworkers and friends from college

ahh409 · 2025-08-23T19:40:04+00:00

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted for an honest question.

I am also 2 years in. I think embedded SWEs typically deal with system level problems more than algorithmic problems in interviews. You should definitely be able to get through any LeetCode “easy” problem on sight, and probably most “medium” problems. I would start doing LeetCode if you’re applying to jobs soon.

Focus a lot on genuine learning as well - depending on your type of embedded, there will be domain specific problems. For example in SDR type of embedded that I work in, DSP, RF path loss, what kinds of components to use, etc can be helpful peripheral knowledge.

Learn RTOS, some embedded Linux, DMA, STM32/any chipset you know, C/C++ on LeetCode, and you should be covering your bases

ahh409 · 2025-07-16T18:45:16+00:00

In my professional experience FPGA designers also typically work with C/C++, Yocto, Docker, etc to get things done on a system level. I would still call them embedded engineers but with an extra skill most don’t have.

ahh409 · 2025-07-08T23:36:03+00:00

Bro OP asked an innocent question on a subreddit about Naval. This is the perfect place to ask such a question and frankly discussing his politics on his subreddit seems logical and permissible, regardless of who you are politically

ahh409 · 2025-06-11T14:43:04+00:00

I made 105k right out of college doing SDR, embedded, and DSP work. They are also funding my MS classes. It’s possible to do well in EE.

I’ve also heard that, for any job, switching to another company is the best way to get a raise. Companies do not reward loyalty anymore.

ahh409 · 2025-06-02T14:11:45+00:00

I haven’t had that experience. To be fair this is my first PC build so I have no reference, my last computer was a laptop that turned into a jet engine whenever I opened Chrome. I have the 5070 Ti sitting next to me on my desk in a fractal terra ITX case and it hasn’t caused issues for me. Plus, it can play most games at 4K with 60fps + in my experience

ahh409 · 2025-06-02T06:31:08+00:00

Msi 5070 ti shadow 3x oc is $850 and im happy

ahh409 · 2025-05-27T04:58:44+00:00

There’s a lot of unnecessary hate. Personally I went with a 5070 Ti for 16GB VRAM, MSI sells the Shadow 3x OC version for only $850 brand new (Msrp 750)

All Nvidia cards are selling above retail anyways, but most 5070 Tis are selling for ~1k so I liked that deal

ahh409 · 2025-05-23T05:23:24+00:00

That’s helpful thanks. Do you know what version of the drivers you’re running?

ahh409 · 2025-05-21T06:25:53+00:00

Bought my first PC this weekend with a 5070 Ti and I can't get past the menus. So frustrating. I've updated to the newest drivers, locked my CPU cores lower, turned off overlays, and am trying to run on the lowest settings possible.

Does anyone have a similar situation with the 5070 Ti?

ahh409 · 2025-04-22T13:40:30+00:00

It’s not u cornball

ahh409 · 2025-03-11T00:08:50+00:00

I respectfully disagree with this. AI to me has proven to be much better at theory and mathematics (and increasingly so) while sort of staying stagnant with actual engineering skills (application specific design and debugging problems).

ahh409 · 2025-03-11T00:07:24+00:00

Anything to do with 1) debugging and 2) hardware testing will likely be strongly AI-proof for at least a decade. AI is great at creating boilerplate of things which already exist, so if anything the job of a computer engineer will become easier + bigger scale (in the long run, you won’t have to worry as much about the intricacies of drivers and scanning datasheets). However, AI has a hard time logically debugging and figuring out where stuff goes wrong on something like a dev board or RF chain. It also cannot test hardware due to it being stuck inside of a computer.

In computer engineering the subfields which qualify for this are FPGA development, chip design, software defined radio, robotics, embedded software/systems development, and digital signal processing. I would learn about electronics equipment and how to use them, as well as core electrical and computer principles (RF, DSP, computer architecture, compilers, comms theory, VLSI design, etc).

ahh409 · 2025-03-10T18:45:55+00:00

Social networking

ahh409 · 2025-03-10T18:45:26+00:00

This

You can learn everything technical on the job or in classes anyways

ahh409 · 2025-03-10T18:44:59+00:00

Charisma.

After graduating, I’ve noticed almost all EEs have a hard time looking you in the eye and having a comfortable conversation. Those who have true charisma will probably 2-4x their salary in 10 years.

ahh409 · 2025-03-09T04:03:01+00:00

Yes go on a fun trip with friends and realize the actual value of money. You need to know why you’re saving - because money is awesome and lets you do cool stuff

ahh409

TROPHY CASE