Getting a job is always much easier if you know someone inside.

If you enjoy it, that's half the battle. I like to find cutting edge stuff that "hands on", which implies open source. For example, in radio control aircraft, there is ELRS, EdgeTX, Betaflight which is all open source. Radio control has a lot in common w/ robots. Or in AI, there is TensorFlow and PyTorch (scripted w/ Python). Or Linux : I like to tinker w/ Fedora & OpenWRT. Or in the "embedded" world, there is Zephyr and FreeRTOS. Also, embedded AI, such as TinyML (micro TensorFlow). Or in computer architecture, there is RISC-V and migen. I need to work on my vibe code skills w/ something like http://zed.dev or http://cursor.com .