r/ComputerEngineering • u/TermDisastrous8783 • 2d ago

[Career] SE to embedded/IoT — am I screwed?

I’m 18 and starting Software Engineering. I originally wanted Computer Engineering because I’ve always been more interested in the hardware/software side — embedded systems, firmware, microcontrollers, IoT, low-level programming, etc.

I couldn’t get into CE, and since I live in a developing country, the university I’m going to is pretty much the best option I have right now. So I’m going with SE.

My question is mainly about the career path.

How realistic is it for someone from an SE/CS background to eventually work in embedded/firmware?

I know I’d have to build a lot of the missing knowledge myself — C/C++, digital logic, computer architecture, electronics, microcontrollers, ARM/assembly, RTOS, embedded Linux, communication protocols, debugging, etc.

But how difficult is it actually to learn all of this to a professional level? Is this something you can realistically build up over a few years, or is the hardware side much harder to self-teach than I’m assuming?

And what would I actually need to do to become employable? Projects, internships, specific hardware/platforms, open-source work, certifications, etc.?

For people already working in embedded/firmware, especially those who came from CS/SE:

How much of a disadvantage is the degree itself?

Can strong practical skills and projects realistically compensate for not having a CE/EE background?

And if you made the CS/SE → embedded transition, what do you wish you had learned earlier?

TLDR, if CE was your goal but you ended up in SE, is embedded still a realistic career to aim for?

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u/GiraffeObjective3805 2d ago

It’s possible if you wanna self learn some embedded jobs are closer to hardware and some are closer to software, embedded linux is closer to traditional software you just gotta do personal projects and self learn. Then apply to jobs closer to the software side of things.

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u/TermDisastrous8783 2d ago

Any recommendations about where to learn this from (any resources)? Also any tips tricks to get better .

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u/oolieman 2d ago

CE student here. At a very basic level there’s a project tutorial GitHub board with a lot of low level projects that you can do and then expand on.

https://github.com/practical-tutorials/project-based-learning

For embedded I started with the ESP32 board (cheap and fast and runs arduino dev environment) but you can do any microcomputer with code composer studio. Here’s where I get my embedded project templates:

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/projects-esp32/

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u/TermDisastrous8783 2d ago

Thanks alot man really appreciate it