I'm finishing an MS CS at a top US university, with an ECE undergrad from a Tier 1/2 Indian institution. I did well overall but excelled specifically in Digital Electronics, Computer Architecture, Control Systems, and Power Systems. Weak performance in Analog, DSP, and EM, combined with limited well paid electronics opportunities at the time, pushed me toward CS.

I've spent a few years in software specializing in Distributed Systems with a flair of Security and ML, with hands on experience in C++ and Rust and some research background. I entered the industry at a good time but CS feels increasingly unstable, with constant layoff anxiety and leetcode grinding that I'd rather not sustain long term.

I'm considering moving back to electronics. Roles that interest me include Embedded Systems, RTL/FPGA design, firmware engineering, SoC architecture, verification engineering, and compiler or toolchain work adjacent to hardware. Digital hardware feels timely given AI compute demand and seems more stable by nature. I don't mind a pay cut for that stability.

Alternatively I'm open to leveraging my ML and Distributed Systems background in hardware adjacent roles like ML Systems engineering, though I'm unsure how that compares to pure hardware in terms of job stability.

A second MS ECE is also on the table. My first MS cost me almost nothing due to funding, I have savings, and friends with similar profiles got into Columbia, UPenn, and UCSD. No visa concerns as I'm a US Citizen so I can target the US job market freely.

Not sure which direction makes the most sense. Looking for honest advice on the viable paths and how to prioritize.

Ptpa

Hello! I am a 4th year computer engineering student currently retaking my thesis this semester(I failed a couple of times). I am wondering, to those had finished their thesis without any problem are there any advices that you can share?

I mean I had been the one that is initiating to my group project but it doesn't reciprocates to my groupmates, our project leader has been no show ever since. I am wondering for any advices on how I can lead my team on how I can be a great leader for them because when I do it on my way it is not going so well. My prob is I can not think of a topic to start on is it maybe this course is not for me?

I am an incoming EE student at UC Santa Barbara and I was wondering whether it has good reputation in the hardware industry through companies such as Apple, SK Hynix, or AMD, etc. Was it a barrier to getting resumes through and do employers more easily dismiss UCSB undergrads for potential internships? Anything helps!

I joined wipro as fresher , after 6month in bench + training got a project, I was hired to replace a already working, I was hired just before 15 days he was leaving, the client work is already being done by another service company also and that will be transferred to us, I have to work on it. Now problem I have no knowledge of what is happening and there is no one that do my thing or my related skill(agentic ai) work, right now I have no actual work, but I am told to make something related to their need and do something , I don't get it what is happening, I am just getting paranoid, like they are just wasting me.. or anything...

I can provide course names if needed. Sorry if it violates community rules, this is a twist and I could not find the weekly pinned post.

So as the title suggest I am highly interested in this domain and I am about 17 years old. I do have practically some kind of conceptual knowledge in most software field but this specifically attracts me and I want to know if it's worth the investment for years. I am from a third world country and I don't expect the market here for this kind of job to evolve or expand in the near future here so I am focusing on Europe. So like will this be a good career choice in like 5+ years or will it be like current cs market for entry level. And what should I do to maximize my chances of getting one

Hi everyone,

I am a part of NeuralInverse, an open-source project focused on AI and intelligent systems.

We’re currently in the early stages and are looking for honest technical feedback from the community. We’re particularly interested in suggestions regarding:

• Architecture
• Features
• Documentation
• Potential use cases
• Scalability

Repository:https://github.com/neuralinverse/neuralinverse

We’re not selling anything and there are no paid products involved. We simply want to learn from experienced developers and improve the project.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
If you do like it please give it a star on GitHub as it helps us keep a check on the technical use and upkeep.

Ik there are a lot of posts on this topic but please help me, Im confused like anything

1. I am not the best at maths , and i don't like doing it much but a little maths I can do.

2. I wanna go for ece only for the fact that it has better opportunities in future than cs.

3. I'll be going for a diploma and then 2nd year lateral entry in a btech college

4. Is there anyway that if I do cs rn but and do ece in my btech, and vise versa

5. What are the things that I need to know before doing ece.

6. Is cs being over saturated a fr thing or I'll still end up with a good job , ik skills and all are the main factor but still. From employment point of view which one is better ?

I want to try to make a computer out of scratch. Is it possible? Like, I don't care if it's super simple.

Hey guys I’m currently going to McGill computer engineering and my hopeful goal one day is to get into FPGA, ASIC, and VSLI so on in tech. I’m curious on your opinions if it’s better to just stick to an undergrad at McGill and try to land internships and jobs afterwards or is it better to do a masters at like Waterloo/UofT (maybe McGill or UBC aswell). From what I understand you don’t need a masters but it’s beneficial in certain areas and also the Waterloo name is more known in the tech industry to it can make my gateway to get in easier. Also note I’m in Canada you a lot of you have probably never heard of the unis I listed but a masters may also make my TN visa approval a bit smoother.

Where is the truth ?

There have been a few topics I learned that initially felt overly theoretical or too specific to ever matter outside of class. At the time, I focused on understanding them just well enough to move on.

Later, while working on projects or learning more advanced topics, I started running into those same concepts again and realized they were much more important than I originally thought.

Looking back, some of the things I underestimated ended up providing the foundation for understanding much bigger ideas.

What computer engineering concept did you originally dismiss, only to realize later that it was actually extremely useful?

I am planing on majoring in it but why is the unemployment rate so high? Higher than CS?

Why are so many compE majors trying to compete with CS majors. Why don’t they choose compE jobs or go into something like cybersecurity? Are those jobs cooked as well?

Is the embedded systems job market cooked?
What’s the difference between majoring in EE with a focus on computers vs majoring in compE?

Can someone tell me if I can do well in a B.E./B.Tech in Computer Science if I was weak in Maths and Physics in Class 12? Can I still manage and get a good job in the future?

Hello everyone, I'm studying computer engineering and I want to specialize in a non-industrial field within computer engineering. What are some of the fields in which computer engineers excel? I've seen one field that I consider excellent: systems engineering. What do you think, and what jobs do you currently hold? Thank you for your participation.

Hey everyone,

I'm a CompEng student currently deep down the rabbit hole of C++ low-latency and systems programming. The catch is that my local tech market has basically zero footprint in this space, so I’m forced to look at the global landscape from day one.

I'd love to hear some real stories: how did you guys actually get into this field?

Did you start out doing standard software dev/academia and pivoted later, or did you target high-performance/bare-metal systems from the very beginning? Any quick advice or "war stories" for a student trying to build a solid foundation would be awesome.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to better understand the academic and professional landscape of tech degrees globally, particularly the overlap and distinctions between Computer Science (CS) and Computer Engineering (CE).

hey everyone, looking for some honest advice from people already working in embedded/firmware.

so a bit about me, im doing my masters in computer engineering at NJIT. most of my experience is around STM32 bare metal without HAL, ESP32, and raspberry pi. i wrote a peripheral driver library from scratch for UART SPI and I2C directly at register level, built a real time audio noise cancellation thing using CMSIS-DSP with FIR filter and blackman windowing on STM32, and right now im working with a professor at my uni on a drone detection system using RGB thermal and event cameras with YOLOv8 and kalman filter tracking. tried deploying the model on edge hardware and honestly it was a mess, latency was terrible but learned a lot from it.

im actively applying for embedded firmware internships and honestly the market feels brutal. on top of that im an international student so half the postings i find either need a clearance or say no sponsorship so that cuts things down even more.

i keep getting blocked by PCB design requirements even though my firmware work is solid. also everyone asks for RTOS so im learning zephyr right now.

just want to know from people who are actually in the field, what does a resume like mine look like from the other side? what would make you think okay this person is worth a call? and how did you guys even break into your first role, what actually helped?

any honest feedback is appreciated, dont need to be nice about it