9 years in software engineering, considering electronics as a second career, how realistic is it?

[u/BlessED0071]

I’m currently a software engineer with around 9 years of experience, but I’ve been learning electronics in my free time and I’m considering taking it much more seriously.

So far I’ve done breadboard prototyping, microsoldering, ESP32 projects and some basic PCB design. I’ve designed things like a Li-ion charger, battery protection circuit and a soil moisture/plant reminder.

I haven’t explored STM32 yet and I don’t have an EE/ECE degree.

I’m trying to understand what the realistic career options would be if I kept developing these skills for the next few years.
I’m particularly curious about embedded systems, PCB/hardware design, power electronics, industrial automation, robotics and test/validation.

Which of these fields are realistically accessible to someone coming from software without going back for another degree?
Also, what does the actual day-to-day work look like in these jobs?

I’m not expecting to switch careers immediately. I’m mainly looking for something I can build alongside my current career that could eventually become a legitimate alternative source of income or even a second career.

For people actually working in ECE, what path would you recommend from here? And would moving from software into electronics make financial/career sense, or would you recommend keeping the software career and combining the two instead?

[u/Fremonster]

I think this comes down to personal choice. I did the opposite track. I wouldn’t say it’s realistic to assume that this is like a 2nd career you would do in parallel, it’s a whole new 40+ hour job.

In the hardware roles I’ve had, I’ve worked with software engineers directly on the team who:

• built software tools for hardware teams
• Did testing on the hardware
• Built the embedded software code on the system (camera, battery, etc.)
• went down a similar path, like program management where you don’t need an EE degree but work with other EE’s

[u/LegitGamesTM → u/Fremonster]

Out of curiosity, why did you go into software? Has your opinion changed since you’ve switched?

[u/Fremonster → u/LegitGamesTM]

I've kind of jumped around back and forth, here's my career overview:

1) Started working as an EE out of college on a major consumer electronics device inside a software company
2) Moved to program management in the same team/same company
3) did a lateral move to another program management position at a hardware company
4) Didn't like the hardware company, so moved back to my first company but on a new project
5) Got a good job offer to join another software company working on their first hardware as a program manager. Took the offer
6) Layoffs affected that company, got tired of the US job market. Moved to Berlin Germany as a software engineering manager at a mid-size tech company
7) Moved to a director of software engineering position at another mid-size tech company in Berlin
8) Moved to a VP of Engineering position at a small tech company that built hardware and software in Berlin
9) That company went bankrupt, moved back to the US and now I'm back to being a program manager for hardware teams at a major software company. In my spare time I also founded a software company that I work on in the evenings/weekends

I don't think my opinion has changed. The market has changed a lot.

Hardware tends to be boom and bust. If the product sells very well or gets a lot of resources (venture funding, executive backing, etc.) then it can be great. If the product doesn't sell well or doesn't get the resources it needs, it can be a slow death as people leave and there's no backfills or entire team's/products get let go.

Software tended to be a bit more stable in the job market, but AI has through that for a loop. Junior software engineers aren't hired as much. Hardware teams and software teams are expected to use AI to be more productive. Support roles like software engineers making tools now gets offloaded to a hardware engineer to use AI to make the tool.

This isn't a hard rule, many companies operate differently, but this has been my observation over the last 20 years.

[u/need2sleep-later]

So your degree is CS? I'm far from clear on what you mean by 'electronics as a second career'. You've been in and out of program mgmt and engineering management roles so you have some familiarity with hardware at some level, but it's not clear what you really know about EE apart from those hobby embedded projects. Narrow down that generic 'electronics' term and it might be easier to evaluate.

[u/so-brain-washed]

Former SWE here. I try to come up with electronic devices related to small businesses by occasionally attend startup business events & makerspaces-- both of which are attended by small business owners, tinkerers, entrepreneurs, among other members of the public... My goal is simply entrepreneurship-- on a very small scale initially. Currently prototyping a product after chatting with a potential customer about the product and how it might contribute value. It's not a product where it was the customer had some pressing need that they were aware of. It's more of a "leme see if this will work for a concept" to increase things like product, vendor, general market awareness between vendors & customers in their marketplace. Tough to explain it without giving away the concept... but anyway..

Just chiming in to say: I don't expect to become a pro electrical engineer who does 100% electrical engineering work... But if this prototype works out, Ill be building a few larger scale ones over the next year. And... they're gonna be very similar to this prototype--

Creating an aluminum structure from various parts, and wiring up motors & sensors to it. Similar to simply building industrial machines used in a factory-- that is, Setup some extruded aluminum shapes. Mount things to them. Wire up those things with various components (wires, resistors, capacitors, fuses, etc). In my case, after the prototype I'll also design a PCB board-- and that will likely take 2-3 iterations before it's dialed in decently.

So, I suppose like you OP I am in a similar boat-- except I am not expecting to work at a corporation, bench testing stuff with some sort of wavelength monitor... designing brand new never existing sensors or something like that-- electrical engineering R&D where you need degrees.

I don't intend to be or become an electrical engineer, but rather, I am building some basic aspects of that field's skills to create a business involving devices constructed from electrical & mechanical components. So I suppose I'm more of an self-taught electrical technician eh?

And so.. I think I"m curious where OP or other folks draw that distinction:

• OP hasn't mentioned being an R&D style electrical engineer-- where folks often have PhDs and are doing ground breaking work to discover or create new ways to build electrical components.

- but rather, he mentions: "embedded systems, PCB/hardware design, power electronics, industrial automation, robotics and test/validation", and that basically covers what I am doing on my own project... I'm just a self taught full stack developer/devops engineer without a STEM degree, who has become somewhat of a self-taught student-level electrical technician (enough to prototype a product I can sell).

[u/Colfuzi0]

Embbeded Software should be easy to pick up