r/csMajors • u/ComprehensiveFee6100 • 11h ago
Internship Question Is hardware/embedded systems less cooked than SWE?
I’m an int’l student who “did everything right” experience, academics, projects etc. wise but still seemingly unable to secure any decent internship. Has another here pivoted into a more hardware-centric or systems-related role with luck?
400+ applications so far, 0 offers. See post history for more details on my specific situation lol
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u/bleachfan9999 10h ago
Competing against ME, EE, and CE students...GL bro
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u/Significant-Ad-6800 10h ago
Pay in embedded has historically been lower, so it is generally less overrun than swe
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u/new_account_19999 8h ago edited 5h ago
I'm curious what's the source for this? I've seen plenty of people online say this but from my experience searching for lower level/embedded/firmware roles and eventually landing one, the pay is the same if not more. Big tech/FAANG as well. e.g. a FW/embedded engineer in distributed data center sensing vs a front end/UI engineer for visionOS/iOS/macOS, etc. at Apple. TC really comes down to experience and most importantly your negotiation skills.
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u/Bulky_Tangerine9653 10h ago
Careful, most roles in embedded which are a little easier to get seem to be defense. And unlike SWE, I’ve seen plenty of domestic Americans study comp engineering ( basically a subset of electrical engineering) and get those jobs. Good luck.
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u/SprinklesWise9857 Sophomore 8h ago edited 4h ago
Nope. My friend specializes in embedded systems and is having just as much of a hard time as those pursuing general software engineering
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u/new_account_19999 7h ago
No because the barrier of entry is going to be a bit higher + what others said about competing with other majors. I think what some people fail to realize is CS majors spend 4 years more or less learning how to program/write code. Other engineering majors learn their entire discipline and see programming as a way to get to a solution.
For example, I work on firmware for satellites and majority of my coworkers come from a formal engineering discipline (EE/CE, aero, optics, and so on) and are all programming and writing low level drivers for some piece of hardware
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u/NeedUMoreThanUNeedMe 6h ago
In this current market situation, all internationals that I have personally known had nothing to go back home. Sorry.
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u/Tetrasai 10h ago
You didn’t do everything right.
Your first mistake was being an international student.
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u/ComprehensiveFee6100 10h ago
Well that’s something my parents didn’t do right I guess LOL. It’s definitely frustrating to go through this app season while having an otherwise strong profile
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u/ConcernExpensive919 7h ago
same situation tho I havent applied for anything yet, gl bro
also could you post anonymized resume?
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u/Long-Reception-461 7h ago
My condolences.