Lack of Embedded System Jobs?
I recently wrote a couple of think pieces for IEEE and Embedded Intel Magazine discussing the sad state of affairs regarding the dwindling pool of embedded systems developers. Basically, my thesis was that many institutes of higher learning are no longer teaching CS majors what computers are all about from a low-level perspective (CPUs, caches, data busses and the like) and this is causing a shortage of embedded systems developers. This thesis has been backed up by folks like Jack Ganssle and the many of email responses that I have received from all over the world. Evidently, it's not just a U.S. problem, but a world-wide phenomena.Nonetheless, I've also received a few emails stating that if there were jobs, then there'd be more demand and therefore more "bare-metal" engineers to fill the positions. That thought got me wondering. I believe that the reason that there are apparently no jobs is because the embedded systems development space is a stealth industry.
We inherently know that embedded systems are almost everywhere. However, as seen at ESC San Jose in the keynote presentation, not a one of the "man on the street" interviewees could identify just what an embedded system was, let alone identify one. The same applies to determining the size of the embedded job market. If you don't know what and embedded system is, how do you know what the jobs are?
The stealthiness of embedded systems is both good and bad. On the plus side, it means that embedded developers are doing their job correctly. On the minus side, no one can identify just what the job was -- let alone what skills it required and how to train/educate for it.
Now, I define an embedded system as one wherein you inherently know there must be a computer in the device someplace, but you're just not sure where. By being a well-designed embedded system, the user is oblivious to its existence. This makes it extremely difficult to define the scope of the embedded systems market precisely because we're doing such a good job at hiding computers everywhere.
As to whether or not there are jobs in embedded systems here in the U.S., I went to Monster and had a look. A quick search showed about 300 job openings for RTOS developers. Close to 1000 for firmware developers. 2,500 for embedded developers. Over 5,000 for systems engineers. 678 for embedded Linux developers, etc. Now, admittedly, there will no doubt be some overlap where there may be duplicate hits for the same opening. But, to say that there are no embedded systems jobs here in the U.S. is just plain wrong.
However, the problem is that in order to understand the scope of the job openings, you need to understand where embedded systems are used. This is one of the fundamental failings of the university system when it comes to designing their curricula. Since the academic community is seemingly no better at identifying embedded systems than the "man on the street", they woefully underestimate the demand for "close to the metal" understanding of computers.
And, as for those who say that all of the embedded jobs have moved to India and China, I'd say that that's a load of crap. Yes, there is a lot of embedded development going on in India and China. But, to say that there's no development left here in the U.S. is just ignorant of the real situation. If that was the case, then there wouldn't be representatives from large high-tech firms lobbying Congress for 195,000 H1B visas for "highly-skilled technical positions" for 2008. Now clearly, most of those H1Bs are not targeted for embedded developers. But, some of them are. And, those openings could represent several thousand jobs going unfilled.
Now, I *do* believe that there's a problem with the salaries that those companies are willing to pay. And, I feel that the proliferation of H1B visas helps depress the salary levels of developers which precludes otherwise promising students from pursuing careers in embedded development. That will be the topic of a future post though.
As Al Gore said at the 2007 ESC keynote, the future of the world and our ability to address the issues of global warming and energy conservation rests in the hands of the embedded developers of the world. Without embedded systems, none of the fancy technology in things like hybrid cars would ever work. So, we need more clever people now than ever before. And, we need to get the educators and the legislators involved to help address the misconceptions about the death of our industry.
So, to those of you who may be thinking of a career in embedded systems development, whether you're a CS, CE, EE or just someone who likes to make things work, don't be discouraged when the naysayers tell you there is no future in computers here in the U.S. The U.S. used to be the technical innovators in the world. We may have lost our edge, but the work is still there and we're still doing innovative stuff. But, we need you to participate.
But, that's just my opinion. What's yours?
posted by PTR-Mike @ 5:03 PM
10 Comments:
Mike,
I'm wondering if this is more of a chicken and egg picture. Do we need universities to train the people to enter real-time embedded development or have better salaries to entice people to go into the profession? I can say that telling people I develop embedded systems gets a blank stare while saying I'm a software engineer or programmer of engine controllers or robots or visions systems does not. I'm wondering if industry wants more people to enter this niche (its a big niche), they need to at least improve the marketing of the profession. For my kid's career day a few years ago, I was in a room with a eye surgeon and dentist. I armed myself with a sample head-up-display unit I had worked on along with a PowerPoint presentation. The result, 2 questions all morning while the rest of the many inquires were directed toward the others. I can say that my presentation could have been improved but kids know about surgeons and dentists. What I did, fighter jets was a close as I can get. A circuit board, mirror and scope just didn't appeal to these teenagers.
I think that you're right in that the embedded community is very poorly marketed. It's such a broad field that it's difficult to describe it in 20 words or less. Robotics seems to be one of the few embedded-related areas that most folks can relate to so it demos well. But, that is such a small piece of the overall market that it's difficult to justify a whole university program on one small piece of a community.
However, I think that embedded systems suffers from spill-over from the bad feelings that are frequently associated with IT departments. Programming is associated with web development these days and that is associated with outsourcing to India, China, etc. So, people don't want to go into embedded development in a large part because they think that all of that work is just going to be outsourced, so why even start down that path?
That being said, some salaries are depressed, as they are across the board in the engineering fields. However, as the engineers in China and India start demanding higher salaries, the rationale for outsourcing any embedded work is starting to dwindle. Our problem will be that by the time our economics settle out and job demand goes up, there will be no one left to fill the positions and we definitely will need the H1Bs to fill positions here in the US. Sigh...
Thanks for the comments...
I have read all your stuff very curiously. I am a young embedded system engineer from Pakistan. Its very difficult to make people realize the importance of embedded systems here also in our country. Although we people are not in a race. I am the first one in Pakistan designing Hybrid car and its really very interesting for me. China is next super power and they lead the technology with germans and japanese and in future America will be the place just for entertainment. Today USA leads in pornography, just think about why Russia falls. Why we people always convey the message of Islam "Live a pure Life". Just think then you understand when u lead the world you have better moral values. But unfortunately loosing by time. eekamran@gmail.com
Hi All ....i read all the comments it is very informative from my point of view .....
i wanted to start my career in embedded system ...so i planned to join embedded system course ....
Is recession going to effect me ...by chosing this Embedded system ...???
And am very keen in knowing the career growth in this field.....
Plz If any one as any suggestion ...mail me at "jagadishpes@gmail.com"
There are many career options in embedded systems today. And, depending on where you live, they range from manufacturing to automotive, entertainment, communications and, of course, green tech. Of all of these, green technology is probably the most promising in the long run. There isn't a single, significant green technology that doesn't include embedded systems in some way. But, go beyond writing Java UI code to understanding how the hardware works. If you understand the hardware and how to write code for it, then you'll likely never be without opportunities for employment. Good luck.
Hi freinds,
I'm read all the comments and it was informative.
I want to do my masters in embedded systems. Which field of embedded systems should i choose so that it will have an impact on the long run? what is the average salary i can expect?
Your logic is flawed when you say that there must be jobs because the employers are seeking H1B visas. Those jobs are specifically pegged for non-Americans so that in reality they don't exist for American engineers, only for foreigners. This is still difficult for some people to accept but it's the truth. There are even videos that have surfaced in which lawyers are teaching how to legally exclude Americans from the available jobs. There are several reasons why this is happening, such as greed, foreign influence, and the desire of people who are already here on H1B visas to hire their own kind while harming Americans.
i'm gonna make my own site about it
To the Pakistani who things China is the next superpower and Islam is a good thing, I think he is living in a dream world. Islam is the religion of darkness, China is totally dependent on the West for invention and basically steal all their technology, and all the U.S. needs to do to stay on top is dump all the 3rd world immigrants and go back to its European roots.
Hmm... I've been to China and India several times (never to Pakistan though because it's just too dangerous for Americans) and I can tell you that there are some imaginative folks in both countries. However, certainly in China, there is a lot of, say, less than original thought that powers the corporations there.
Having seen the "Beijing Jeep" (a complete knockoff the the Jeep Cherokee down to the nuts and bolts), I can certainly understand the comment about not being able to come up with new ideas. But, that is not always the case. I've also seen some very innovative products that are available in country. They just don't get here to the U.S. very often.
All that being said, the problems remain. Those of us who want to hire embedded engineers find that the skill base is slim pickings. Due to the slow-down of the economy in 2009, the good news is that engineering enrollments are up. The bad news is that the students are still not getting training in embedded systems development.
Stay tuned. I'm working on an article for IEEE Today's Engineer that is a follow-up to this blog entry. We're seeing some hope for the industry coming out of projects like the FIRST Robotics program. Capturing the imagination of young students and channeling that into the science, math and engineering disciplines may be the best way to change the direction of our education system.
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