HACKER Q&A
📣 lzzzam

Stick to Embedded dev or switch to Web dev?


Hi, I need an advice from experienced developers. I have a master´s degree in electrical engineering, I am 32 years old and based in Europe, and I have 6+ years experience in Embedded software development. In the last 2 years I switched to independent contracting cause I want to work independently and remotely from my hometown in south Italy :). With my current client I now reached 100k+ euros and the possibility to work remotely 80% of time, while remaining 20% I have to fly to Austria to spend some days on-site. With this solution I can save lot of money at the moment, but looking at the future I am scared that I won´t be able to afford this lifestyle if I want to have a family and a more stable life in a place, specially because I feel like I had some luck with this specific client and I won´t be able to reproduce the same working condition in the future.

I love working independently and from remote, That´s why I am considering switching to web dev. where freelancing and remote work are much more popular. I have some basic experience with Web thanks to a job platform I have created, that´s why I think I´d really enjoy working with web stuff but I feel like I am throwing away my domain knowledge in embedded and restarting from scratch.

Given my need to work remotely, my path (and that of course earning good money is always appreciated :)), What are you suggestions?

Should I switch my career to web dev or stick to Embedded and continue growing my experience and dictate my working condition?


  👤 DamonHD Accepted Answer ✓
My feeling is that Web dev is a commodity: embedded is a rarer more defensible skill set.

Being fungible has its pros on upswings and cons on market downswings.

I don't think that I've ever been paid for Web dev work per se, but I have done a fair amount of more specialist stuff including embedded and financial and have only been on other people's payrolls for a tiny amount of time, and with a variety of working arragements, over decades. So I think that you can stick with embedded if you want to.


👤 illuminant
Web devs fantasize of becoming embedded devs.

Web devs are so common place the market is over saturated.