Where to move for an embedded software engineer.

I see by your list, you are not going East of the Miss.

Embedded Software Engineers is no longer a term of embedded processor engineers.

Everyone uses it anymore, so you really need to be specific about _your_ definition of embedded engineer.

As this is an FPGA newsgroup, do you mean Embedded FPGA engineer ?

Do you mean assembly language / C language Embedded Engineer ?

hamilton

PS: Don't Come to Denver, we have too many UN-employed engineers already.

This is an international group, not an American group - "the bay area" is meaningless outside your country.

And since the world extends a long way outside the USA, have you considered moving abroad? Certainly Norway has a great shortage of engineers.

It's meaningless in most of the USA also. I used to live in the "bay area" on the "west coast" - Tampa, FL...

Have you considered looking for a job first, and then deciding where to move? In this economy, that would seem a sounder approach.

-- Gabor

I find I must specify the California bay area, picky, picky, picky. ;)

Correct. ;)

No, I just happen to lurk here as the posts are interesting.

Correct, and this group seemed to cover software as well as hardware, though a few think not. If anyone would nominate a non-dead more software embedded newsgroup I will gladly go take a look.

With the exception of C++ groups, fringe freaks debating broken ideas do not excite me.

I have scoped out Denver a little and each of the suburb cities seems to have a major high tech company. On the downside last time I drove through I found the traffic to be horrible. Denver is so big I would have to pick a sub-city as the commute is to long, same as California.

All those places I listed (except the bay area) would allow me to engage my geology hobby on the weekends.

That's why I am here too. I have only done a little FPGA (or CPLD) development, but sometimes threads here can be very interesting. I've learned a lot about high-speed digital design from this group over the years, and it applies to processor-based boards just as well as to FPGA boards.

That would be comp.arch.embedded. It is not software-only, but that is certainly a common topic.

mvh.,

David

And since the world extends a long way outside the USA, have you considered moving abroad? Certainly Norway has a great shortage of engineers.

Really? Where can I search for job listings?

comp.arch.embedded is active, on-topic, and usually has many interesting threads.

Dallas and Austin both have a lot of high tech. LA and San Diego have some automotive and industrial, and lots of defense stuff.

Embedded is everywhere. If you're really pretty agnostic about where you want to work, I'd suggest that you just move to the first job you find (and in this economy, don't settle down: consider renting and not buying much stuff that's hard to move 1000 miles).

Pay close attention to cost of living: I had a friend from the Portland (OR) area who went to work at a company in Silicon Valley at a pay rate that astonished him, only to discover after he had moved that the cost of rent and food and damn near everything else is astonishing, too -- he soon found a gig in Seattle for way less pay and higher net return. This cuts both ways: a pay rate that sucks in Portland (and is in the sub- basements in San Jose) may get you ahead in the long run if the job is in Missoula.

Even though you specifically mention not looking east of the Mississippi, you should take a second look at the east coast. Massachusetts has tons of high-tech along the 128 corridor, and even more work scattered up and down I-495. There's plenty of high-tech in New Hampshire, to boot. If you don't mind Military, there's tons of work to be had in the various Washington DC outer suburbs, and the southeast is coming on strong. I'm sure I'm leaving out something here, but you get the idea.

If you like your geology flat, there's always the Midwest: anything automotive (and I mean _anything_: cars, tractors, railway, etc.) needs lots of embedded, and it's all concentrated around the great lakes.

It's not a bad idea if you do settle down to try to scope out where the work is concentrated, and try to center yourself in the area (or if you want to live out of town a bit, go for "center-rural"). Settling right next to work is great until you have to change jobs. Settling in the middle of a 30-minute-drive-to-anywhere spot works well when things change, or when the spouse gets a job, too.

If you visit comp.arch.embedded, be aware of the (right/left) wing crackpot that live there.

"interesting threads" is an understatement !!

Dallas has this endless supply of 3 month Java contracts, so it's at least something, but there's not a lot of embedded work.

Something's gone horribly wrong in Dallas. Can't put my finger on it.

They very frequently expect an active clearance and military spend is in grave risk these days - has been since '08. If you point that way get and keep an active clearance.

Yep. It also usually has a very low Mickey Mouse factor.

I use c.a.e. all the time, but I am not aware of any such crackpots - the newsgroup is mercifully free of such people. There are a few with strong or unusual opinions (people probably think of me that way at times), but none of the sort of characters who blame some politician for every bug in their software, or throw a tantrum when they are contradicted.

Occasionally, we get visits from such people via cross-posts. sci.electronics.design is a group that is mostly dedicated to political discussions amongst retired Americans that view mainstream Republican politics as so left-wing they are practically communist, but it sometimes also has threads on the topic of electronics design. These can get cross-posted to c.a.e., and start off fine - but inevitably degenerate into politics.

There is also the world-famous (in the Usenet world, anyway) character Rod Speed, whom I have seen once or twice in c.a.e. via cross-posts to Australian electronics newsgroups. But I haven't seen him at his full strength there.

All in all, c.a.e. is at a similar level to c.a.f. regarding crackpots, off-topic threads, spam, etc.

Southern Germany. Lots of companies seem to be hiring around here, inluding some bigger ones, such as Bosch and Sick, and a huge number of smaller ones with at most a few hundred employees.

Philipp

Southern Germany. Lots of companies seem to be hiring around here, inluding some bigger ones, such as Bosch and Sick, and a huge number of smaller ones with at most a few hundred employees.

Remember to tell that You will probably must speek German...

Are the EU countries more welcoming to foreign workers then the USA ?

What is the equivalent to the H1-B visa ?

Does each EU country have a different visa requirement ?

thanks for any info

hamilton

I don't have information on other EU countries, but Germany at least is always trying to attract foreign talent. Instead of the US Green Card, they have the "Blue Card":

This is meant to simplify the process of well educated immigrants coming there to work.

The language is usually not a problem either. Of course speaking German makes every-day life easier, but for work at tech companies English is usually sufficient, especially in the embedded sector. All the literature and such is in English anyway, so being proficient in English is mandatory for (software) engineers. German universities also offer a lot of engineering courses in English these days, so most young (software) engineers speak fluently.

This is even less of a problem when you're working for one of the global players like Siemens, Bosch, Continental or the automotive industry (Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW, Audi in southern Germany, Volkswagen up north), to bring up a few names that do a lot of work in embedded software.

HTH, Sean

That question is impossible to answer - the EU is not like different states in the US. Different countries will have different attitudes to immigrants from different parts of the world, even though the official rules are probably fairly similar. And there are countries in Europe that are not part of the EU (such as Norway).

You are going to get more useful answers by looking at a more official source of information. I would recommend looking at the website of the embassy for the countries you are interested in - they will give you the exact answer. In general, if you are a well-qualified US citizen (and no complications like criminal records), and there is a company in the European country that can offer you a job, then the paperwork should not be a hinder.

More importantly, you have to consider if you can live in the country you are looking at. Language is a big issue. In many technical departments of companies in Scandinavia, much of the work is in English. But towards the south of Europe, it is mostly in native languages (except in the bigger and more international companies). Outside work, you can get by with English more easily in Northern Europe and smaller countries, but less so further south and in bigger countries. A particular point here is that in countries like Norway or the Netherlands, much of the TV is foreign and in English with local subtitles - while in bigger countries like Spain and Italy, far more of the foreign TV is dubbed. Similarly with books and translations. This makes a big difference to how familiar people are with English in everyday life.

Other things like climate, food, culture and general way of life are important, and vary enormously across Europe.

On 2012-12-12, scrts sent: |--------------------------------------------------------------------| |[David Brown sent:] | |["]And since the world extends a long way outside the USA, have you | |considered moving abroad? Certainly Norway has a great shortage of | |engineers.["] | | | |Really? Where can I search for job listings?" | |--------------------------------------------------------------------|

It is not Norway but you can try:

Beware that the economy in Portugal is not excellent.

Good luck.

With kind regards, Colin Paul Gloster

On 12/12/2012, Tim Wescott sent: |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"[. . .] | | | |Pay close attention to cost of living: I had a friend from the Portland | |(OR) area who went to work at a company in Silicon Valley at a pay rate | |that astonished him, only to discover after he had moved that the cost of | |rent and food and damn near everything else is astonishing, too -- he | |soon found a gig in Seattle for way less pay and higher net return. This | |cuts both ways: a pay rate that sucks in Portland (and is in the sub- | |basements in San Jose) may get you ahead in the long run if the job is in | |Missoula. | | | |[. . .]" | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Do not be conned into a bad-faith contract to provide assistance finding somewhere affordable to live:

HTTP://69.54.212.166/~gloster/Evil_which_is_so-called_science/Mariano_Gago/Attachment_emailed_to_Gago_during_August_2012.htm

There are plenty of jobs on the SF peninsula, but housing is insanely expensive. Easy Bay has lots of tech companies too, and housing is cheaper.

We have rocks here too.