What is the employment direction of microcontrollers? Is working on microcontrollers a job for youth?

During this period, many newbies came to me and asked me the most questions about the prospects and employment direction of microcontrollers.

Another concern is: Is working on a single-chip microcomputer a job for youth? Is it too late to learn in your 20s?

Let's answer the first question first.

1.  Employment direction of microcontrollers

People are full of fear of the unknown. This is human instinct for self-protection, and I am the same.

At the beginning, I was self-taught in microcontrollers, and I was working across industries, which posed a lot of challenges to me.

After I started looking for a job, I was ruthlessly attacked by more than a dozen companies, and my mentality collapsed.

There is always an unconfident voice inside that laughs at myself: In this life, there may not be any company in this industry that wants me.

It is often in this most desperate time that you have to persevere and work hard.

As the saying goes: When you are at your most unlucky, it will be your time of fortune.

This is a bit metaphysical, but looking back on the first half of my life, I basically went through this process when doing anything successful.

Ok, let’s go a little further and get back to our topic.

Microcontroller technology is generally used to develop smart products, such as our home appliances: microwave ovens, refrigerators, air conditioners, rice cookers, etc.

There is a circuit board inside these products, and the circuit board will have a chip. This chip is the microcontroller and the core of the circuit board, responsible for the intelligent control of the entire product.

Generally, when a product like this is actually developed, hardware engineers and microcontroller software engineers will cooperate in the research and development.

Therefore, when we learn C language and microcontroller, we are mainly engaged in the position of microcontroller software development engineer .

The bigger ones are embedded engineers , so these two are our employment directions after we study .

Judging from the current trends, I personally am quite optimistic about this industry.

Let me tell you a word that makes everyone want to vomit when they hear it: Internet of Things.

The objects are actually our equipment. This equipment can be a socket, a bicycle, a Fengchao express cabinet, etc.

To connect these devices to the Internet, they must rely on microcontrollers. Of course, more advanced ones also include ARM+Linux.

Considering the cost, some low-end and mid-range devices will definitely choose microcontroller + WiFi/4G module to connect the device to the Internet.

What are you doing online?

Of course, it is to manage the device more intelligently and conveniently.

Just imagine, if the shared bicycles were not made into the Internet of Things and had to be manually guarded and rented, how high would the labor cost be, right?

There is also equipment for self-service code scanning in the parking lot, which not only improves efficiency but also saves costs.

This is the convenience that the Internet of Things brings to everyone.

Since a technology can improve the efficiency of society, then this technology must be a trend, unless society does not want to progress.

2.  Is working on a single-chip microcomputer a job for youth?

I have seen many young people who have just graduated always worry too much about how long they can work in this industry before they enter the industry.

To be honest, even if I can work for you until you are 100 years old, if you work for 5 or 10 years and it is still a part-time job, I believe you will be exhausted mentally and physically.

People move up the ladder, and when you have enough experience and resources, you will think about starting your own business and doing something, rather than helping other bosses achieve their grand ambitions and hegemony.

If you don’t have this ambition, any industry will be a youth meal for you, and you will not achieve anything in any industry.

The end result is that your salary increases by a few thousand dollars every few years, and then never goes up again.

The sad thing is that even if you raise wages, you still won't beat inflation in the end.

However, relatively speaking, the "life cycle" of microcontroller development is generally longer than that of pure software.

Once upon a time, I saw the oldest person in his 50s still welding, drawing boards, and adjusting programs.

But judging from my interactions with him, he did it purely as a hobby.