Transition from software to hardware ~ Career Advice career

Hi everyone,

I’m a self-taught software developer with 10 years of experience who is looking for advice on how to move closer to working with hardware (I hope I am in the right place).

For my work, I’ve mostly been using Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, and SQL to build B2B SaaS apps. I also worked a bit with C++/C# for some side projects. I am originally from Germany but moved to the US a few years ago and plan on staying here long term.

I recently picked up a Raspberry Pi and started building my own mini-robot. I got really interested in the idea of transitioning my career to a field where I can combine coding with hands-on engineering. Some fields that have always been of particular interest to me are computer chips, robotics and anything related to aerospace.

I am uncertain how to proceed and whether I should keep going down the route I took for software development of self-teaching myself, which I presume is possible but seems harder than coding. The alternative I’ve considered is doing a remote bachelor's degree from an accredited university in Germany while working in the US, so I don’t need to take any substantial student loans since a degree costs roughly $2k there. The options I am considering are: - Electrical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Computer Engineering

In parallel, I could teach the necessary C, C++, and Python skills myself, as I have done with the other coding languages.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has made a similar switch or has experience in these engineering fields. Looking forward to your advice!

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u/NodeModd 6d ago

When you say hardware do you mean embedded or are you talking actually building hardware (im assuming yes since you say computer chips??) if its the latter a degree is basically mandatory companies I highly doubt are going to high “self taught” EEs so a degree is the best route however if its embedded software and you have a solid resume its possible.

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u/Prentire97 6d ago

Thanks a lot for your fast response! I haven’t narrowed my decision yet on a particular subfield within the space. I believe that by studying various subjects and experimenting with them, I will better understand which part I enjoy the most. However, I always enjoy understanding what I am working on down to its core, so even if I would decide to ultimately write the embedded software, a deep understanding of how the chips work and technically being capable of assembling them sounds desirable to me. Right now I believe it would make most sense to pivot to something that combines software engineering and the hardware part in those fields somehow.

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u/flamingtoastjpn 6d ago

If you want to understand how computer chips work, ideally youd want to get a degree in computer engineering and take as many VLSI classes as possible, plus classes in computer architecture and operating systems

I don’t think you will be able to get any calls back for hardware jobs without a degree. Embedded systems might be possible with your current background

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u/gimpwiz 6d ago

So here's my advice. Grab the publicly available datasheet for the chipset your ras pi uses. Read through it and basically get to the point that you understand it.

So you want to learn about spi, i2c, uart, timers, interrupts, ADCs (and DACs), GPIOs, direct memory access and memory mapped registers, and so forth. You want to get all those things actually alive and working, not just understood in theory. Get functional drivers working for the protocols and talk to peripheral devices. Expect this to take maybe a year or so of study and experimentation at an hour or two a day.

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u/sighar 6d ago

Hardware is way more work to understand, it’s not like SWE and if you really want to understand; you’d have to follow all the EE courses CEs take, that stuff can be very lengthy and challenging