Day 1: Making more money as an embedded engineer

Let’s talk about money.

In corporate context, how do we make more money as an embedded engineer?

I think about this a lot, and I realized that there are just 2 ways of doing it (in corporate context, obviously):

1. Get promoted
2. Switch to another company

Wait, can’t certification also help you make more money? Well yes, but no.

If you just passed a certification (including expensive certs), you won’t immediately get a higher paycheck next month. That’s not how it works. Here’s the logic:

• You get certified
• You let the company know
• You are now an employee with better qualification
• The company decides if it’s aligned with their interests
• If yes, the company will include you in the “promotable employees” list

Well, we see that certification is another form of promotion. So, there are just 2. So let’s dive right in.

Get Promoted

In my early career, I was so obsessed with promotion. I wanted to be promoted to senior embedded engineer. More authority, more leadership, more impact, more money. I wanted all of those.

I was so obsessed with it, I worked probably 2x as hard to tick all the checklist to be a senior engineer: give mentorship, be a firmware lead, prepare for certification, etc.

And then reality hit me like a bus running at 70 kmph (almost dead? well yes, fortunately not literally hit).

Even if I ticked all the checklist, the promotion won’t be guaranteed. I found out the hard way.

Promotion is subject to:

• Higher executives' approval (very hard, because it’s subjective)
• Financial situation
• Political situation
• Competition from peers

My friends were also highly committed to be promoted. In corporate, you can’t promote too many people at once.

A year passed, and guess what I got at the end of my 1-year tenure there?

LAYOFF 🤡

Instead of getting promoted, I was laid off because of the shift in investor composition, and my entire IoT department was no longer seen as “strategic” (I didn’t even know what “strategic” really meant).

I along with around 30 other friends in the IoT department were let go.

And I was like “wtf? I worked 2x as hard, tired as hell, and this is what I got? FFFFFFF”

I’m not going to lie here. I was crying in my bedroom and couldn’t sleep that night.

I was eventually promoted to senior engineer in another company years later, but another reality hit me like a bus running (but slower, maybe at 30kmph). Guess what that was?

The pay raise was laughable.

Since then I left the idea of promotion. Too much drama, for too little money.

Switching Companies

Now, it’s more interesting.

Instead of seeking a promotion, I now tried to land a role at another “better” company.

The reasoning was pretty clear: if I get a better company, I will get better money.

But switching companies wasn’t a straightforward process.

You see, I live in Indonesia where embedded systems company isn’t a thing. Yes, we have several unicorns, but they don’t actually hire embedded engineers. So finding good embedded companies itself is an issue.

Even if you live in a country with countless tech companies, the issues I will outline below are still valid.

It isn’t a straightforward process, because of:

• Fierce competition. The more reputable the companies, the worse it gets
• Location factor. You probably have to relocate from your current comfortable place, adding another layer of complexity
• Cultural factor. You could be the youngest employee where the rest is 15+ years older than you. And generation gap issue is real. And other non-age related cultural issues
• Work-life balance. Yes you get better pay, but you might have to work 50+ hours a week
• Tasks factor. Are you going to work on challenging and interesting tasks?
• Luck factor. You couldn’t dismiss luck. You get the better company because you apply at the right moment, from the right people, and the right needs from the company.

If you love working at your current company, it’s even harder to switch companies.

And even if you’ve switched your company, you can’t just stop working there next month if you don’t like it. You have to restart the entire process of finding another opportunity.

Now, the question is. Why a simple thing like “making more money as an embedded engineer” lead to complex answers?

To answer that, we have to think outside the corporate context.

In the next article, we'll talk more about 2 ways to boost your income as an embedded engineer.

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Becoming Embedded Freelancer Book. Learn how to earn more money (even more than your main job) working on freelance projects using a proven path explained from an embedded engineer's point-of-view.

2. Firmware Development Workflow Guide. Upgrade your workflow to achieve efficient development, consistent code quality, robust firmware, and skyrocketed your productivity as an embedded engineer.