Which is more promising for learning software development or big data?

As far as I know, now and in the foreseeable future, the demand for software engineers in this industry will definitely exceed that of hardware engineers. In other words, there are many more positions for software engineers than for hardware engineers, and it is easier for software engineers to find a job than for hardware engineers.

Let’s first talk about it from the perspective of the enterprise. I personally believe that the first reason for this difference is that basically all companies, from startups to the world's top 100, have a need for software engineers. Which company now doesn't need a few coders to develop apps or build a web. But doing hardware work is not something that all companies will do. To give a simple example, JPMorgan Chase Bank explicitly recruits software engineers at our school's job fair, and Expedia also explicitly recruits software engineers. If these two companies suddenly said they wanted to recruit electronic engineers, wouldn't it be funny to me? . And even hardware companies need a large number of software engineers to support hardware front-end work.

The second point I think is due to the current wave of entrepreneurship. Internet entrepreneurship is a trend whether in the United States or in China, but it can be said that the vast majority of start-up Internet companies are in the software direction. If you have an idea and some skills, you can start it by finding a few partners and holding computers. However, it is more difficult for start-up companies to focus on hardware development, because the threshold and start-up cost of establishing a design hardware company are relatively high. Therefore, this has also resulted in most start-up companies focusing on the Internet, and companies that can do hardware design are basically large companies with a monopoly.

The third very important reason is that hardware design is now a relatively mature technology. I even had ee classmates tell me that most hardware things have entered the category of sunset industries. Because many things have become the norm, and because many things have been replaced by automation. Not long ago, major global hardware companies laid off many people, and Intel laid off nearly 20% of its hardware engineers. However, the Internet boom has not passed since the 1990s, and many future industries such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, image recognition, and big data have just started, so there is still room for growth.

I still remember that at our school’s startup job fair, out of dozens of companies, only one was recruiting hardware engineers, and it was a software-focused hardware engineer. 98% of the remaining companies were looking for people who could code. People; Nvidia, ARM, Intel, and TI can only be seen at the job fairs of large companies, but even so, basically all company signs will have the words "computer science" in bold and capital letters. .

Let’s talk from a personal perspective. The threshold for finding a job as a software engineer is much lower than that of becoming a qualified hardware engineer. If you want to get a job as a software engineer, you need to learn two languages ??well, learn common data structures, and do a few questions to basically find a position with a salary of a few thousand. I even know that there are specialized software engineer training institutions in China that specialize in teaching Java and algorithms, a two-month crash course, and the claimed student employment rate is quite high.

But if you want to become a qualified hardware engineer, you don’t have to study a few courses on analog-to-digital electrical signal logic design, and don’t practice soldering circuits on your own in the school laboratory. I can’t even send out my resume. And if you want to learn a language framework now, you can search for "xxx language introductory tutorial" on the Internet and you will find very rich resources. However, if you search for "how to learn VLSI design well" on the Internet, you can find something that can be used. Resources are almost impossible. And as far as the job fairs I attended, if you want to recruit hardware engineers, they basically require a graduate degree, but the requirements for software engineers are basically familiarity with algorithmic data structures, and having relevant experience in web programming is enough.

Software engineers often rely on physical strength, while hardware engineers mostly rely on experience. Therefore, hardware engineers generally need to have a certain amount of experience to stand out. Especially in a field that is very easy to get started with, like analog electronics, ten or eight years of relevant experience is not considered a master's degree. Therefore, the qualification requirements for practitioners are higher, which is also one of the reasons why it is difficult for hardware engineers to find jobs.

The above are the reasons why I think it will be easier for software engineers to find a job than hardware engineers in a short period of time.

But this does not mean that you will definitely find a job if you can program, nor does it mean that the hardware industry will decline. There are many positions for software engineers, but more people are engaged in this profession every year. Although I think there is no saturation trend for software engineers in the short term (after all, such high wages are still there), one day this industry will also It will cool down like the financial industry (talent supply exceeds demand).

Although most of the hardware industry has entered the sunset industry, the power supply network that was once declared to be useless has recently been transformed by smart grid. The top five universities in the United States have even set up Related laboratories. In addition, the concepts of Internet of Things, Internet of Vehicles, and smart homes are now very popular. I believe that once related mature supporting technologies (energy harvesting, low-power communication) and unified development platforms emerge, the demand for hardware engineers will only increase. Although these products are still only made by large companies with backgrounds (but due to the blockade of the electronics industry in European and American countries, the country has also spent a lot of money on hardware design, and start-ups will slowly increase. I believe that domestic There will be more related opportunities). And after all, the software industry still relies on hardware. How to design hardware with low power consumption, high stability, and capable of carrying large throughput calculations is also a challenge for this industry. After all, fields such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and visual processing require a lot of hardware calculations. of. Without strong hardware support, Agou would still be wishful thinking if he wanted to defeat Li Sedol.

I am now an intern at a top 100 software company that designs software for hardware companies. Most of the work I do is software-oriented, so I don’t have a very in-depth experience of the normal working environment. But based on my observations of my colleagues around me and my interactions with others, whether it’s software or hardware, it’s all about: Yes. With. electricity. brain. . .

Software engineers usually go to work and debug programs. Lower-level coders can only help senior software engineers, helping them with testing and implementing what they designed. Of course, only when you become a senior engineer can you develop and design your own company's products.

If you work in a start-up company with a more intense pace, you may need to work overtime for debugging in order to catch up with the launch of the product. If the program explodes, you may need to on call (that is, something you are responsible for suddenly has a problem, your manager will call you directly, and you have to go to the company to fix the bug immediately). At least I know Amazon has this mechanism. I have not yet interned in a company that is purely engaged in hardware, but judging from the facts I know, hardware engineers are no easier than software engineers. Hardware engineers also need to debug circuits and scripts. Anyway, there is also work that overlaps with software engineers. The work environment depends on the segmented job category. Those who develop FPGAs probably sit in offices like coders, while those who develop MEMS and embedded systems will stay in the laboratory for a long time. Because most hardware companies are relatively mature large enterprises, the work pace is generally not as intense as in start-ups. However, in companies like Huawei, it is a different matter. . .

Of course, whether you are a software engineer or a hardware engineer, the work intensity should be higher than that of other industry occupations. After all, competition in this industry will become increasingly fierce, and this is where smart people gather. As for salary, on average, the annual salary of software engineers here in the United States is slightly higher than that of hardware engineers (from data on glassdoor and other portals), but software engineers also have low incomes, and hardware engineers also earn more than software engineers. Engineer's. As long as you are technically competent, salary is not a problem.

Some people say that software engineers have broader prospects. My personal feeling is that no matter what, these two industries will have many opportunities and challenges in the future (see point 1 for detailed reasons). Whether it is software design or hardware design, there are more small branches underneath (for example, if you want to do hardware design, vlsi, dsp, processor design, communications, fpga development or embedded, software design, if you want to do web development, app Development, software development, embedded software engineer, operating system or distributed system). I am personally interested in both major directions, but I decided that my final direction is embedded design and processor design. These two industries should be regarded as sandwiched between pure hardware design and pure software design.

In particular, the industry has higher requirements for embedded engineers. Being able to design mixed signal PCBs, debug application codes and write kernel codes, and be able to debug wireless communications basically means that a qualified embedded engineer must be familiar with Sufficient knowledge in hardware and software related aspects. I personally hate doing web development, app development and pure software development jobs, because the threshold for these jobs is too low. People who are not from a major may be able to do much better than you, and they cannot reflect their own value. And I prefer the feeling of holding the circuit board and various components in my hands, and I find that the sense of accomplishment when I can design a usable hardware is higher than the sense of accomplishment after debugging. When you find that you have the ability to learn knowledge after going through the training of university, the rich online resources and your own accumulation will make it very easy for you to learn these web app knowledge, so I personally prefer the bottom layer of hardware, and the hardware The field of software that deals with the bottom layer.

The software and hardware courses are not simple, and the workload of the two subjects is not comparable to other subjects (those who study engineering spend all day doing projects in the lab, while those who study statistics go home and watch movies after class) . . ) So if you want to learn well, you still need to spend a certain amount of energy, especially the workload of American university engineering departments is increasing compared to domestic universities. Make sure it's what you want and then consider it.

Embedded friends, after seeing this, do you also agree that you are so optimistic about the prospects of embedded engineers?