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Ask HN: How I get a job that uses C?
My wife is pregnant and I need a job urgently... and like when I needed a job urgently in the past to pay student loans, I feel inclined to accept whatever offer I get.
But what I really wanted was work with C. But even searching for that is hard (often a company writes C/C++ and they mean only C++ and not C at all).
I tried in the past seeing if embedded would work but even entry positions require experience.
So no idea where to look for such jobs.
The vacancies list I found right now is just a long list of full stack, frontend, backend, sometimes java, the occasional SQL, nosql, and sometimes python or ruby. Not a single C job.
Where the C users are hiding? Is living programming in C even possible or it became a purely hobby language for people doing angular.js on their day jobs?
- Mathildebuxton 4y ago
- constantcrying 4y ago>Is living programming in C even possible or it became a purely hobby language for people doing angular.js on their day jobs? C is still widely used. I think if you really want to just work with C you should focus on embedded stuff, surely not every job in embedded requires experience. One industry which is quite C heavy is aerospace. You do not need to work for Boeing/Airbus though, there are many, many suppliers who are doing embedded work.
- fisherjeff 4y agoI second this comment - aerospace and adjacent industries have a ton of embedded C work for all levels of experience. As others have mentioned, I would expect the automotive industry to be very similar, but I don't have any personal experience there. Good luck!
- badRNG 4y agoJust putting my experience out there, across the space/aerospace industry I've seen a lot of C++ and Ada, but not much actual "C".
- sho_hn 4y agoI work for a car OEM. We are mostly using C++. C skills do come in handy for the existing body of software in systems such as Linux, but we very rarely write new code in C.
- Arch-TK 4y agoI am a big fan of C, for all its faults, it's the language I have by far the most experience in, I have read multiple standard revisions multiple times at this point and regularly advise people on their understanding of the standard and how to write C. I would absolutely hate working in embedded (if it runs linux it's not the kind of embedded I'm talking about) for a salary. Nobody treats C with any care or respect in those areas. Either that or the language is written like a legal document. If you like C because you've played around with it, understand the abstract machine and can write it safely working with a modern standard, don't expect embedded development to be ANYTHING like that.
- rramadass 4y agoI am not sure what you are trying to say here. It comes off as you trying to discourage people from entering Embedded Development which is absolutely wrong. Anybody who is interested in learning/using C/C++ SHOULD absolutely look into Embedded Programming. That is where the "rubber meets the road" and gives you the intellectual satisfaction of learning/understanding "everything" (i.e. HW & SW). Embedded Development encompasses a broad spectrum from Application programming (eg. Apps in a Network WiFi Router), Kernel/Device Driver programming (eg. RTOS/Linux in the same Network WiFi Router) to bare-metal programming (eg. 8-bit etc. MCUs). So one really gets to know how to use C/C++ (the Good, the Bad and the Ugly) as the situation demands to solve a problem. All the standards are merely guides to follow (i.e. not commandments from above) which is only deviated from when needed.
- woodruffw 4y agoAutomotive, aerospace, industrial control/signals, and systems programming/engineering still lean heavily towards C (and C++). The ratio between the two will vary widely by individual company and domain.
- cperciva 4y agoOperating systems, especially kernel.
- ndesaulniers 4y ago+1 vote for the Linux kernel!
- mdaverde 4y agoBonus points because it's C99
- Firmwarrior 4y agoyeah, this is OP's endgame.. the only c jobs that pay big FAANG bucks are: - Apple - Microsoft - Google (linux kernel) - Amazon (they have some embedded teams) - Facebook (some Android teams) - Tesla - Uber I think most of those companies require relevant experience before they'll look at someone's resume, though..
- Jcampuzano2 4y agoCurious, what would Uber be using C for in the first place? Doesn't seem like any of their use cases would really require it nor would it be the first choice?
- Firmwarrior 4y agoI'm just guessing based on the self-driving research, could be wrong there
- starfleet_bop 4y agoMost embedded jobs use C, some C++. But if you’re good at programming you should be able to pick any language fairly quickly tbh so I’d just tailor my CV according to whatever language is in their job spec. Embedded, firmware, systems jobs all tend to use C. So using those terms to widen your job search may help.
- thechao 4y agoWe say "c++" not scare off applicants; but, it's really c/asm/machine-code. Interview at c++ shops & ask how they manage lifetimes in their codebase.
- bogwog 4y ago> ask how they manage lifetimes in their codebase. What do you mean by lifetimes?
- BoorishBears 4y agoAssuming they mean memory lifetimes (i.e. are they using pointers? smart pointers from STL? their own in-house solution?) C++ codebases can anything from literal "C with some classes" to C++20-style practically-functional
- patrogizmo 4y agoDefinitely focus on embedded. You might try looking for startups. Many may list prior experience as a must-have, but will make exceptions depending on the candidate and skills of the other candidates who are applying.
- InitialLastName 4y agoWhat is it about C that you want to work with it so badly, despite having no experience with it? It's a great language for what it does, but the difficulty level for avoiding bad decisions is so high that I would be very hesitant to hire someone with no track record to operate solely in C. I'd have been inclined to say embedded would be essentially your only option, but without some experience and/or an EE background, you'll have a very hard time finding your feet in that world.
- exmadscientist 4y ago> without some experience and/or an EE background, you'll have a very hard time Yep. We hire embedded people to write C (some of the time) but the critical qualification isn't C experience or even general programming skill. It's knowing what a multimeter, oscilloscope, and logic/protocol analyzer are and not being afraid to use them.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bogwog 4y agoAre pure software jobs really that uncommon in the embedded world?
- dragontamer 4y agoThere's plenty of people who know how to write software. Not as many who know how to use an oscilloscope. As far as the skill-gap, its a lot easier to train an EE signals dude to use C programming, than to teach a C programmer how to use an oscilloscope or otherwise do circuit theory.
- exmadscientist 4y agoFor us it's less about the circuit theory stuff and more about the mindset needed to deal with first-spin brand-new totally-raw hardware. Anyone who's not comfortable checking up on the hardware will not be successful here. Training that kind of attitude is impossible, so you've got to filter for it somehow.
- notacoward 4y agoIn addition to those specialties already mentioned, I'd add older databases and storage systems. Some quite large, quite critical codebases that do still need maintenance in their original language. There are also some organizations, e.g. Linux Foundation, with specific initiatives to support "critical infrastructure" code which is often in C.
- stephc_int13 4y agoAnything with embedded/real-time software. Believe it or not this is still a very large part of the industry.
- alain94040 4y agoWhere are you located?
- CoastalCoder 4y agoSecond on this one. It would also be helpful to know if you're likely eligible for a security clearance in whatever country(ies) you hope to work.
- speeder 4y agoI am in Brazil. Trying to get a Portuguese citizenship but mess with Portuguese ancestors renaming without informing the government is making it hard.
- ilc 4y agoC programmers are systems / embedded programmers. I made my living doing C when I worked on Samba + Illumos. Really, if it isn't systems or embedded, C is very rare, even for someone like me with 20+ years of it, I won't code in C unless it is really the "language of choice" for the problem. And that ain't often. That said... I do write some C time to time, still.
- TillE 4y agoYes and "systems" includes drivers, which is mostly hardware drivers but can also be eg Windows antivirus or filesystem filters. Personally I find that kind of work very frustrating, and the limitations of C makes it worse.
- sgbeal 4y ago> ... and the limitations of C makes it worse. That's somewhat ironic considering that C is one of the few languages which can do literally anything, from the lowest-level direct memory access to the highest-level abstractions. It's the language many other languages are implemented in, so it can demonstrably do anything they can do.
- lolinder 4y agoThe same could be said of writing x86 machine code directly in the binary format: it's the language every other language eventually executes in, so it can demonstrably do anything they can do. Obviously C is a much better programming language for human use than x86, but the mere fact that a high-level language can be implemented in a low-level language is not evidence that the low-level language has no limitations. The limitations live in meatspace, between keyboard and chair, but they're very real.
- kllrnohj 4y agoNo it can't. There's loads of stuff C can't do, which is why inline assembly & compiler intrinsics are quite common in the space. Otherwise you're basically just saying C is Turing-complete. Which, yeah, so are most languages. That's not actually a special property.
- loxias 4y agoThey exist. Hard to find, but there. I found mine through a recruiter, first time doing so. Searching through my email, "Triple Crown" and "EdgeWater" are two recruiters I had good conversations with.
- jrmg 4y ago> I tried in the past seeing if embedded would work but even entry positions require experience. Apply for those jobs anyway. Requirements are often flexible.
- rramadass 4y agoUpvoted; Everybody should follow this advice for everything. For some reason people don't even take the first step of applying for a job they want/like just because it lists "X years of experience needed". This is never ever a hard requirement. Most companies try to over provision or are completely clueless about their needs. So don't doubt your abilities, be clear about where you stand and what you want and finally be willing to negotiate both on Salary and Position to get/do what you want.
- tluyben2 4y agoIn the embedded space it's used quite a bit. I see a lot of handwaving about c++ and rust, but most that I encounter irl is c (with some asm sometimes).
- QuillianR 4y agoSearch for companies using ebpf, like Cilium, Cloudflare, Sysdig, etc. Might not start on a team doing ebpf/c, but you could get exposure there (and depending on your level, maybe they will hire you on that team, who knows).
- heinekan 4y agoI think if you’re interesting in C you’re just going to have to deal with also working with C++. When I started out I was looking for the same thing in the embedded space but there wasn’t any jobs strictly using C. The “best” you could find out there is old code base is in C, new code is in C++. Which there are good reasons for.
- sulam 4y agoEh. My mileage has varied. Fitbit's embedded systems were all written in C, without a single bit of C++.
- convolvatron 4y agoyou can totally avoid c++. I've stuck to pure C (and better post c++) languages for 30 years
- LordDragonfang 4y agoI would assume that's made much easier by having 20+ years of experience. OP is looking for entry-level positions
- camtarn 4y ago> Where the C users are hiding? Is living programming in C even possible About half my work is programming B&R PLCs in C, albeit it's C with a custom IDE and code generation that makes it quite different from a normal embedded environment. (The other half is Python, networking, radio comms, sysadmin, etc etc) But it's actually somewhat rare to find people programming PLCs in C. The vast majority seem to be using a PLC-specific language, and even B&R is starting to move towards Python.
- genosword 4y agoI'm in Industrial Automation (drives and power electronics) and none of the PLC guys here use C, all ladder, sometimes ST. The B&R Acopos Test Rigs that I've built with a B&R PLC do steer towards C for the logic program (Automation studio 2.x). TBH, if I did have to do any PLC programming I'd rather use C than most of the IEC languages. Personally I love C, although I can see the advantages of Python and C++ for tools etc.
- oneng 4y agoCompanies that make a lot of embedded products still use C extensively. I can guarantee Garmin uses plenty of C, and continues to make new software libraries in C.
- zh3 4y agoHaving close-up experience with Garmin, just no. It's called Monkey C for a reason, and we're close to the point where even bluetooth wins over ANT+.
- sshine 4y ago> My wife is pregnant and I need a job urgently > what I really wanted was work with C. I'd understand if the second sentence was "Where can I find a job that (pays really well | allows for parental flexibility | has high security | ...)" -- what is it about your wife's pregnancy that triggers selecting a rare job you really wanted?
- barbarbar 4y agoThis is a very good question.
- dang 4y ago> triggers As I read the OP's sentence, there's such no implication of causality. This is the sort of extremely sensitive personal situation that requires a gentle touch. Internet comments about this kind of thing, including questions with assumptions baked into them, can easily come across as personal attacks. The burden is on the commenter to avoid that (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=burden%20disambiguate%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).
- bpye 4y agoI work at Microsoft on the hypervisor. The hypervisor and the NT kernel are mostly C - as are many other kernel mode components.
- qiqitori 4y agoI just left a job that was mostly C towards the end. Linux kernel and TEE stuff. Mostly used in car entertainment systems.
- habibur 4y agoYou will find jobs in embedded and games. But embedded pays 40% less then frontend/backend. Games pay good, but is stressful and demanding.
- superfamicom 4y agoRight now Handmade Seattle is happening and has job booths specifically target low level programming, check out some of those companies https://handmade-seattle.com/ https://handmade-seattle.com/
- ryanianian 4y agoThere are a number of SaaS and other offerings that offer C drivers. E.g. postgres, mongodb, oracle, snowflake all have C drivers or company-backed C work that isn't embedded systems. But as "framework" level code, I would expect pretty extensive knowledge and experience requirements.
- bellyeye 4y agoVulnerability research jobs often involve some use of C if it's low level enough, either to write proof-of-concept exploits, or doing code review (e.g. Linux kernel), or both. Perhaps an option if you also have an interest in this area? Though you will likely need to know assembler too, probably for multiple architectures.
- brundolf 4y agoIt's strange to see the juxtaposition of the urgency + the major career leap... I don't want to tell you how to live your life, but if it were me I'd take the job I can get for right now, and look around for my dream job while employed If you were miserable at your last job (not explicitly stated, but reading between the lines) there might be a middle-ground job that you can get easily, and may not be the ideal you're holding out for, but at least won't make you miserable. It can be a gradual transition to better pastures instead of a single huge leap
- speeder 4y agoThe problem I am having is exactly my whole career I am taking "whatever is available right now", and now I am getting not only very unhappy with this, but getting further and further from the careers paths that I would want. People assume I want to "switch to C", thing is, I learned C first, coded C at home for years, and use C whenever I can on my jobs... But because of the constant urgency I keep having to accept whatever jobs I find, and learn whatever they want me to learn. Because of this I know C, C++, C#, Java, ASM, a little of Kotlin, Obj-C, a little of Python, a little of JS, etc... but what I love to do is systems design and programming, and I strongly dislike mobile. Yet, every single job in my career is mobile. People now assume I am a mobile person and keep offering me more of these jobs, but I am not even particularly good at them, because in my free time I don't want to learn more about iOS or Android, I want to learn more about other things and end learning the other things. I know how C++ RTTI work intimately, know how it looks in ASM, practiced how to make C code that fits in the L1 cache, I know the story of RDTSC and why it causes crashes in many older games... Yet, all my job interviews involved Mobile, or Web. I don't care for those, specially web. My dream job involves figuring out if I can make some formula when doing a math operation that can be executed with SIMD and fit the cache, not figuring out how much I have to convince Java GC to cooperate and not pause during user interaction or figuring out why a web page is rendering 3 pixels off.
- brundolf 4y agoI understand the frustration, I guess I'm just wondering why it's not an option to shop around while already employed, even if it's (temporarily) at a job you don't really like? I've had jobs I really hated- I quit one once without anything lined up because it was dragging my whole life down. I get that. But in my experience the things that make a job intolerable are uncommon. It wasn't too hard to leave a job that was intolerable and find an adjacent one that was at least tolerable. Maybe your experience has been different I'm just wondering if it has to be all-or-nothing in the short term; whether you could find a tolerable one that pays the bills and leaves you time to really hunt for that dream job
- Bhurn00985 4y agoLook at people working with embedded systems. Often in companies supplying equipment to manufacturing or similar industries.
- cjtrowbridge 4y agoYou can write C++ code in C, it will still compile the same way. Anything that is "written in C++" can also simply be written in C. One of the most interesting cases I've seen is artists that work with addressable LEDs writing microcontroller code in pure C. Lots of super interesting pieces in SF that are done this way. Also some of them design pieces that communicate with each other across art installations to react to the audience together, etc. C is great for controlling physical art pieces. Outside of embedded systems and kernel maintaining, there aren't many modern use-cases for C and some go so far as to argue that C is no longer really a programming language.
- system2 4y agoSo much to unfold in your post but I can guess you are very stressed due to your wife's pregnancy and your job hunt situation. If you are looking for remote work and already know C enough to find a job, you can search Indeed for listings and apply to all of them. Otherwise, fiverr and upwork could help if you post your own skills with C and probably people are searching for small projects. If you are not very well experienced with C and already making money from it already, you can try switching languages a little, focus on PHP and Python and you can find so many remote jobs fairly easily. Unsure if yours is a temporary solution or lifelong change, you can simply decide what you can do and make that change in 3-6 months or so. Any panic induced decision will be wrong so please make sure you don't get your expectations high finding a remote job in 1-2 weeks because it is an emergency. Give yourself 3 months for the transition and meanwhile find out what you want your life to be in the next 5-10 years. If you don't like what you do at work, you will hate every minute of it. TLDR; Find a job preferably online related so you can find remote opportunities that don't require you to be in an office. Most web related jobs are remote friendly. Congratulations again.
- the_only_law 4y agoThe embedded world, certain legacy domains (just saw a job the other day working on what I assume were old C business applications on AS400), and domains that are a pain in the ass to get into without a lot of work and a decent amount of luck
- Jtsummers 4y agoDo you have a CS or EE degree? Are you based in the US? Are you willing to move within the US if so? Then you should be able to get an entry level embedded job with C, but yes you might have to learn or use some C++ as well. Embedded devices aren't as limited as they used to be so it's become common to have a full version of Linux hosting even real-time systems that were formerly bare metal or sitting on a minimal OS and written in C. With that change, C++ has started to enter the field more. Look into the aerospace and defense industry in the US for a large contingent of C systems. Though greenfield ones may not be C anymore, there's a lot of C code out there needing maintenance too as they move to new hardware or add features.
- badRNG 4y agoI don't know of a single embedded C++ employer who'd would turn someone who understands C fundamentals (e.g. stack/heap memory, the preprocessor, concurrency/semaphores, etc) for a junior development role. A lot of C++ features aren't used in embedded systems, like the STL.
- jonahbenton 4y agoLOTS of open source software in heavy industrial use written in C. The linux kernel for crissakes. Compilers. Web servers. All those roles require deep technical domain expertise. That is the nature of C.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jacobjwebber 4y agoHi! I got a job as an embedded C programmer after a MSc in "High Performance Computing". Weirdly the biggest supercomputers can use similar techniques to tiny microprocessors. First of all I get why you like C, I loved learning it, and think it is a really elegant language (with obvious flaws). I have some practical advice. Embedded is your best bet for getting to use C professionally. Are you into electronics at all? I would recommend getting some microprocessor/electronics kits, like the Arduino ones. If money is tight, Arduino clones are very cheap indeed. You could get going for < $20. You'll need a "bread board" some wires and a microcontroller. I remember getting a _very_ cheap oscilloscope kit too. You can make some cool stuff with sensors etc. I recommend any video by Ben Eater, if you want to know more about digital electronics. If you come up with a cool project idea you can write a blog post or even just talk about it in a cover letter. It would show you are very keen, even if you don't have professional experience. You could also learn more about low level computing stuff by doing the excellent "nand-to-tetris" course, which shows you how to build a CPU. This is quite a commitment, and not essential, but I enjoyed it a lot! Embedded Linux is also very widely used, so a project with a Raspberry Pi would look good too. Good luck with a child on the way! Perhaps any electronics kits you buy could have a second life in 10-15 years...
- badRNG 4y ago>I would recommend getting some microprocessor/electronics kits, like the Arduino ones. If money is tight, Arduino clones are very cheap indeed. You could get going for < $20. You'll need a "bread board" some wires and a microcontroller. I remember getting a _very_ cheap oscilloscope kit too. You can make some cool stuff with sensors etc. That stuff seems really cool, but as an embedded software engineer who never spent any time learning the ins-and-outs of hardware, it isn't strictly required. Especially if one needs a job quickly, learning C/C++ is difficult enough. Though I'm aware that excludes certain microcontroller-based embedded positions.
- femto113 4y agoIf you really want to write C just do it--most popular languages have a defined way to interface with C code, and if not you can almost always find a way to communicate with a C program via stdin/out. You can always justify to your teammates/bosses on "performance reasons" and they'll probably think you know some deep magic. (In practice most interpreters have gotten fast enough that it can be difficult to come out ahead after the overhead of going through an interface layer, but they might not know that.)
- anta40 4y ago>> Where the C users are hiding? Not hiding... C domain are rather "limited" these days, like embedded system, microcontroller, OS kernel, robotics, etc. I worked at a local smartcard manufactur for a few years, and the team who worked on our smartcard OS were C coders. Well, try to apply those embedded jobs. I think experience requirement are negotiable through interview.
- OJFord 4y agoIt sounds like you're exclusively looking at 'webdev' jobs, where, yeah, approximately nobody uses C. Try embedded. Never had a directly embedded programming job myself, but see a lot of it from recruiters 'C/C++' as you say, but in embedded my adjacent experience is that there's not a lot of C++, that's more likely to be the tooling than the firmware or whatever itself. (Binary size & stdlib issues I believe, or perhaps merely dogmatic assertion that that's the case.) Not to say it can't be & is never used of course, it can be and is.
- allo37 4y agoI'm an embedded dev and yeah, I can confirm that it's mostly C. And the "C++" I often encounter is pretty much just C with a couple of C++ things thrown in like std::vector. I agree that embedded is a good choice if you're looking for C.
- explaingarlic 4y agoYou in the UK? If so, electric chargers are the way to go :) I got to touch plenty of IoT-type firmware at my previous employer. Current one doesn't deal with firmware but we're pretty specialized, business-wise. I'm sure that a similar industry is opening up in America
- zerr 4y agoBesides embedded and kernel spaces, which might not be everyone's cup of tea, try looking into Linux distro shops who contribute to GNOME, GTK apps, desktop experience that is.
- krishna_sh 4y ago
- ivraatiems 4y agoHave you written any C at all? This post sort of reads like you don't know what you are asking for... C is a lot of fun, I don't want to discourage you, but if you don't have any experience with it the odds that you are going to be able to get a job in it are low. C is a high-risk high-reward language and writing programs in it competently requires a lot of patience and practice. It isn't shocking that even entry-level positions would want you to already know quite a bit about it. Speaking from my own experience (and this is a route that might work for you if you are sure you wanna do this): At a previous employer, I worked as a C# developer at a transitioned into a C/C++ role when there was an opening on that team. I didn't do it because I wanted to learn C specifically, but that was one of the appealing things about the opportunity. (I also had already written some C in college, though that was years ago.) So looking for an organization that does C and other stuff and starting in the other stuff might be a valid way to go. That said, the company only took a chance on me because I was already fully competent in the organization's domain and I had proven myself in a less challenging position; they believed I could learn. It was a huge learning curve for me and it took several months for me to get up to speed and be useful as a pure C developer, and this was with more experienced developers mentoring me every day. I am still nowhere near being a C expert; I am just good enough to be useful. (I also no longer work with it day-to-day, because I'm not at that company anymore, though I miss it sometimes.) Honestly, it sounds like you should focus on your family first and your C aspirations at home or as a hobby. Think about how this ends: If you get into a position using C, and find it hard or just decide it isn't for you, do you really wanna be worried about losing your job or doing badly at it while dealing with your new baby?
- xtracto 4y agoYou are spot on with this comment. I've done misc small/medium sized software at various times, first in Uni to implement a compiler, later programming Nintendo DS and Wii homebrew using DevKitArm and DevKitPro. Some days ago I started designing/implementing a system for "password sharing" and thought of writing at least part of it in C: I want to be able to get a password from say, KeePass2Android, then encrypt it with some OTP key (seeded from a preshared key), then generate a sound with it (say using DTMF like tones) and send it through the phone's speaker. The C app would monitor the sound (microphone, maybe through SDL library), detect a specific tone/wave as the "start" of the message, decodify the message, obtain the string of the encrypted message and decrypted with the OTP key. Finally, the C app (via xdotool ) would type the password as a keyboard. I wanted to do this as an easy way to use my phone as my password manager for my computer. I started to write the C part of the application, SDL I've done before, I read a bit about Fourier Transforms and the libraries I'll have to use. In the end doing it in C is going to be a tremendous task, given that in languages like Python there's a lot of stuff already solved. I love C and its heritage... but I really wouldn't think in starting a serious project in it at this point it time.
- cardosof 4y agoHere's a personal anecdote: my father is an engineer at a small, 8-person company. He's 68. They use two languages: C and Java. The short story is, they created a system for telco companies in late 90s. Said system deals directly with specific Telco hardware and needs to run real-time fast. The system is over 20 years old and despite this or that patch over the years its core remains the same. So there's a C part, which is the engine and is really performant, and a Java part, admin tooling, testing and integration. So I guess if I had to find companies with C jobs I would try: - niche jobs/industries - small companies - decades old systems The problem is that those aren't usually on the mainstream channels for job searching, and they may take years to open a single position.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- zh3 4y agoPlenty of C jobs around, most are where there's a need for extreme performance (optimising usage/making the best of limited RAM/limited CPU), talking to bare metal or for things that have to last a long time (kernels, telecoms, other critical stuff). There is less turnover though (stability again) so employers are selective (and quieter). One suggestion would be put C as your preferred language on your CV, with a little background why (not if you want to work with BigCo or anywhere with a buzzword-driven culture though).
- olodus 4y agoI have been happily working in telecom for ~3 years now developing in C and I actually got the job without any prior experience. However, prior to working there I did my Master thesis at the company, which enabled me to show commitment and learn a lot about their product. As you might have realized, this also makes me quite new to the job market, so take my advice with a grain of salt for these reasons. Furthermore, I can't guarantee telecom is a good place to look for C work. We are the only section of our company with a purely C codebase from what I know. But I still wanted to comment and suggest that Low level Networking might be a good option to look at. A good search term might be places that use DPDK.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- elektrontamer 4y agoI understand this isn't the answer to your question but given what you've disclosed I'll have to advise against limiting yourself to embedded jobs alone. A job isn't the only way to follow your passion, in fact it may cause you to hate your passion over time. Find the most in demand skill that is somewhat interesting to you and focus on that. To follow your passion buy a cheap embedded linux board and hack away in your free time. I was in the same boat as you but now I've come to realize most jobs in tech are interesting to me, so I might as well focus on the ones that are most in demand. Just keep an open mind. Edit: Typo
- iExploder 4y agoLinux Kernel and its drivers, but I would assume you would need to put up a lot of upfront unpaid labor before you are picked up by a company who wants to pay you
- equilibrium 4y agoCheck out https://jobs.embedsysweekly.com/ https://jobs.embedsysweekly.com/
- jobsort 4y agoShameless plug: https://jobsort.com/search?q=lang:c%20-lang:c%2b%2b https://jobsort.com/search?q=lang:c%20-lang:c%2b%2b I built Jobsort to support negative filters, so the query "lang:c -lang:c++" will give you only C and not C++ jobs :)
- ipython 4y agoHave you looked at jobs in the security space doing reverse engineering? Leverage your low level experience tearing stuff apart.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 4y agoVideo. Audio. Anybody who uses ffmpeg.