It's crazy the kind of jobs there are in the USA that are very interesting and in the vanguard of the technology while me (Spain) get to work on banking. Here we don't have anything close to Toyota, Google or SpaceX. The career path for someone that has a passion for its craft can't be compared between the USA and many other countries. Such a shame...

I wouldn't say I am qualified for a job related to embedded programming (even though I know how to code and it's my job) but even if I was there wouldn't be any opportunity for me to bounce between companies like those in a million years.

PS: Sorry for the spelling, not native.

To be clear, I think the overwhelming majority of jobs in the US fall into your uninteresting category, e.g. banking, adtech, etc.

There's a handful of places in the USA with thriving tech industry, and there's plenty of opportunity in general, but quite often people have to relocate for the really exciting opportunities. I haven't been to Spain, but my understanding of European culture is that folk generally stick around where they grew up. There's plenty of cool embedded stuff going on in Europe if you look for it. For example, I am aware of a lot of really neat drive-by-wire actuator development.

I feel you, unfortunately, your location matters in terms of your network/opportunities and even a spouse. Frankly, because I realized this I started searching for cool companies to work for that nobody knows and made a side project around this!

Are you working on Zipline [1] ?

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEbRVNxL44c

Pro Tip: Search "<HN handle> + github" frequently gets a real name, and if not current job, then look on linkedin.

The answer to your question is: Yes.

This is incredible and gives me engineering fomo!

* higher purpose project saving lives and helping people: check

* well-engineered, reliable, smart solutions quadrupling efficiency: check

* planes, Africa, autonomous flight, landing and take off hacks, app based pre-flight checks, oh my!

* all for peaceful, life-supporting, humane purposes!!!

That's what I thought of as well. Great video explanation for anyone interested in learning more.

Just finished watching the video. Wow. Incredible.

You have basically had, in my opinion, the perfect career so far. Well done! :)

That's exactly the type of project I'd like to be working on -- embedded programming that literally saves lives. Thank you for sharing.

Your path to where you are now is crazy...sounds like you've had an exciting career!

That's awesome! Where I can learn more? I am building a job marketplace and curator for cool "unknown" companies that people can explore and would love to feature this! A plus point for the impact part of it!

I've been to your airfield in Rwanda! It's such a great company.

I'm jealous, I haven't actually made it out myself yet! I've got a little baby to come home to. It's been a very supportive company in terms of work/life balance as well.

Totally understand. I have to say that watching the drones getting captured when landing is one of the most futuristic things I've seen. You guys have done some great things in Rwanda - I lived there over the past 4 years, so I have firsthand knowledge.

By "hard to reach places", are you referring to difficulty due to geographic positioning, or geopolitical concerns?

Mainly geographic positioning due to lack of road infrastructure and reliable utilities. Roads are massive capital investments regardless of tech ability, and lots of populated places in the world are still hard to get to quickly. Many medical products are generally available but have a very short shelf life, and so our delivery service helps make them reachable to significantly more people.

Mind if I contact you and ask you questions about this? I’m interested.

Sure, or just ask them here if you think they would be of general interest.

Going to piggyback on this comment, sorry I am a few days late.

Where did you get your masters? I have an EE & CS B.S. from RPI plus 3 years of application development experience in the Fin Tech industry. I am strongly considering swapping industries to Embedded Control--that is what I enjoyed most in college--but I am unsure how to break into the industry. Do you recommend a masters or just sending some apps out? I have a good deal of C++ and micro-controller experience, but none commercial.

I got my bachelors and masters from University of Michigan. It was really just an excuse to stick around for a couple more semesters and do another solar car race. After a few years of experience, the masters doesn't really matter beyond what you personally gained out of the education.

There are tons of embedded software projects that lack software engineering rigor. If you're good at unit testing and mocking, for example, there's no reason why you can't unit test embedded code. Applying general software engineering practices to embedded code (effectively) is a good way to differentiate yourself.

Thanks for this Sergeant! My hunch was that embedded code was lacking some of the more refined software engineering principles like continuous integration. I'll continue to frame my cover letters around that and give the masters some more thought.

I'm looking for an internship in July-August. I've built a lot of model planes younger and what you're doing seems amazing! Is there any way we could talk further?

The best way to get into the system is by submitting your resume on the careers page. I'll give a heads-up to the recruiting team to look out for any submissions mentioning hacker news.

Thank you! I'll do it by this week end.

Zipline?

Given that the two markets he listed are the markets I know Zipline is in, I’m willing to bet yes.