> That was actually my real point. For many smaller companies, it will.

Just an observation, but I've almost never seen job postings for entry/junior level engineers in the embedded/systems world. Only senior-staff level roles (I get the feeling that a lot of early career talent in these domains is sourced from local university pipelines). This has been my observation across both small companies and large corporations. Are these shops really considering people who's only experience is some contrived side projects at that level?