I am asking because that reflects my situation and I am having a difficult time interviewing with most people expecting 3+ year exclusively in frontend.
I have been trying to make a switch from backend to frontend development. I went from Backend Dev -> Fullstack Dev and I am currently trying to do the next step to -> Frontend Dev.
Would be nice to know how to approach this.
So you could have javascript and html to power your devices, but you probably do not want to.
We basically sold our soul to SIMATIC, Siemens' automation ecosystem long ago.
While it does have its quirks (to put it charitably), it is utterly predictable; as a first-order approximation, the ridiculously underpowered, ridiculously overpriced hardware never fails. (Unless you exert undue influence with a blunt object or high voltage)
I've (recently) patched code on Siemens PLCs being made in West Germany, that is, before October 1990. They still go about doing their thing. That kind of reliability makes me willing to suffer quite a lot of quirks.
Hence, STL, Siemens' near-assembly experience, it is. Snippet below:
A "InData".Joystick.WinchHoistCmd
JCN lowr
L "WinchDrumSetupDb".Winch.MaxJoystickSpeedCmd
*R
T "WinchDrumDb".SpeedCmd
JU end2
At least it has mnemonics!
But in other newly developed hardware, it can actually make sense nowdays, to use javascript. Mainly because you can get an abundance of developers for it, but then probably the hard part is to weed out those, who can barely script some website, to those who have indeed the right skillset.
If you are looking for STL people, you probably get STL people.
(The catch being that we currently do not have any remote employees and it is nigh on impossible to hire someone from outside the Schengen area unless they've already found another way to legally stay here. That usually means either being granted asylum or marrying someone, I'm afraid)
Drop me some contact info, I can refer you. At least you can go through the process and check it out.
OTOH, some of us are at their happiest in this kind of environment!
Google returned these photos, which look both desolate and gorgeous: https://confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=62&lon=7
Particularly #5 here https://confluence.org/photo.php?visitid=6821&pic=5
Though in photo #6 that looks mountain fed, and she looks tough.
The local labour market for engineers, technicians and developers is pretty much empty - as in, everybody with the skills required and the desire to live here already does.
Recruiting more often than not means sniping, or, if we're lucky - that someone has recently found a partner with desirable skills and coaxed them into moving up here.
Anyway, we've found that word of mouth is the most effective way; we simply let friends and associates, former colleagues and whatnot know that we're looking for X.
This is a hundred times more effective than LinkedIn for vetting candidates - people are quite unlikely to uncritically recommend someone when they will be reminded of their sell-in for years if it is a dud. (Much unlike LinkedIn endorsements...)
It turns out with friends&associates, friends&associates' friends&associates &c, you can cast a quite wide net - and also, the sell-in works better both ways; the candidates who do show up for interviews already have been told ours is a good place to be and are, more often than not, a good cultural fit.
(And, before someone asks - 'cultural fit' means 'Happy to work in a rather unstructured madhouse where the unofficial motto is 'We've never done that before, so we're probably quite good at it!') - we've assembled a motley crew from just about every nook and cranny of the planet, from Sri Lanka via Belarus to Argentina and Japan and lots inbetween. Oh, and the occasional Norwegian. All making world-class subsea equipment on a small islet way out in the boonies.