[badpun]

I think young people don't go into systems/embedded largely because of the pay. The median pay in those fields is just lower than in web/distributed systems. I for one would love to hack on a compiler (for example), but not at a 50% paycut.

[nitrogen]

Same here. I focused on embedded systems in school and had a related internship before dropping out to start an embedded systems-related automation startup. When I later returned to the workforce, and every time I looked for jobs afterward, I tried finding any kind of embedded systems job but always end up in web development where the pay is better and the hiring easier.

I like the teams I work with, but if any systems company can match pay relative to CoL and is looking for experienced engineers who know how to understand systems from hardware to human, look me up.