[Sanzig]

I think part of the problem is that the industry doesn't seem to value embedded software engineers. The work embedded software folks do is just as complicated as that of a full-stack developer working for a SaaS company, but the salaries aren't comparable.

It doesn't help things that the skill sets are very transferrable. It's tough to find somebody willing to forego 20-30% of salary just because they enjoy embedded - after a while, people get fed up and move into better paid SE roles. So, embedded software departments are often short-handed. A former employer of mine lost a senior firmware engineer almost three years ago. As far as I know, they still haven't filled the position.