[UncleOxidant]

It's amazing how badly embedded programming and C++ programming in general pay compared to the others you mention like Python & Ruby. A good C++ programmer has to know a whole lot more (and be careful about a whole lot more) than a Python or Ruby programmer does. C++ is well known to be a complicated beast - probably the most complicated programming language in existence with plenty of footguns. And an embedded developer needs to know a lot about both software and hardware.

[BeetleB]

Yes - I used to program in C++, and left it for another job. 2 years later, when looking for other opportunities, I realized how much of the small details in C++ I'd forgotten, and didn't want to go back to all those minutiae unless it paid more.

It's a real relief to drop that cognitive load.

[spamizbad]

I'm about a decade removed from a C++ shop and I disagree with this.

I've found C++ shops have "lower" standards for C++ developers. I'm putting "lower" in quotes here because I'm talking relative skill within a given language. It just seems way more common in C++ shops to have situations where "20% of the developers do 80% of the work". This isn't to say there's dead weight in Python/Ruby shops, but my experience in the C++ world was there was always a small group of developers doing most of the work and this is considered normal whereas the same situation in a Python/Ruby shop would be a major crisis.

Despite the demand, if you're a low output Python/Ruby dev you'll likely struggle to hold a career together; hiring will be a slog and you'll get squeezed out of orgs with PIPs every 6 months. The same low output C++ developer could probably stay gainfully employed once hired.

Hopefully this fact might encourage others to pursue C/C++ jobs. There is zero expectations towards being a "rockstar" - if you know the fundamentals and can plod through work at whatever pace you're comfortable with there's probably a job out there for you.

[ativzzz]

Yup and as we know we don't get paid based on the difficulty of the problem we are solving.

[jonnycoder]

I've gone from Python to embedded C++ recently and this is my experience, although I would add that C++ devs know a lot more at the lower level of abstraction such as Linux, toolchains, etc which makes them seem like wizards. Outside of embedded, a good Python or NodeJS engineer has opportunities to do more automation and value added activities such as CI/CD, test automation, devops, etc.