[pedrosorio]

How does one get contracting opportunities to deliver projects before being able to pass interviews to get a full time job? Where would on find these opportunities today?

I always assumed it was the other way around (experienced full time engineer becomes a specialized contractor).

[fest]

As much as I hate the word: networking and saying yes when you're in the right time and right place.

You probably won't convince a professional widget manufacturer that you're __the__ person for their embedded needs. But a smaller company, that's dipping their toes into branching out from their core business who need to prototype their idea? A lot easier.