[big_question]

Thanks! I've considered moving closer to hardware. Rust is a potential option, but jobs are scarce it seems. Lots of good ideas, thanks!

I live in a good country with a decent social support system. Technically I could live on disability, but would rather do some work.

[magne]

I’ve been working in the Hardware space for about 10 years now in consumer electronics as a firmware engineer and I find that at least 30% of my time is spent interacting and in meetings with cross functional teams. Just due to the nature of electronics requiring many different disciplines such as Product Design, electrical engineers, software, QA, UXR, PMs etc it can actually be hard to get away without having meetings at all in order to ship a large project. I also find that there’s a heavy culture in the HW space to give presentations and learnings regularly. Not trying to dissuade you from hardware because I’m sure there are HW positions that arent like I mentioned but just something that might be helpful when considering.

[getwiththeprog]

I think you may find that jobs are not advertised as other jobs. It is such a specialised and important area that if you reach out you will find what you are looking for.

Being upfront like you are doing is going to get you where you want to be.

Maybe talk to your current HR department and manager and put your foot down. A little stress now for lots less later. If you need to move, big gov agencies can have set (fixed - no need for more meetings) work and decent conditions.