No, there isn't real money in this. I've been doing it 30 years now and my earnings curve will never match what a webdev gets.

Firmware engineers are the out-of-sight-out-of-mind component in the product development spectrum.

To be fair, nobody's wages were particularly high 30 years ago.

Although the money has been decent, programming complicated devices has spoiled me for one thing..I have just about essentially zero interest in web technologies, products, languages. I've always gotten to work on the sexier version of embedded work and so feel really blessed, it's not all about the lucre.

Just curious, what’s included in the “sexier” version of embedded work?

>my earnings curve will never match what a webdev gets.

Which is the saddest part of it all.

Yep, I'd say today is the best opportunity to get a higher paid embedded job than any time before if anybody specifically targets people hiring on urgency.

But a thing to remember is that people currently hiring themselves been likely neglecting their RnD before the crisis hit them.

I have to wonder how many of those gigs are getting an ugly legacy codewad dumped in your lap with a short deadline to add features to somebody's automatic swimming pool cleaning product.