As the title says, this time I want to yap about my career. I won't say much, but I currently work as an embedded engineer. I went to school as a computer/electrical engineer and I program firmware for embedded devices (mainly for Field Programmable Gate Arrays). To be more specific, I mainly specialize in creating embedded Linux images for AMD FPGAs.
It's complex stuff, but the main thing I want to harp on is that I'm REALLY getting burnt out on this stuff. I mean, I love what I do. I love Linux. I love using Verilog to create custom interfaces for hardware and using Linux to make software to make higher-level control interfaces within the firmware. I like doing this stuff at my job. But it gets REALLY boring doing what I do day in and day out, everyday. With little to no changes and nothing much new to learn. So, what do I want to learn?
This is something I want to figure out, but I'm slowly gravitating more towards hardware and I'm getting tired of just coding things all day at a desk. I want to tinker with electronics and hardware. I want to do more stuff with my hands, instead of just type away code every single day.
I look at channels like northwestrepair and Electronics Repair School and I think "man, I wish I can learn how to do that". I wish I learned how to solder. I wish not only I could design circuits, but also build them. I want to learn how to design PCBs in KiCad or Altium and build boards. In fact, as a side hobby/business, I always wanted to repair computers and other electronics. However, I never built the drive/courage to learn how. I do have a soldering kit, but not only am I pretty bad at it, but I don't have the space for it in my tiny apartment. I've always been an advocate for Right to Repair, but what kind of Right to Repair advocate would I be when I don't know how to repair anything.
However, I've stated before that I'm getting tired of wanting to do something only for me to say "but" and make up excuses. The problem with me as a workaholic is that I dump all of my energy to work, that by the time the weekend comes around, I barely have the will to do anything besides watch YouTube or complain about my incompetence. So, what am I going to do?
I don't know. I do have some drawers where I store SBCs, breadboards, and other sensors. What I think I will do is just gather all the stuff I have and just play around with it. I might code just a little bit for the microcontrollers, but I mostly want to play around with circuits and just build things with a breadboard. Then, after that, start moving towards the advanced stuff, learning KiCad, figuring out a space to put my solder kit, and just get to work there.
A year from now, I am planning on making a decision if I want to either stay at my current job or move away to a different one. If things don't change much, I might actually move away to a different job. Like I said, as much as I love doing embedded Linux, I don't want to just code things every day. I'm an electrical engineer. I want to be a "hardware guy who can also code when needed", not "a software guy who on rare occasions dabbles in hardware".
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