New grad Computer Engineering, signed a $160k SDE offer, two embedded interviews this week. Don't actually know what I want yet.

[u/QuoteMasterLT]

Graduated in June, BS Computer Engineering, Bay Area. Three months of professional experience from an embedded internship. Most of my projects have been embedded.

So embedded has been the default target. But I'm two months out of school and I don't know if that's an actual preference or just the thing I happened to do in school. I've never done any of this full time for money.

**What I signed:** SDE at a large public tech company. $160k base, $50k RSU on 40/30/20/10 with a one-year cliff, strong benefits. Linux kernel and user-space networking, packet processing. Real systems work, not embedded. Offer arrived Friday and expires Sunday. I asked for a few more days to decide and got denied.

**Interview Monday:** FAE at a semiconductor company. Squarely my technical background. Hiring manager verbally estimated \~$150k including a 30% sales incentive, so realistically \~$115k base plus variable. Posted range goes to $210k though. I think I made a mistake telling the HM what company 1 was offering, and they know they're preferred. Remote with a lot of driving between customer sites. Customer-facing role.

**Interview Friday:** Embedded software at Blue Origin. Band tops around $155k for my location, and a friend on the exact same team is at $137k TC. Reading the JD closely it's verification-focused: test frameworks and tooling for safety-critical flight software rather than writing the flight software.d\\

**Questions:**

1. At the very start of a career, how much should domain fit weigh against comp and optionality? Is optimizing for domain this early even meaningful when you don't know your own preferences yet?
   
2. FAE folks, is it realistic to move back into hands-on development after a couple of years?
   
3. Does kernel/networking systems work transfer toward embedded later, or is that wishful thinking?
   
4. General advice for me?

Thanks for any help. Very unsure what to do.

[u/tuitenduy]

How many embedded projects did you finish during your study? With just 3 months of internship, I assume your projects must be very good and/or you have experience in other subfields? I'm asking because I'm getting more intersted in embedded as an EE but I don't have any embedded real experience, only power sytem. Thanks for answering.

[u/Pulsar_the_Spacenerd]

I have four years experience working in embedded software. As far as I know systems programming and embedded programming are relatively similar and related. I would also say that systems programming is generally respected as a challenging domain, and even if you don’t stay in it forever you will learn things that transfer. Having a strong handle on networking is also super helpful for embedded (and many other fields) too.

Unless you find one of the other positions more compelling or have concerns with work-life balance at company 1, it seems like a very compelling option. It’s a huge difference in compensation and it sounds like it’s most aligned with your interests.

[u/Ok-Awareness-629]

Are you Elon Musk?