I’m an electronics and telecommunications engineering student in my final year from India. I’m currently in the seventh semester and expect to graduate by July next year. Unfortunately, I didn’t do well in my third year because of some physical and mental challenges, which affected my studies, attendance and overall focus, and I failed in third year.
Ever since high school, I’ve been passionate about web development and programming. I was the top performer in all programming and web development activities at school. Later, I started preparing for the engineering entrance exam, JEE in India. I was eager to learn more and create something new, but I didn’t have enough guidance or research on my own because I was inexperienced and had many interests.
I chose Computer Science and Engineering as my top engineering branch preference, with electronics and telecommunications engineering as my second choice. I didn’t get into the Computer Science and Engineering branch, so I opted for electronics instead.
The course and academics were very demanding. In my first two years, I didn’t even consider web development because I was completely focused on excelling in my exams and exploring other areas.
By the beginning of my third year, I learned Python, worked on some projects and explored machine learning. By the end of my fifth semester, I bought Andrew Ng’s Coursera ML specialisation course and started learning ML. Unfortunately, I didn’t progress much further due to the issues mentioned earlier.
Now, I’m in my final year. Companies visiting my university have strict recruitment criteria, including no failed years and an exceptional CGPA.
I enjoy both embedded systems and web development. However, to become proficient and ready for placements in either area, I need to dedicate a significant amount of effort. So, I’m really unsure which field I should choose.
AI has really changed things, especially in embedded systems, with Edge AI, Edge computing and IoT all playing a part. So, embedded systems have a bright future ahead. However, the main challenge in getting embedded jobs in India is that there aren’t enough openings, and most require at least one to five years of experience. As a complete fresher, that’s a bit daunting. Plus, my academic background hasn’t been great, so I’ve lost a lot of electronics knowledge, which I’m worried might make learning embedded systems difficult.
I would be grateful for any advice or feedback you could offer. Please let me know what you think.
Thank you for your patience.