Whether you’ve just finished your first year at university or have recently graduated, it’s never too early or too late to start thinking about your career in electronics.
Not everyone knows from day one that they want to work in embedded systems. I’m a good example. I studied Aerospace Engineering with Spacecraft Design and only ended up working on embedded systems because no one else in my project group wanted to tackle the electronics side. What started as a practical necessity became a genuine interest, and it’s ultimately what led me to where I am now. There isn’t a single route into this industry, sometimes your career takes shape through the opportunities you seize rather than the plans you make.
Alongside my own experience, I spoke with three colleagues, fellow graduates and early-career engineers who’ve recently entered the profession, to understand what really helps graduates secure their first role. Between us we studied different subjects, followed different routes into industry and applied for dozens of jobs. Our advice was remarkably consistent, and much of it challenges what many students assume employers are looking for.
Your degree gets you noticed. Your projects get you hired.
If there was one lesson that came up repeatedly, it was this: don’t rely on your degree alone.
The three colleagues I spoke with agreed and said the projects on their CV generated far more discussion during interviews than their academic results, and I’d say the same of my own. Whether it was a Raspberry Pi project, a university flight computer, a custom PCB, firmware development or simply building software over the summer to learn a new language, those projects gave interviewers something tangible to explore. They weren’t interested in whether every project was perfect. They wanted to understand how candidates approached problems, made design decisions and learned from mistakes.
The message is reassuring if you haven’t had the opportunity to complete a placement. Employers are looking for evidence that you’re interested enough in engineering to build things outside your coursework. That project doesn’t need to change the world. It just needs to demonstrate that you enjoy solving technical problems.
Start preparing earlier than you think
Looking back, every one of us wished we’d started preparing for our careers earlier.
Several of us wished we’d applied for placements sooner, while others wished they had begun building electronics projects in their first or second year rather than waiting until graduation approached. Recruitment for placements and graduate schemes often starts months before students expect, so leaving applications until your final year can mean missing valuable opportunities.
Even if you don’t secure a placement, you can still strengthen your CV. Join an engineering society, take part in Formula Student or robotics competitions, learn C or C++ through a personal project, or build something that genuinely interests you. Those experiences become valuable talking points during interviews and show employers that you’ve gone beyond the minimum requirements of your course.
Placements help, but they aren’t the only route
I didn’t manage to secure a placement myself, despite applying for a good number, so I’ve seen this from both sides.
Industrial placements featured prominently when I compared notes with my colleagues, and those who completed one described it as one of the strongest parts of their CV. It gave them commercial experience, confidence, mastery of industry tools, corporate network connections, and concrete achievements and proven time-to-productivity examples they could draw on during interviews.
For one colleague, a placement year with an automotive cybersecurity team completely changed their career plans. It was their first real exposure to embedded systems and confirmed that this was the area they wanted to work in. By the time they graduated, that placement had become one of the experiences employers were most interested in discussing during interviews.
But a placement isn’t the only way in, and I’m proof of that. Several of us instead focused on personal projects, extracurricular activities, recruitment bureaus and engineering society gatherings, and independent learning.
The common thread wasn’t where the experience came from. It was being able to show employers that we had actively developed our skills beyond university lectures.
Technical interviews aren’t about knowing every answer
Many students worry that technical interviews are designed to expose everything they don’t know.
That wasn’t our experience.
Instead, we recalled coding and live-programming exercises, debugging tasks, architecture reviews, and system design questions, where interviewers were often more interested in how we approached a problem than in whether we reached the perfect solution.
Several of us stressed the importance of talking through your reasoning, asking clarifying questions, breaking complex problems into smaller parts, and remaining calm if you become stuck.
Admitting you don’t know something is far better than pretending you do, particularly if you can explain how you would work towards a solution.
One of my colleagues even found themselves finishing a coding exercise on the train home after being invited to complete it following the interview. It was an unusual experience, but also a reminder that employers are often interested in seeing how you tackle a problem, not simply whether you arrive at the correct answer as quickly as possible. That mindset is worth practising before interviews.
Explaining your thinking out loud may feel unnatural at first, but it’s a skill that repeatedly helped us demonstrate our problem-solving ability at ByteSnap Design.
Soft skills matter more than you think
Every one of us was asked about teamwork, communication, leadership, and conflict resolution during interviews.
Examples came from group projects, university societies, volunteering, presentations, and even organising student events.
Employers weren’t simply looking for people who could write code. They wanted graduates who could explain technical ideas, work effectively with colleagues and during cross-functional collaboration, and stay calm under pressure.
If you’ve led a student society, organised an event or worked as part of a team outside university, don’t dismiss those experiences. They may become some of the strongest examples you can use in an interview.
Be prepared for a marathon, not a sprint
Perhaps the most sobering part of comparing notes with the others was hearing how long it took each of us to secure a first role. Some of us estimated we had submitted about 20 applications, while others applied to 50 to 100 positions before receiving an offer.
That’s a reminder that finding your first graduate job is rarely a quick process, and a rejection doesn’t mean you aren’t good enough.
We found opportunities in a variety of ways. Some applied directly through company websites, while others found specialist engineering recruiters particularly helpful, both for identifying suitable vacancies and for refining CVs before interviews. University careers services, graduate jobs websites, LinkedIn and university careers fairs were also highlighted as valuable places to discover opportunities and make connections with employers.
The key is to cast your net widely and start early. Follow companies that interest you, attend careers events, connect with recruiters who specialise in engineering, and don’t wait until your final year to begin applying.
Every application and interview builds experience, making you stronger for the next opportunity.
Build things, stay curious, and keep applying
The four of us took very different routes into electronics. Some completed placements. Others relied on personal projects.
I came from aerospace engineering rather than computer science. Yet we all arrived at the same conclusion. Your degree is only the starting point. What really sets candidates apart is the effort you make outside formal study: building projects, learning new skills, seeking practical experience and developing the confidence to explain how you solve problems.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing I took from comparing notes with the other three is that none of us followed exactly the same path.
Some discovered electronics through university projects, others through a placement year, and one traced their interest back to programming a BBC micro at school.
There is no single route into the industry. If you’re hoping to build a career in electronics, that’s good news. You don’t have to know everything before your first job. You simply need to stay curious, keep building things, take opportunities when they come along and show employers that you’re eager to keep learning.
