Electronics development VS web development: where to go?

Question

Electronics

Hello dear community!
Now I'm thinking whether to continue to develop in the development of electronics, or switch to web development. Too lazy to read, go straight to the questions below .
As a student, I joined a small company organized by other students. It was a good time. We could try ourselves in different areas: web development, desktop applications and electronics development. We had a very comfortable atmosphere, we could arrange our workplaces as we wanted, have a flexible schedule or work from home. So several years passed.
All this time I gravitated towards the development of electronics. I liked the whole process from finding an idea to getting the finished product, every stage.
I thought that this is it, a favorite thing that many have been looking for for years. I thought that employment issues would be resolved - after all, I would enjoy my work, I would be able to constantly develop and become a good specialist.
But the reality outside of our cozy little firm turned out to be harsher.
There are few "iron" vacancies in Moscow. According to the word “microcontroller”, 50 vacancies drop out on one well-known site. According to the words "C#", "Javascript", "PHP" - from 500 for each keyword. Makes me think.
In many "iron" companies, the team (especially management) is quite conservative and does not accept flexible hours or partially remote work. Everyone in the office by 9. Also, many companies want an experienced specialist, but you can develop experience and skills only by working in the same companies, this will not work at home, unlike web developers who will only need a laptop and desire.
My idea of ​​web programming is:
+younger and funnier team
+easy to team up and get on with your own business
+more progressive companies
+can work from anywhere
+no expensive equipment needed to work
+higher salaries
+having only a laptop and the Internet, you can participate in open source projects, develop and gain experience -great
competition
-you can’t feel your product in your hands -it’s
not clear how much I’m interested in it
About hardware:
+real interest in creating working devices
+you can feel the product in your hands
+ less competition
-small number of companies, the industry is developing poorly
-few young professionals
-conservatism of companies, the need to travel to the office all the time -it is
difficult to create your own device from an idea to a serial model -the need for
expensive measuring and debugging equipment
-attachment to the workplace
- it is difficult to increase experience and skills outside the company without investing a lot of money
It turns out that in terms of comfort, web development outweighs. And web development is better suited for organizing your own business: more active people who want to try their project, ease of start. But I think I'm wrong somewhere.
Therefore, I have questions:
1) Do web developers really feel freer, more satisfying and more comfortable than hardware workers?
2) Is there strong competition in the web developer job market?
3) Share your stories when you had to choose between electronics and web development: what did you choose, why, do you regret it?
In general, let's talk, any opinion on the topic is welcome.

Answer 1

I myself am engaged in programming for pieces of iron and for PCs as well.
I work in a company and also make my "smart" watches in my spare time. And I see what others have achieved in the same way, and I see that most of the successes are connected either with hardware or with the combination of hardware and software. No one needs another five hundred and one "cool archiver", but everyone wants some kind of high-quality and reliable gadgets, objects, and just sometimes high-quality furniture that does not smell and is not toxic (for children). Everyone is tired of China, very tired, not everywhere there is IKEA.
If you do your own business, then in my opinion it is only related to goods or electronics.
To do this, you don’t even need very expensive equipment, at work it costs an expensive Lekroy oscilloscope for 300k, and debugging for FPGAs for 30k. But you can quite easily find a usb oscillator for 20k is already decent, the rest will pull by 10k.
Electronics still has advantages:
1. Definitely easier than the web
2. Really do something yourself.
3. Really replicate and make a profit quickly, and invest it in development.
4. The environment in which your code is spinning will not change if you yourself do not change the MK / FPGA / Spread / Arduino. Therefore, even bydlokod will do - the main thing is that the client works,
5. Therefore, you can check faster than the web.
Two people can even do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnjd8yujyKE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6XkECIYV3I
We did in three years, spending an average of 2 hours a day.
PS. "-a small number of companies, the industry is developing poorly" - this is a plus, the niche is not occupied, go for it! Do it!

Answer 2

I would put it this way:
Now every fool is a web developer with super duper skills like php/apache/mysql/memcache/redis/mongo/yii/symfony/python/highload etc.
There are a lot of vacancies, but also a lot of competition. On the other hand, you know TOE, board layout, circuitry, op amps, etc. ? And many do not know this. I will say this, programmers are like dirt, there are fewer hardware developers, so why not be a hardware programmer? Try going into microcontroller development, Arduino, VSDL, etc. after all, a hardware programmer is better than just a programmer, and just a hardware developer.
Those. the main idea is not to lose specialization. Even a web programmer can specialize in a million things.

Answer 3

For example, I started with electronics, then I started using MK, smoothly moved into programming, then into web development. And now it sometimes happens that I do turnkey projects myself, starting with developing and soldering my board for the terminal, and ending with writing server software and a web interface for the network of these same terminals. Definitely programming is a more comfortable and highly paid form of income. But knowledge of electronics, gives a good advantage. Even if suddenly there is an emergency, let's say the server is covered with a bp, for example, or something on the mother, disassembled, diagnosed, repaired, launched.

Answer 4

web! but as an amateur, you can also use electronics. as a hobby

Answer 5

@trauus , you shouldn't think it's hard to find a job in electronics development. There is a work. The main thing is that you like it and benefit people.
Vacancies in Sukhoi come to mind
www.sukhoi.org/vacancy/invite
Vacancies in Angstrem (only phone number of the personnel department)
www.angstrem.ru/angstrem-group/contact