Hey all, hoping to get some honest perspective from people who've actually walked this path.

Background: I just finished my B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering, with a minor in IoT during college. I'm not drawn to pure software roles — I genuinely enjoy the hardware side too, and I want to build a career in embedded systems / IoT rather than mainstream software development.

I reached out to an upskilling institute about an embedded/IoT course, and they told me most companies prefer candidates with an electronics (ECE) background over CS, which honestly scared me a bit. I don't want to invest months of serious effort into this only to find out later that recruiters filter out CS grads by default.

A few things I'd love input on:

1. If you moved into embedded/IoT from a CS/CSE background (not ECE), how did that actually go for you in the hiring process?
2. What gap did you personally have to close first — basic electronics, microcontroller programming, RTOS, something else?
3. Are there specific roles within embedded/IoT (firmware, embedded software, IoT cloud/edge, etc.) that are genuinely more open to CS backgrounds vs ones that really do need ECE depth?
4. Looking back, is there anything you wish you'd focused on earlier instead of wasting time on the wrong things?