Both online and in real life， nearly every day I see people asking what they need

　　to do in order to become embedded engineers. Some are new graduates; some

　　are still college students; a few are teenagers in high school; and a large minority are hobbyists， hardware technicians， or application-level programmers looking to improve their salary prospects and/or diversify their skills in order to avoid

　　the 21st century plague of white-collar commoditization.Why do so many people want to become embedded gurus？ The obvious

　　explanation is that young （and not-so-young） programmers and technicians are being lured by the glamorous， high-profile work， easy conditions， relaxed lifestyle

　　and limitless wealth， delivered by adoring crowds， that only embedded engineering can provide. Since none of that last sentence is remotely true， however （I’ve

　　been working in the field full time for somewhat more than ten years， and I

　　don’t clearly recall the last time I was pelted with cash by an adoring crowd）， I can only assume that there is some major marketing campaign in progress and

　　it is drawing people to the embedded field.This， of course， leads to an intractable moral dilemma. Should existing embedded engineers steer these young hopefuls toward other fields， thereby keeping the pool of fresh embedded talent small， and consulting rates correspondingly lucrative？

　　Or， should we beckon these poor innocents in the door to work on the bottom

　　level， thereby pushing all of us embedded guys one step up the pyramid？Humor aside， it is a generally accepted fact that the number of new graduate

　　engineers of all types is shrinking （at least in the United States）。 Various theories

　　are posited to explain this phenomenon. In the specific case of embedded