TL;DR: I have an MS in CS from Georgia Tech, with a background in robotics perception, computer vision, SLAM, and factor graphs. I couldn't break into robotics after graduation, worked in data engineering for two years, and have spent the last three years in India running an unrelated e-commerce business. I want to return to robotics, ideally in the US or Europe. Would you recommend building a strong portfolio and applying directly, pursuing a structured program like The Construct's Robotics Developer Masterclass, or taking another route? I also previously had an H-1B petition approved and may have time remaining under the six-year limit. Looking for honest advice from people in the industry or anyone who's made a similar transition.

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to get some honest advice from people working in robotics, particularly those involved in hiring or those who have successfully transitioned into the field.

This is something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I'd really like to give it a serious shot rather than continue wondering whether I should have pursued robotics more persistently.

My background

I have a BTech in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, followed by an MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, where I specialized in computational perception and robotics. I have worked on robotics projects involving SLAM and completed an internship involving PCB development. During my master's, I worked on a variety of computer vision and robotics perception projects. One of them involved factor graphs for legged robots. I had broad exposure to different aspects of perception and robotics, although I wouldn't claim to be an expert in any one area based on those academic projects alone.

After graduation, I tried to get into robotics but unfortunately couldn't land a job in the field. I eventually moved into general software engineering, primarily data engineering, and worked in that area for about two years. I then returned to India, where I've spent the last three years running an e-commerce business.

Part of the reason I went down that path was that I had become quite discouraged by the software job market. Applying for jobs without getting callbacks, combined with the uncertainty around the future of software engineering and AI, made it difficult to see a clear path forward. Starting a business gave me something productive to work on instead of remaining stuck in that cycle.

However, robotics has never really stopped being the field I wanted to work in. Looking back, I feel that I drifted away from it because I couldn't get my foot in the door, rather than because I lost interest in the subject.

Now I want to make a genuine attempt at returning to the industry.

The problem I'm trying to solve-

I'm aware that my academic robotics experience is several years old, and I don't want to overestimate what a degree and some past projects will do for me today.

I'm willing to put in the work. What I'm struggling with is deciding which route gives me the best chance of actually getting hired.

Should I spend the next six months building substantial projects, documenting them on GitHub, contributing to open-source projects, and applying for robotics software engineering positions?

Or would it be worth investing in a structured program with an internship component to get more recent, practical experience and potentially improve my chances of getting interviews?

I've been looking at The Construct's Robotics Developer Masterclass, for example, but I'm unsure whether something like this would provide a meaningful advantage over a well-executed independent learning and portfolio plan.

I don't want to collect certificates just for the sake of it. I want to do whatever will most effectively bridge the gap between my background and what robotics companies expect from an engineer today.

A few specific questions

1. Would you consider someone with my background a viable candidate for robotics software engineering roles?

Or would the lack of recent robotics experience be a major obstacle, regardless of my master's degree and previous projects?

I'm particularly interested in robotics perception, computer vision, SLAM, state estimation, and autonomous systems. I would be happy working on production robotics software rather than pursuing an academic research career.

1. Would a strong portfolio be enough, or would an internship or structured program make a meaningful difference?

Suppose I built two or three serious projects using ROS 2, C++, simulation, and relevant robotics algorithms, with clean code, tests, technical write-ups, and demonstrations.

Would that be enough to make me competitive for entry-level or intermediate robotics software positions?

Or would employers be much more interested in recent industry experience, making a program with an internship component a better investment?

If anyone has completed The Construct's Robotics Developer Masterclass or a similar program, I'd particularly appreciate hearing whether it helped them secure interviews or full-time positions.

1. How realistic is it to get hired by a robotics company in the US or Europe while living in India?

This is another major concern.

I'd ideally like to work in the US or Europe, but I understand that international hiring and immigration requirements can make things more complicated.

One potentially relevant detail is that I previously had an H-1B petition approved for US employment. I spent only about a month in the US in H-1B status before leaving, so I may have substantial time remaining under the six-year H-1B limit, subject to the applicable rules and verification of my immigration history.

I'm mentioning this because I wonder whether the possibility of using remaining H-1B time could make me a more viable candidate for US positions than someone who would need to pursue an entirely new route. I still need to verify my specific eligibility.

Would you recommend applying directly to US companies, focusing on Europe, or trying to gain robotics experience in India first and then pursuing international opportunities?

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who have hired international candidates or navigated this situation themselves.

1. If you were in my position, what would your next six months look like?

Would you focus on:

- Building a portfolio around perception, SLAM, and state estimation?

- Developing broader robotics software skills in ROS 2, C++, navigation, motion planning, and simulation?

- Pursuing a structured training program with an internship component?

- Contributing to established open-source robotics projects?

- Applying immediately while building projects, rather than waiting until the portfolio is complete?

I'm also open to suggestions for other routes I might be overlooking.

I spent years studying computer science and working on problems that genuinely interested me. When I couldn't break into robotics, I took another professional route rather than continuing to apply indefinitely without results. I've since built a business, but I keep coming back to the idea of working in robotics.

I want to give that ambition a serious, structured attempt now. I'm prepared to learn, build, take feedback, and put in sustained effort. What I lack is clarity on the most effective path from where I am today to becoming a credible candidate for a robotics engineering role.

If you've been in a similar situation, hired someone with a nontraditional career path, or have experience mentoring engineers entering robotics, I'd genuinely appreciate your perspective.

What would you do in my position, and what mistakes would you avoid?

Thanks for reading.

I am a first year Phd student in Robotics, working with AI/ML in Robotics. My advisor has asked me I can take trainings anywhere in US. He got the fundings to utilize. Any upcoming training or workshops coming up? Please drop in the comments.

I'm a 3rd semester ece student in tier 2 college. I am interesting in Robotics and want to make career in it.

So till now this is my learning-

1. I'm familiar with arduino, esp32 and have made some projects using them like human follower bot, etc...

2. I also do cad a little

3. I'm learning ros2 and kinematics from here and there

So my question is how do I actually and systematically learn ros2, kinematics and other such concepts? Like I want a proper course or playlist or something which starts from scratch, teaches most of the required things without skipping the theory and concepts and makes 1-2 projects to be comfortable to make more by myself.

Also I would like to learn simulating robots in mujoco or gazebo, writing urdf, etc, RL, etc because this is what I most like in Robotics. For context, I can literally do simulation/training thing with at least 10x more dedication than learning theory.

PS. I can't afford exquisite and expensive resources and/or courses.

For those collecting teleop data (LeRobot, ALOHA, or similar):

• How do you find bad episodes before training? Do you watch the videos manually, use scripts, or just train and see?
• What kinds of problems show up most? Dropped frames, sloppy demos, sensor glitches, something else?
• Has bad data ever cost you a training run or weeks of debugging?

I’m trying to understand how people handle this today. Would love to hear what works and what’s painful.

I am working on a startup and will learn along the process, hence asking.

I’m a complete novice and have spent some time on Amazon looking for a robotic arm/hand that can connect and disconnect a light weight MagSafe cable on a MacBook.

The project is to help make life a little easier for an injured friend, I’m planning on using a Raspi5 or Arduino board with support from Ai to make it work as required.

But I am really struggling to find something reliable, as a lot of the feedback on Amazon suggests the arms under £100 are unreliable, flimsy, or of poor quality in some other way.

Can anybody recommend a robotic arm that might be suitable for this use case?

I wanna learn robotics since a long time now. But idk where to start, dont know who to ask for help and stuff. I'd really appreciate it if somebody could help me out.

Hi everyone, so I had someone reach out to me and ask me to create a demo for a unitree dog working and autonomously navigating a warehouse environment.

I was gonna go with Isaac sim, ROS2, and NAV2 as the stack for this.

Do you think this is good to go ahead or are there are better stacks as I'm kinda a beginner in the robotics side :)

This is a general design question rather than a specific build. I’m particularly interested in holding position under load, positioning repeatability, and handling the bending moment from the extended arm.

How would those requirements influence the choice, and when would external guides still be needed with a ready-made actuator?

I’m a tech teacher and built a free 3D robot simulator that runs in the browser. Looking for teachers to try it and tell me what’s confusing or missing.

Link: https://mguedessantos.github.io/simuladorrobotica/?lang=en

What it does:

• Build a robot piece by piece (motors, wheels, color/ultrasonic/gyro sensors, claw), with real weight and tipping physics
• Program with blocks (PictoBlox-style) or Python
• 14 guided tutorial stages, from “make it move” to line following, intersections, obstacles, and ramps
• RoboCupJunior Rescue Line style arenas, including a rescue room with victims
• No install, no account. Save your robot to a file and reopen it later

What I’d like to know:

• Are the stages pitched right for your students’ age?
• Anything confusing in the wording or interface?
• Which blocks, sensors, or challenges are missing?

It’s still in development, so expect bugs. Any feedback helps. I’ll reply to every comment.