>> And like I said, every geek on the planet wants to get paid to develop 
>> mathematical algorithms or design cutting-edge chips or build 
>> next-generation game engines or... The trouble is, there are a tiny 
>> handful of such jobs in the entire world, and therefore you are almost 
>> guaranteed to never be hired.
> 
> You *vastly* underestimate how many jobs require those skills.

Really? Well let's see now...

The Motion Picture Experts Group might need to know the difference 
between a Type-I and Type-II Discrete Cosine Transform, but most people 
only *implement* MPEG standards, not design them.

Most companies do not design ICs. They purchase them off the shelf and 
assemble them. (Indeed, I was under the impression that the number of 
companies world-wide who actually have IC fabrication plants is very 
small - although admittedly you don't need to actually have a fab to 
design new ICs.)

In fact, most companies do not write software either; they purchase it. 
Some of it can be customised to the point that it's almost like 
developing a new product, but more usually it's a case of installing the 
software and configuration a few options and templates and stuff. It 
certainly doesn't call for a C programmer.

And game engines... Well, that's probably way, way less exciting than it 
sounds anyway. ;-)

> Sure, 
> most are not as glamorous as designing the next GPU for the PlayStation 
> 4,

Actually, I imagine most jobs are way less exciting than they sound. ;-)

> but if you want to do digital circuit design for a job there are 
> plenty of opportunities in a vast range of industries.

Seriously... Doing what? Everything seems to be made of off-the-shelf 
parts (which, by definition, already exist). What's to design?

> If you were 
> degree qualified I could point you to an opening we have at the moment.

Really? Are you ser- oh, wait, you work in Germany, don't you?

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