From a free software actor point of view, embedded programming is a very alien, hostile world.
First, it integrates with hardware much more than our big computer programming does. In hardware, patents reign supreme, and the whole old school of closed source engineering is thriving. This spills over to the embedded programming. The air in embedded companies is stiff.
Second, embedded projects are as diverse as their platforms. This places high barriers in the way of code reuse, at least as far as community bulding is concerned. Embedded programmers spend their lives working on code which is never reviewed by anyone and 95% of it is discarded before it reaches a product.
And third, embedded programming is populated by dorks, historically. Most of those people do not know how to quote an e-mail, and they do not care to learn, just to bring one example.
Actually, it is much worse than I am making it sound, but you have be in it to feel the oppression.
I am sure that Advogaters will point out exceptions, and in fact I saw one myself, in pre-RedHat Cignus. Count yourself fortunate if you end in a company like that, but do not bet on it.