Any info on who this guy is or what the company is?
As an example of embedded programming, do some timing critical work with microcontrollers and you'll find all sorts of fun optimization problems. Recently I had an algorithm that took 13 microseconds to execute but needed to do it in 11 (there was another interrupt coming!). I got to have a good time with the debugger, understanding optimization levels used by GCC, reading lots of assembly, and playing with a logic analyzer. It's quite fun, actually.
As an example of embedded programming, do some timing critical work with microcontrollers and you'll find all sorts of fun optimization problems. Recently I had an algorithm that took 13 microseconds to execute but needed to do it in 11 (there was another interrupt coming!). I got to have a good time with the debugger, understanding optimization levels used by GCC, reading lots of assembly, and playing with a logic analyzer. It's quite fun, actually.