Most posts I found elsewhere talked about RTOS and applications and higher-level stuff, but I don't think that is the always the case.

Today "embedded" really is two worlds
8/16 bit do a thing
32/64 bit do "features"

Those worlds are very far apart. I did some work on a battery driven "feature" project and all that the 25 or so programmers could talk about was the advantages of a higher clock speed (allowing sloppy programming and C++) and a major problem was was battery life. Mentioning the relation between clock speed and power consumption made me an instant paria.

There is an impression that "embedded" means one thing, that is not the case, I recommend that those entering out of college wery carefully consider which camp they want to get into, the skills learned are worlds apart.

Erik