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Elementary, Mr. Watson: If Not You, Then Who?

I have had the opportunity to do a considerable amount of traveling. Over many visits to the Philippines, I noticed a distinct lack of nursing homes, and learned that it is a common practice for children to take care of their parents. They even have a designated term for this practice, ma alaga, roughly translated as "take care of." This practice leads to some fantastic outcomes in the culture, resulting in each age group taking care of its own, with a beautiful overlapping of different generations. What a great concept.

If you haven't noticed recently, the PCB design industry is struggling. It is an understatement to say that we are facing a talent shortage. I constantly get phone calls regarding open positions and the need for more designers. At one time, there were designated PCB designers. But with the first economic downturn in 2008, talent shortages hit many companies.

Next in line to fill the designer vacancies were electrical engineers (EE). But that came with inherent problems. First, very talented engineers got pulled away from what they do best: engineering. Second, we quickly found out that many EEs never received any formal PCB design training. They spent years in higher learning, but very little time in PCB design.

To make matters worse, the trend seems to be getting worse as Baby Boomers head for retirement. Some surveys estimate that a staggering 63% of PCB designers and design engineers are planning to retire within a year. This explains the massive sucking sound we all hear. It is the departure of talented and experienced PCB designers leaving the industry in droves, taking with them their years of experience and knowledge.

Furthermore, the experience and know-how we are losing is at a completely different level: it is real-world knowledge. This "tribal knowledge" could be defined as "any unwritten knowledge within a company that is not widely known elsewhere." That real-world practical knowledge is priceless to a company, but it’s walking out the front door, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.

Now the situation has escalated to a critical new level. With many companies badly needing new PCB designers, they are simply looking for anyone who has a commitment to learning. These companies are willing to invest time, energy, and money into those individuals and train them for the position. Just this past week, a company asked to partner with Palomar College, where I teach PCB design, to secure a supply chain of new PCB designers to fill their positions. They were willing to continue their mentoring and education.

It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we are to break into a new paradigm in our industry, we need to change what we’re doing. More companies are realizing we need to find a new way to find and retain PCB design talent.

Time for Mentoring?
To accomplish this, we need to prioritize mentoring for the next generation of designers. We are quickly losing the needed talent to support an ever-growing electronics industry with new technologies and innovations. Maybe it's time for a change; let’s conduct business to have our ma alaga moment as an industry. We must care for our own and prioritize nurturing the next generation of younger designers.

The main goal of mentoring is to help mentees tap into the knowledge of those with more experience than themselves and learn faster than they would on their own. Also, it's an opportunity to grow their network and connect with leaders rather than only their peers.

To succeed in any mentoring program, there must be a plan of attack. In the words of Zig Ziglar, "If you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time." With no clear objectives or goals, you will never reach them 100%. It's only a matter of time before your brand new, shiny mentoring program, which everyone put their hope into for your company's future, becomes an utter failure only because there were no defined, detailed objectives. Connecting knowledgeable team members with those who want to learn is the first step; I would even say the easy step.

But have a lesson plan. One of the great joys in my life is the opportunity to serve as a college professor. I know each week and in each class session what I will teach. It would be irresponsible of me not to prepare the material. Be fully prepared to present the material to the best of my ability. But many mentoring programs I have seen fail simply because there was no plan of attack with a detailed structure.

Along that line, have measurable and specific metrics to determine when the goal is reached. Evaluate how the information is received. By not having these primary objectives and measurable metrics, it's the engineering equivalent of sailing a boat with no rutter.

I recently spoke to an engineering professor in the Midwest, and he mentioned that there are plenty of training resources, particularly with video. Still, at some point, you need to turn off the video and practice. Practical learning is a must with PCB design. You must understand the steps from a concept to a finished design. It's something you only learn in the abstract until you do it.

Whatever mentoring program you develop, make it practical and relatable to the industry. This is something we practice in the PCB class at Palomar College, just as the students are finishing their designs. We throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the mix. It might look like this: The sales department issues an ECO notice that we must cut $100 out of the final cost of our design. What do we do?

That is not just book knowledge, but critical thinking and problem-solving. As we know, that is precisely how it happens in a company environment.

We can sum this entire discussion up with a single word: obligation. No matter what level you’re at, you have something to give back to the industry. Some feel it is someone else's responsibility, but I would argue that it falls on all PCB designers to step up and fill the gap; give back to the industry that has given so much to us. It's time for our ma alaga moment, and we must care of our own. If not you, then who?

Download The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to… Design for Manufacturing by David Marrakchi. You can also view other titles in our full I-007eBooks library.

This column originally appeared in the March 2023 issue of Design007 Magazine.