What Are Hiring Managers Looking For?

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Paul Farquhar recently took a few PCB design classes from John Watson, who doubles as a Palomar College professor when he’s not working at Altium. John teaches classes on basic and advanced PCB design, and he works to help students land jobs afterward.

I asked Paul to discuss what he learned in John’s classes, as well as where he hopes to work afterward and how John and the college are working with industry to provide trained designers for the many open PCB designer positions.

Andy Shaughnessy: Paul, tell us a little about your background. What made you decide to be a PCB designer?

Paul Farquhar: I was in the Navy for 20 years, most of that time working as an electronics technician. As part of my job I was taught how to replace missing or broken components and/or traces on damaged circuit cards. I think that is when I first became interested in how PCBs work. Since I left the Navy, I have continued to work in the electronics industry, mostly on electronic and mechanical assemblies for various Navy contracts. At my current position, the product I build seems to be updated every couple of years due to obsolete parts or assemblies. When this happens, all the electronics, including all the circuit cards, have to be changed/updated. I do not have an EE degree, but I thought that if I could learn how to design the circuit cards then the EEs could do the design work and I could take over and put the PCBs together. This way I could continue to support our Navy customer and be a more valuable part of the team.

Shaughnessy: I understand you’ve take a few of John Watson’s PCB design classes at Palomar College. Tell us about the classes and some of the skills you’re learning.

Farquhar: The classes I have taken at Palomar College are DT-226 and 227, Printed Circuit Board Design I and II. Through each 16-week class you learn how to design a PCB from the ground up using Altium Designer. We started off with learning how to do a schematic diagram and on to the importance of maintaining the library. We learned about board stacks and the materials that go into making the layers of a PCB. We learned how to place the components and wire them up. Lastly, we learned how to have the reference designators/silkscreen on the board. In the final weeks we learned how to put multiple boards together to form a system and wiring harnesses. We learned so much over those 32 weeks—this just scratches the surface.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the June 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.