-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueSignal Integrity
If you don’t have signal integrity problems now, you will eventually. This month, our expert contributors share a variety of SI techniques that can help designers avoid ground bounce, crosstalk, parasitic issues, and much more.
Proper Floor Planning
Floor planning decisions can make or break performance, manufacturability, and timelines. This month’s contributors weigh in with their best practices for proper floor planning and specific strategies to get it right.
Showing Some Constraint
A strong design constraint strategy carefully balances a wide range of electrical and manufacturing trade-offs. This month, we explore the key requirements, common challenges, and best practices behind building an effective constraint strategy.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Recruiting the Next Generation of PCB Designers at Garmin
March 6, 2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Laura Beth (LB) Yates, PCB design engineering manager at Garmin, discusses the company's innovative approach to recruiting the next generation of PCB designers. LB is leading the company’s efforts to find and develop new talent, which includes working with technical schools, and inspiring high school students to pursue careers in PCB design.
In this interview, she discusses Garmin’s plans to create a robust pipeline of skilled professionals ready to become the next generation of PCB designers. As she points out, the best part of her job is “going to work every day with my friends and making cool stuff.” If you’re looking for a job making cool stuff, LB would love to speak with you.
Andy Shaughnessy: LB, I understand that you have a plan for recruiting PCB designers. Walk me through your process.
Laura Beth (LB) Yates: We have PCB design teams in Cary, North Carolina; Olathe, Kansas, where Garmin is headquartered; Salem, Oregon; and Cochran, Alberta, Canada. We partner with local tech schools and our vendor, EMA Design Automation, gives them licenses and curricula to help train PCB designers as part of their electronics programs.
EMA Design Automation has developed a curriculum to take the Arduino module from schematic to PCB layout/DFM. EMA will give that curriculum and OrCAD licenses to the schools to help them implement this, and then we have a pipeline to hire designers who are new to the industry.
Shaughnessy: Does Garmin teach this class?
Yates: We don’t; the tech schools are teaching these classes. They already have electronic technician programs. If you already have a program, this is just a semester or a module of that program. Then we can hire from that program.
Shaughnessy: That's great. Design instruction is much needed right now.
Yates: I agree, and we have tech school partners in most locations of our PCB Design teams.
Shaughnessy: How do you get students into these programs in the first place?
Yates: Garmin has recruiting events where we talk to high school juniors and seniors to get them jazzed about non-traditional careers in tech, whether that's troubleshooting for customers and doing customer support on one of our many products, PCB design, or engineering technician bench work. There are different jobs available, so when I talk to these high schoolers, I ask, “Do you like sitting in a dark room and rocking out to music and playing puzzle-solving video games? Because that's a job, and it's called PCB design.”
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the February 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Testimonial
"Advertising in PCB007 Magazine has been a great way to showcase our bare board testers to the right audience. The I-Connect007 team makes the process smooth and professional. We’re proud to be featured in such a trusted publication."
Klaus Koziol - atgSuggested Items
Direct Imaging System Market Size to Hit $4.30B by 2032, Driven by Increasing Demand for High-Precision PCB Manufacturing
09/11/2025 | Globe NewswireAccording to the SNS Insider, “The Direct Imaging System Market size was valued at $2.21 Billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $4.30 Billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 8.68% during 2025-2032.”
Advint Incorporated Brings Artificial Intelligence to Electroplating Training
09/11/2025 | Advint IncorporatedAdvint Incorporated is introducing a new dimension to its electroplating training programs: the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This initiative reflects the company’s commitment to providing PCB fabricators and manufacturers in the USA and Canada with training that is practical, forward-looking, and directly relevant to today’s production challenges.
IPS, SEL Raise the Bar for ENIG Automation in North America
09/11/2025 | Mike Brask, IPSIPS has installed a state-of-the-art automated ENIG plating line at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories’ PCB facility in Moscow, Idaho. The 81-foot, fully enclosed line sets a new standard for automation, safety, and efficiency in North American PCB manufacturing and represents one of the largest fully enclosed final finish lines in operation.
Zhen Ding Technology Highlights AI-Driven Transformation of the PCB Industry at SEMICON Taiwan 2025
09/11/2025 | Zhen Ding TechnologyArtificial intelligence (AI) is expanding rapidly, with almost no field left untouched by the wave of computing power-driven transformation.
I-Connect007 Launches New Podcast Series on Ultra High Density Interconnect (UHDI)
09/11/2025 | I-Connect007I-Connect007 is excited to announce the debut of its latest On the Line With... podcast series, which shines a spotlight on one of the most important emerging innovations in electronics manufacturing: Ultra-High-Density Interconnect (UHDI).