The Shaughnessy Report: Voices of the Industry

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

It’s good to switch things up. This month, we did just that.

Most issues of The PCB Design Magazine focus on technical challenges that our readers are facing, or will be facing soon. It is a technical magazine, after all. And other times we delve deeper into more high-level problems that can affect your job, such as upcoming legislation or onshoring.  

But in the end, this magazine is for you. One day, we editors started thinking, “What if we asked the readers to talk directly to us, and tell us what’s on their mind?”

So, in a survey, we asked readers like you to share some of your thoughts about PCB design, design engineering, and the electronics manufacturing industry in general. We even provided a few helpful “trigger” statements to get your brains firing right, including, “If they would just do this…” and “If I were in charge…” But my favorite has to be “This is really stupid, but we do it all the time…” Haven’t we all made one of these statements at some point in our professional lives? 

The result is this issue, Voices of the Industry. This issue is a snapshot of the PCB design community—a look at where we are now, and what challenges and opportunities you all are facing.  

Your replies were all over the map. Of course, as journalists, we are drawn to your complaints and challenges—our publications exist to help you address these challenges. And you were not shy about sharing your complaints, that’s for sure! It’s funny to see how designers’ main complaints haven’t changed much in the years that I’ve been covering this segment.

But if this issue is any indication, you all are pretty upbeat about your careers, if not your current company. You may not like everything about your job, but you all seem to really love what you do. And how many people can honestly say they love what they do?

To read this entire article, which appeared in the August 2016 issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.