{"id":289,"date":"2018-12-08T01:14:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T01:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/?p=289"},"modified":"2020-08-28T22:11:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T22:11:24","slug":"the-dedicated-pcb-layout-artist-is-this-a-sustainable-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/12\/08\/the-dedicated-pcb-layout-artist-is-this-a-sustainable-profession\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dedicated PCB Layout Artist \u2013 Is This a Sustainable Profession?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The August 2017 edition of Printed Circuit Design and Fab Circuits Assembly<\/em> acknowledged what many of us PCB designers have suspected; there is a strong need to train young people in the art of PCB design.\u00a0 It is becoming a lost art in a time when it is ever so needed. \u00a0With the current technological upswing, it is truly a great time to be an experienced PCB designer.\u00a0 But while being an experienced PCB designer is one thing, getting more people to embrace a job as a dedicated PCB designer is another.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The issue at hand is job sustainability.\u00a0 Few people want a job with an extremely uncertain future, nor do they want to invest a great deal of time and effort learning a skill that may not have an adequate return on investment (ROI).\u00a0 This investment is both the learning of a complex PCB tool and the art itself through experience.\u00a0 This simply takes time to develop and master.\u00a0 Granted, no job is guaranteed, but when the sustainability of a job\u2019s future is fully dependent upon the next project\u2019s existence, that\u2019s a red flag that should not be ignored. Without the progression of projects, the job will not persist.<\/p>\n

Hardware design is simply the creation of a single physical design.\u00a0 From that physical design, copies are made.\u00a0 This has always been the drawback of hardware design.\u00a0 When the hardware is done, the need to modify the hardware is limited, whereas software designers can continually add and enhance their code.<\/p>\n

For a dedicated PCB designer, sustainability relies upon a continual flow of new designs.\u00a0 For most companies in the business of hardware products, this tends to be a three-year cycle.\u00a0 By the third year:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The technology has hit a ceiling, meaning that the addition of any enhancements or improvements will not bring a reasonable Return Of Investment (ROI).<\/li>\n
  2. The product itself has matured to the point in which modifications to new revisions are minor.<\/li>\n
  3. The company is pulling back on Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) spending because it is trying to support the existing product lines or it is competing in a saturated market that impacts their bottom line.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is the new reality of the PCB designer.\u00a0 The days of dedicated full-time PCB designers appear to be waning.\u00a0 Very few of those who have made a career out of PCB design has been able to stay employed by one company without being laid off.\u00a0 Many jump from job to job as contractors. Those who may achieve full-time status know that this job does not entail longevity.\u00a0 As much as we do not want to admit it, this has been going on for well over the past decade.<\/p>\n

    From personal observations as an Altium Application Engineer fielding support calls during the 2008 great recession, the number of engineers calling into the support line was ever-increasing.\u00a0 Their stories were all the same.\u00a0 They were the \u201clucky ones\u201d who survived the brutal layoffs and were left to fill the shoes of everyone else, including the PCB designer.\u00a0 Like all companies, this simply became the new norm.\u00a0 Now companies list PCB layout as a requirement for an electrical engineering position.\u00a0 When there is a backlog or the design becomes too complex, they shop for a contract PCB designer or seek a service bureau.\u00a0 Note that both options fulfill a temporary need, not a sustained need.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    The life of a dedicated PCB designer is now much like the life of an actor.\u00a0 For every actor who has made it, there are hundreds who barely scrape by, looking for wherever gig they can, not knowing if or when the next one will come their way.\u00a0 This is also true for actors who have become famous.\u00a0 Each film they are cast in could be their last.\u00a0 This is very similar to the life of a PCB designer only without the benefit of becoming rich or famous.\u00a0 There are a limited number of these positions to fill and unfortunately, the job only exists as long as the project.<\/p>\n

    What about those who understand RF, microwave, or high-speed design?\u00a0 This may create a barrier of entry that benefits PCB designers who have these skills.\u00a0 However, there are a finite number of these projects as well, and all the previously discussed issues still hold true.\u00a0 Just because a design is complex, there will still be one design to copy, and there is no guarantee of a follow-on project.<\/p>\n

    What about the upswing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IOT)?\u00a0 Indeed, these are drivers that are creating what now looks to be a demand for PCB designers.\u00a0 But, if we look at the prior technological booms, they last about 3 to 5 years depending on the size and scope of the boom.\u00a0 Most of the hardware investment is done upfront in the first three years.\u00a0 Beyond that, it is dependent upon the current success of the company, the roadmap of the company moving forward, the economic conditions, and the ability of the company to innovate.\u00a0 In short, sustainability is difficult to gage on a project by project basis.<\/p>\n

    Is there a solution?\u00a0 The focus should not be on creating or filling traditional dedicated PCB design jobs.\u00a0 Rather, there is a need to reflect upon the purpose of the PCB as well as the purpose for academia to get involved.\u00a0 For the PCB, it is the medium of all media for all electronic designs.\u00a0 With very little exception, no other field of electrical engineering can create a physical product without it.\u00a0 Therefore, it is a valuable tool and a valuable skill for ANY engineers, designers, or technicians in the electronics design realm.\u00a0 As for academia, regardless of whether it is an undergraduate program or certificate, its purpose is to provide the tools and skills necessary to be productive in the industry.\u00a0 In short, PCB design needs to be one of the skills included in a well-rounded technical program rather than the sole focus.<\/p>\n

    In conclusion, this talk about hiring and training the next generation of PCB designers needs to be put in its proper context.\u00a0 All too often we hear about the need for people for dedicated jobs when, quite frankly, there isn\u2019t a sustained need.\u00a0 In this case, let us not focus on PCB layout as being THE<\/u> skill or job, but rather ONE<\/u> of the skills that makes a good engineer, designer, or technician.\u00a0 Let\u2019s work on getting the PCB design skill training into academia so that academia can do the same for our industry which it has done for ASICs (Computer chips) – to not only teach skills in the classrooms but to advance the technology in their research labs and to keep the art alive.<\/p>\n

    A tag line for our blog\u2026<\/p>\n

    [We also recognize the fact that there is a workforce of engineers out there who have not been trained in PCB design.\u00a0 No engineer wishes to admit a deficiency in their skill set; however, it is unrealistic to think that any electrical engineer has such a skill set when it is not taught by academia.\u00a0 We at Nine Dot Connects completely understand this because none of us started as PCB designers.\u00a0 Through our experiences and odd twists in our career paths, we eventually came to this point.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    We created the PCB Foundations<\/a> training to begin addressing this lack of knowledge in the electrical engineering workforce.\u00a0\u00a0We hope when we are ready to retire our knowledge here at Nine Dot Connects has been effectively disseminated to the field of electronics and that we can reminisce on the days when this skill set was almost a lost art.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The August 2017 edition of Printed Circuit Design and Fab Circuits Assembly acknowledged what many of us PCB designers have suspected; there is a strong need to train young people in the art of PCB design.\u00a0 It is becoming a lost art in a time when it is ever so needed. \u00a0With the current technological … Continue reading The Dedicated PCB Layout Artist \u2013 Is This a Sustainable Profession?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[58,31,28,32,57,55,59,56,60],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9dot-thinking","tag-dedicated-pcb-designer","tag-ecad","tag-eda","tag-pcb","tag-pcb-designer","tag-pcb-foundations","tag-pcb-layout","tag-pcb-training","tag-service-bureau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}