Career stall - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: DannyCoates
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 20, 2023, 05:42:32 pm
content: Is it normal for career development to stall when you’re employed in a permanent PCB designer position? Do you find that your employer wants you to stick to using the same technology because it’s known and reliable?For example, imagine developing a new product. We could use the same power supply we use in every other product or we could spend a ton of man hours designing a new power supply to gain an extra 5% efficiency or marginal cost saving. Which option do you think management will go for? The *former of course. Good for the company, bad for the designer.It would seem the only way around this to (a) become a consultant or (b) move jobs and locations every couple of years like a nomad. The latter option obviously makes it pretty difficult to establish a life and grow roots.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2023, 06:41:02 pm
content: Do you work in one company designing boards for just that company, or does your company do contracts for other companies creating some more variability in the work?My impression of PCB design is, unless you are one of those individuals who can design micro-BGA cell phone motherboards (with a stupid number of layers and PCB technology us dweebs could never hope to use), then you will plateau your skills pretty early on. But perhaps I have an unfair impression?

author: eugene
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2023, 09:25:19 pm
content: Quote from: DannyCoates on June 20, 2023, 05:42:32 pmSeems to me that's good for the designer. You not only have a work to do, but completing that task will be one more thing you can add to your resume.From here, it sounds like you're complaining about management decisions more than a stall in career.

author: DannyCoates
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 21, 2023, 06:03:18 am
content: JustQuote from: tom66 on June 20, 2023, 06:41:02 pmJust for the one company designing boards for their product line.I agree with your description of the individual. However it's pretty difficult to get there by yourself and without the support of an employer. What happens to the all the other smaller companies that use simpler electronics?

author: mengfei
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2023, 06:56:00 am
content: I am about to retire next year & have been designing PCB's since tapes & DOS software where used lolOur products are just the average power supply charger & power tools & some other household products. the most I've done was a 6 layer PCB with DDR & a BGA - a meh! for todays standards. I guess i stayed on this long, one company but different BU's, coz I really liked designing PCB's.But just like what tom66 said unless your skills are NASA or Boeing worthy you'll be stuck where your peak is in right now. I guess better develop a skill as a consultant or a Mentor if that's your kind of thing.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2023, 07:40:09 am
content: Quote from: DannyCoates on June 20, 2023, 05:42:32 pmYes, it is.You have to find a balance between career and outside life. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Ditto being an employee vs being a consultant.Whatever you choice, you need to be aware that some things are essentially transient while some things are constant.Transient... Which tool to use. Which button to press to cause your tool to frobnitz the spurgle. Component speed, size and interconnection technology. Corporate managers, internal organisation, ownership, competion.Constant... Physics. Safety regulations. Family.Consider how you and your company will react and be forced to react when the transient things change.Consider what is necessary to appeal to another company, and what they would find unappealing.Consider whether you want to be a "jack of all trades and master of none" or "world expert in AcmeCo Frobnitz v 1.4". Speedread"Profession"by Isaac Asimov; the points are valid 66 years after it was written!

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2023, 08:24:59 am
content: Careers do stall for engineers. Good engineers are too valuable to let go or be promoted into the big buck positions.I knew an engineer with a big ego at IBM who was technically hopeless, so they promoted him into management. He had two degrees plus and MBA, which he would boast about so many times. His nickname was FIGJAM. ('F', I'm Good, Just Ask Me). Most of the things he touched turned to mud, but he managed to get promoted up the ladder each time before his trails of disaster were uncovered. As a third level manager, he ordered a legacy custom ERP system called COPICS that was not Y2K compliant to be shut down on a Friday and a new barely tested custom ERP system called Pronto to begin on Monday. As a result of this appalling bad engineering strategy, the plant was crippled for three months and a lot of employees suffered incredibly. One even was hospitalised with a mental breakdown as workers were working 18 hour days without overtime to do everything manually.In contrast, the most highly skilled engineers didn't go into management and could not proceed beyond staff engineer. So they reached a pay and career ceiling, going nowhere unless they left the company. Many were exploited over the years with endless overtime hours without compensation. I was one of them, and my biggest regret was working weekend and weekend and at nights for them at the cost to my family - time I will never get back. IBM's argument was engineers don't get overtime because they are professionals. Our final reward was IBM revoked a big chunk of our retirement savings when they sold us off to a startup company, and they even ran a mock court case in New South Wales to see if it were legal.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2023, 03:56:16 pm
content: Quote from: DannyCoates on June 21, 2023, 06:03:18 amAt the end of the day if your employer isn't offering the career development you'd like - for instance, working on high density PCBs - you need to move on and find an employer who does. Hopefully that comes with a pay raise at the same time, but even if it doesn't, the additional skills learned at the new company may then lead you to the next level.PCB design strikes me as a job that can be done essentially entirely remotely, perhaps with the occasional team meeting in person. If you can't find jobs nearby then that could be an option.