I hate to say it, but PCB design professionals may be slowly becoming extinct. They're at least, worthy of being on the endangered list. Not because they're succumbing to a rare layout-related disease, but because they're retiring faster than they can be replaced.
You can see evidence of this phenomenon at conferences like the PCB Design Conferences, at trade shows, seminars, workshops and user groups. Everyone is older than me, and I'm 41. Where is all the new blood?
Our PCD&M and Printed Circuit Design salary survey data show that a large group of PCB designers and design engineers entered the workforce about 30 years ago. This group--often making up 40% of the surveys' respondents--has been nudging the average age of design professionals up as time goes on and fewer "newbies" enter the field. In the early 1990s, this group was in its 40s. That group is now nearing its mid-50s, and it's still by far the largest segment of the PCB design community. And it's getting ready to start pricing condos on the Gulf of Mexico.
As such "mature" designers continue to, well, mature, there will be a pressing need for a new crop of young designers to take their place. But this replacement isn't likely to happen on anything like the scale the electronics industry will require. There just aren't that many new designers, and only a few more design engineers. For instance, in last year's PCD&M salary survey, the percentage of designers and design engineer respondents with 1-5 years of experience was below 1%.
Why don't more of the creative, intelligent high school and college students set their sights on becoming designers? I asked a fairly typical member of that demographic, my 18-year-old nephew Chris. He'd make a great PCB designer. He's smart, plays guitar, and has won awards for his artwork at county fairs. In other words, he's like a lot of PCB designers I've encountered.
I tried to steer him toward a career as a board designer. I tried the "cool technology" approach; I played on his artistic sensibilities. I played on his inherent laziness by explaining that some designers make $80,000 a year or more without a college degree.
But Chris couldn't get past the fact that he'd never heard of a career in PCB design. After all, his guidance counselors in high school didn't exactly inundate him with information about a career in board design. So Chris decided he's going to be a writer, for this semester anyway. That's one less potential designer.
One reason guidance counselors don't steer people into PCB design is the lack of a distinct career path. At least would-be design engineers have a definite career path: Go to college, get an EE degree, or two, or three, and you just might get a job.
Until recently there has been no such career path for the lowly PCB designer. However, that's slowly changing. The IPC Designers Council has been working with colleges such as Collin County Community College in Dallas to create PCB design programs. Other schools, such as the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, have incorporated PCB design into manufacturing or electrical engineering programs, and colleges across the country are showing interest in PCB design.
It may come down to a matter of public relations, of getting word out. The Designers Council has been talking to high school career counselors about careers in PCB design. But it's the design professionals themselves who have to get the word out that theirs is a great career choice.
We need some new designers soon, because in 20 years, a big percentage of today's design community will be, as Otis Redding sang, sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time. |
