OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

Today we're thrilled to be joined by John Watson, Customer Success Manager at Altium. He and Tech Consultant Zach Peterson chat about the importance of education for designers, what it's like working with students, and what new opportunities there are for PCB designers in today's market.

Watch this episode here.

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Key Highlights:

• Introduction to John Watson, Altium Customer Success Manager
• John talks about his teaching profession at Palomar College in San Marcos, California where he teaches Basic and Advanced PCB design
• The Middle College Program at Palomar College was created for junior and senior high school students to give them a head start in taking college courses
• The demand for PCB designers is driven by a lack of interested individuals in the industry
• An increasing number of young engineers are drawn to computer science and software development, while the fields of hardware, electrical engineering, and PCB design are experiencing a declining interest
• John elaborates on the content covered in his comprehensive 32-week course, encompassing both fundamental and advanced aspects of PCB design
• Companies are losing their talent every single day through retirement. Now more than ever, there is a huge need to fill the pipeline
• John shares his early days as an electrician on the kitchen floor with a screwdriver in the toaster
• John finds Ai concerning, and he doesn’t allow it in his class
• John describes the kind of students he has in his class
• Overanalyzing is a typical problem for electrical engineers
• PCBs are works of art
• Zach describes a PCB designer as a “constraint manager”
• John works with different organizations to give the students a leap towards their next step after they finished his 32-week course
• From a janitor to a PCB designer, a winning moment to one of John’s students
• Give back no matter what level we’re at, this is John’s message to his peers and everyone in the electronics industry
• There are 25 spots available in John’s PCB design course, those who will not make it will be on the waiting list. You can check more information here.

Links and Resources:

• Connect with John Watson on LinkedIn
• Visit the Palomar College Website
• Check out John Watson's PCB design course outline here
• Read John Watson's Blogs

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