Recent salary survey results suggest newcomers may be entering the field.

Each year PCD&F surveys the PCB design community concerning issues surrounding their profession. For years, the feedback has had one connecting thread: Many PCB designers are experts with decades of experience. Their retirement has loomed large and has been widely anticipated, accompanied with concerns – and a little trepidation – about who will replace them. In conference classes and site visits in recent years, companies have discussed how they are working with educators at universities and local colleges to inform engineering students about industry opportunities. Recent survey results hint their efforts may be starting to pay off. And the time for boomer retirements is here.

PCD&F conducted its annual design engineers’ salary survey in early 2020, receiving 254 qualified responses from bare board designers, managers and design engineers. Data compiled included job titles and functions, ages, years of experience, education, location, types of projects, annual salaries and sales, job satisfaction and challenges, ECAD tools used, and years left in the field, among other data. While year-over-year changes are shown, they are for comparison only, and should not be assumed to be definitive.

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