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68 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2023 assigned and due dates are given. at is not always the case in manufacturing. ere is no hand holding to verify work is getting done in a timely manner. Within reason, it is le to the engineer to determine the tasks they will work on during the workday. e engineer must want to solve problems and engage in the work they are doing. My coworkers and I joke that if you are fully engaged with your department, you can't be bored in manufacturing. 5. Bouncing back after failure I'm not sure any of us like to fail. It's surely not comfortable but it is necessary for growth. Learning not to take failure personally and move forward was one of the toughest skills to master as a new graduate. One of my favor- ite sayings comes from Mark Twain: "Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions." I try to think of failure as an experience I don't need to have again. Sometimes, months down the road, I can even laugh about some of the mis- takes I've made. Of course, each hiring manager will be look- ing for different skills, but I believe most will agree with my top five. ey are skills all of us can work on at any age or position in our careers. If you are a student looking into man- ufacturing of any kind, I encourage you to try it. Take opportunities to job shadow, intern, and co-op at companies that interest you. Find people in your life who are in positions you want to be in some day; ask them how they got there and what skills they find important. Hopefully, you will walk away from that con- versation more informed and ready to take on a career of your choosing. PCB007 Paige Fiet is a process engineer at TTM-Logan, and in the IPC Emerging Engineer Program. To read past columns, click here. dite the time it takes to solve a problem. Down time for machinery is one of the worst possible events for manufacturers. First, the engineers will be tasked with solving the root of the prob- lem. is can be one of the greatest challenges, as the root cause may be complex. Next, they will need to find a solution quickly. Nine times out of 10, there won't be time to solve all the math calculations taught in col- lege. Instead, an engineer should have an esti- mation of what is required. For example, if I am reading a pH value on a developer aer I have made a new bath, there won't be a "right" value that I am looking for. Rather, I know it should be between 10 and 11. If I have a read- ing of 2, then something is wrong. 3. Statistics Statistics wasn't my favorite class in college and I'm sure it's not a favorite for many oth- ers, but it is essential in understanding a pro- cess and causes of scrap. Every week, I make a Pareto chart for my operators to visualize our top defects so we can work together to reduce them. Statistics also come in handy when determining the source of intermittent defects. PCB manufacturing is very complex. It oen comes in handy to know percentages of work that went through certain processing steps and when they did. 4. Intrinsic motivation One of the starkest differences between college and industry lies in the motivation required. At the university level, grades are Nine times out of 10, there won't be time to solve all the math calculations taught in college.