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52 The PCB Design Magazine • August 2014 tools and automation negate the need for the skills of an experienced board designer, I dis- agree. I believe that now, more than ever, our industry is in need of young people that excel in the latest technology and methods of board design to become the experienced designers of tomorrow. Technology will advance, but the need for experienced people will never disap- pear. And in order for people to grow and become the experienced designers that our industry needs, we need to be willing to invest a little of ourselves to help them. A few months ago, I was walking my dog through the grounds of the local elemen- tary school and I paused for a moment to watch a little girls' softball game. One of the balls lobbed in by the pitcher landed on the ground six feet or so in front of the plate. When the batter didn't swing at this pitch, her coach encouraged her by calling out, "Good eye, good eye!" At first this seemed ridiculous to me. After all, the ball hit the ground long before it even came close to the plate. But then I looked at it through the eyes of an eight-year-old child and realized that from her perspective, the situation was very different. From where she was standing, that huge softball almost came over the plate. After all, it was ONLY six feet away. Whew! To those of us who are older and have had some experience playing ball, this would not be a situation that would con - cern us. But to an eight-year-old batter, it was a huge moment. And her coach did the great- est thing that he could do by encouraging her and telling her that what she had done was correct. When we old salts of the design world get asked annoying questions by the greenhorns, shouldn't we treat those questions in the same way? Years ago, a friend of mine told me that he used the philosophy of "holding a crown a few inches over an employee's head and watch them grow into it." This is actually tough- er than it seems. The key is to give someone enough responsibility that they can grow with it without being overwhelmed by those same responsibilities. For this style of management to be successful, we need to stay engaged with newbies that we are mentoring and not leave them hanging. We have to be patient as they suffer through occasional failures while at the same time celebrat - ing their victories. It also means being sup- portive, helpful, and, yes, even answering the occasion- al annoying questions. Al- though this encouragement won't work with every per- son and in every situation, it is amazing how often it does work. So, when these new designers ask questions that show how new they really are at this, let's do our best to help them to grow. After all, these are the people who are going to inherit this industry. By making them successful now we help guarantee that the circuit board design in - dustry will stay strong. While I was working on this article I found out that one of my first bosses had passed away. As a young man I had just gotten my feet wet in the design world when my company had a layoff that unfortunately included me. Without much in the way of experience I started looking for design work and eventually found a small service bureau run by a gentleman named Dar- rel Pfeifer. Considering my slim résumé at that time, I don't know why he hired me. But Darrel took a chance on me and over the next seven years of working with him, my skills as a designer truly grew. I worked on everything from wrist-watch sized designs to industrial- strength power boards and some of the first PC motherboards, and just about everything else in between. I think that it is safe to say that without my tenure at Darrel's service bureau, I wouldn't enjoy the career that I have today. Darrel led us by example, often working late into the night to finish up a design and then tim's takeaways So, when these new designers ask questions that show how new they really are at this, let's do our best to help them to grow. After all, these are the people who are going to inherit this industry. " " THERE ARE No STUPID QUESTIoNS continues