Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/735567
72 The PCB Magazine • October 2016 by Keith M. Sellers NTS–BALTIMORE Don't Reinvent the Wheel — Find an Expert! LET'S TALK TESTING Back in the day when I was an engineer fresh out of college, I quickly learned that experience is the solution to many problems. Now that be- ing said, experience comes in many forms…it could be knowledge learned from a textbook, it could be an observatory comment jotted down in a notebook, it could be a conversation with a co-worker or colleague, or it could be an In- ternet search that finds a scholarly technical article, etc. My point is that "experience" is all around you if you're eager and willing to look for it, and when problems or issues arise, tap- ping into that experience is invaluable. Expanding on that idea, it's likely, unless you're working in a cutting-edge, R&D-driven field, that someone out there in the world has dealt with a similar (or possibly the same exact) issue/problem that you are currently facing. My advice to you today is to seek out that informa- tion and utilize the knowledge and experienc- es of others before you as best you can. As an example, the Internet is an almost bottomless pit of information and when used appropriate- ly can likely get you the information that you need or, at the least, get you headed in the right direction. Technical knowledge and experience can be found in many places and in some cases, a good bit of the hard work in finding those places may have already been done by others, so why not make your life easier by learning from their ex- periences? Focusing in specifically on the print- ed circuit board/assembly world, a good place to start is with IPC. For those not familiar with