[sdiy] Who Needs a Degree?

[Tim Ressel]

Who Needs a Degree? I never have. I am a high school dropout who worked as an technician and/or engineer for 30 years. As far as technical prowess goes, a degree doesn't guarantee anything. I've seen EEs make a PC board that had more "green wires" than traces. I can tell you stories about Cal Tech grads who were so narrow thinking and closed minded they could not fix their own designs because they "knew" the way they did it "should work". It aggravates me just thinking about it. 

If I were king, every EE student would spend a year as a technician. I learned so much by fixing production units, then as an engineering tech hand wiring prototypes. Between that and databooks (NS Analog Applications is a must read) I got most of my early education.

Brother Theo's Rules for budding engineers:
1) Just Do It
2) The internet is your friend
3) Ask questions; listen to the answers
4) Sanity checks will save your sanity
5) Trepidation never built a circuit
6) Study every schematic you can find
7) Components can be mismarked
8) Be methodical; take notes
9) When troubleshooting change one thing at a time
10) Know when to walk away and sleep on it
(feel free to make additions)

--Tim (not a noob...not in this pool) Ressel