{"id":405,"date":"2022-11-10T16:59:30","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.screamingcircuits.com\/circuittalk\/?p=405"},"modified":"2025-09-23T22:18:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T22:18:56","slug":"engineering-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.screamingcircuits.com\/circuittalk\/engineering-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Stress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Designing electronics is one of the more enjoyable things I do. My day job here at Screaming Circuits is marketing but my past and my after-hours hobby time are littered with electronics design. Since it&#8217;s a hobby, it tends to be a less stressful endeavor than if it were my full-time occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, getting PCBs assembled still does bring with it a bit of tension. It&#8217;s not out of fear of the process. It&#8217;s based on fear that I might do something wrong and waste my coworker&#8217;s time. Sometimes I build boards myself, but if one of my designs is going to be used as a trade show handout, I&#8217;ll send it through our factory and I&#8217;m never quite sure what will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s largely because I know what I want built, but I have a bad habit of missing details when I&#8217;m writing it all down. I might substitute a part think that &#8220;I&#8217;ll change it in the BOM later&#8221; and never get around to putting the new part into my BOM file. I&#8217;ve even compounded that by choosing a different sized sub (0402 for 0603) and forgetting to change the footprint in my PCB layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The result is that when I hit the save button for the last time, my stress level about what I may have forgotten or messed up jumps. When I pack up my files into a .ZIP, that anxiety grows. When I go to the Screaming Circuits website to start a quote, it grows. When I submit the order, I am filled with a level of angst that should be very much reserved for people with real problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two items are at the root of my fear. A) that I&#8217;ve caused a delay to my project due to whatever mistake I may have made, and B) that I will have to call our customer service folks and my limited competence will be revealed to them. I don&#8217;t want to make their day worse and I don&#8217;t want to look stupid. That is my anxiety. However, every time I goof something up, they leap in to help me out. I can be a dolt with (apparently) no attention to detail and they make me look like I know what I&#8217;m doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My guess is that you are all far better at this than I am, but I know that stress and anxiety is fairly common in the design world, especially these days with all of the cost and supply chain problems. I should not worry about calling our customer service people, because I know they will do everything within their power to make my day better, and you should also not worry. They are great folks and are here for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that in mind, jump over to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamingcircuits.com\/quote\/new\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>screamingcircuits.com<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and get an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamingcircuits.com\/quote\/new\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">instant quote<\/a><\/strong> for your PCB assembly prototype. And don&#8217;t stress too much. We are here to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Duane Benson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Designing electronics is one of the more enjoyable things I do. My day job here at Screaming Circuits is marketing but my past and my after-hours hobby time are littered with electronics design. 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