Engineering terror
Written by John Teel.
When I walked into Texas Instruments for my first day of work, I felt both thrilled and terrified.
Everywhere I looked, engineers were deep in conversation about transistor-level circuits and semiconductor physics. It was everything I had dreamed of after five years in software. I wanted to join those discussions so badly… until I realized just how far behind I was.
It wasn’t the work that scared me. Designing microelectronic circuits excited me, and I loved learning new things no matter how hard. What terrified me were the design reviews.
At TI, every design had to survive a room full of engineers dissecting it in excruciating detail. It was basically a geeky version of being thrown to the sharks, if the sharks had advanced degrees and a passion for catching your mistakes.
Making it worse, I hadn’t designed a transistor-level circuit since college. My first few meetings felt like I’d shown up to a chess tournament holding a deck of Uno cards.
I could barely follow half the conversation. Those engineers were operating on another level, and I became obsessed with catching up. Fortunately, I had a couple of years before I’d need to present my own design, since I was also working toward a graduate degree in microelectronics.
But as intimidating as those reviews were, my excitement to learn always outweighed my fear.
By the time I had my own design ready, management had made the review process more constructive. It was still intense, but more collaborative.
I survived my first presentation, and learned a lesson I’ve carried ever since: designing in isolation invites problems.
When you design in a vacuum, you miss mistakes and overlook better solutions. Regular feedback from other engineers isn’t just helpful, it’s essential.
Even the most experienced designers benefit from fresh eyes. It’s often the difference between catching a small issue early or facing a costly disaster later.
That’s true for microchip design, but also for PCB design, product development, and nearly any kind of engineering.
So don’t go it alone. Whether it’s your first design or your hundredth, make collaboration and feedback a regular part of your process.
And unlike me, you probably won’t have to present in front of a room full of engineers eager to prove you wrong.
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