PCB Chat 163: Miroslava Velasco on the Value of Mentorship in PCB Design

Ryann Howard (0:11)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to PCB Chat. My name is Ryann Howard, and I'm the managing editor for the PCEA.

Miroslava Velasco (0:19)

Hi, Ryann. My name is Miroslava Velasco, and I work at Qualcomm as a PCB designer and manager.

Ryann Howard (0:25)

Okay, awesome. How are you feeling today?

Miroslava Velasco (0:28)

So far, so good. The weather is cool. Here in San Diego has been super hot the last few days, so it's nice to finally catch some cool.

Ryann Howard (0:39)

Yeah, I know it. I'm in coastal Georgia, and we also have been experiencing some heat. I'm looking forward to some jackets in the upcoming season.

Miroslava Velasco (0:49)

Absolutely.

Ryann Howard (0:50)

Well, I'm really happy that you made time to talk with me today, and I think just as an introduction to this conversation, I would love to know what first drew you into electronics and PCB design.

Miroslava Velasco (1:02)

I actually have a very interesting story on how I ended up here. My background, I'm an aerospace engineer, and I am from Mexico. So very different from electrical. But when I started looking for a job, when I moved to the States, and I got hired by Qualcomm as a test equipment planner, which is a very different field.

It's more calibration and inventory, very physical labor. And I met one of the managers here at PCB, and she just asked for like a favor, and I did it for her. And she was like, well, you're very nice. We start talking about my background in design, because I did a lot of mechanical design back in Mexico. And she said like, look, we have an opening. Do you want to do you want to join? And I said, well, I don't know, let me check. I'm not qualified. I don't want to apply. She continued asking for my resume for like the next two weeks. And I didn't work on it because I was sure that I was not qualified to do that.

And she finally was like, hey, let me decide if you are qualified or not. So I finally did. I interview with them and fast forward like two, three weeks after that, I got a call and they told me that I got the job. So I started as an entry level PCB designer about five years ago.

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Ryann Howard (3:25)

Wow, that's really interesting. It was almost like you were the thing holding yourself back from an opportunity until you had to get talked into it. That's definitely different than most of the stories that I'm given.

Miroslava Velasco (3:37)

Yeah, it was very different. She really was persistent. She believed in me in a moment I wasn't believing in myself.

Especially, mind you, I fail Circuits in school. So I'm like, no, I'm not. No. Electronic is not for me.

Ryann Howard (3:53)

Wow, that's really funny.

It's funny that's where the conversation started too, because I do always like to ask people about their mentors or how that affected their intro into the field. So it seems like it was a very big push at the start of the year. Do you have any other mentorship relationships that you would like to highlight or that you think have had a big impact like that?

Miroslava Velasco (4:21)

Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't be in the place I am without the help of, first of all, everyone in my department that works here has been, since the very beginning, they were very happy to help me answer all my questions.

My main mentor, his name is Keith Jensen. He was the Director of Engineering here at Qualcomm, and he expedited my career in a huge way, because he introduced me to this most complicated projects, working in high layer count and very dense design under his wing. I was able to expedite my growth thanks to him.

Ryann Howard (5:03)

Okay, that's awesome. I know that you were able to meet with some of our PCEA crew at PCB West. Do you tend to go to shows like PCB West? Or what amount of your career is spent traveling and going to events like that?