Hey Peter

Hope your good.  am relatively new to fixing at board level myself. I have been doing basic repairs on phones for 2 years now like screens, batteries, flex cables and cameras.  Whereby I am no expert like Alex I would suggest you start with the basics (if you have not already), and learn the basics of phones.  On the board level side i would maybe buy some practice kits to learn how to solder and get your steady hand then buy some cheap phones on ebay or marketplace and start to diagnose their faults.  If all fails at least you have a doner board to add to your stock.

Like I said I am also new to this so these tips are some of the things I did to get me started

Regards

Hi Peter, 

People are throwing away non working electronics all the time! Grab an old phone, laptop, computer monitor, or whatever you can find.

Spend your first bit of learning taking off components and putting them back on. Don't worry about whether or not you fix what you are working on, worry about getting them off and back on without burning them up, burning up the boards, lifting traces! Trust me when I tell you that using a hot air station to remove components while in the vicinity of other micro components is NOT as easy as it appears when watching these videos! It is an acquired skill! Learn how to disassemble and reassemble, repair traces, clean up behind your work, etc, etc. That is half the job right there, and without good skills at this, you will get nowhere!  Alex sells the best tools for the jobs, so poke around in the store and gather up what you don't have, and don't waste your time finding cheaper ones that work! Half of a repair is technicians skills. The other half are the tools he uses! 

Last thing....Please don't leave your work not properly cleaned up after! It should be "BETTER THAN FACTORY" Have pride and confidence in your work! It speaks volumes. Customer should get his stuff back and not be able to figure out what you did from looking at it!!

@wizard Love this reply. I am a software engineer by trade by Alex's videos have given me the soldering/troubleshooting/fixing bug 🤣.

Your reply is exactly how I started a couple weeks ago. Got me a good multimeter and a cheap scope to practice with. I've been practicing on old boards laying around the house. Just taking things off and putting them back. Over and over and over again. I had a platoon sergeant while I was in the Army who used to say "Repetition is the key to clarity" every day to us. I think of this often as I am practicing. Love this community!