  The ability to troubleshoot is an important learning outcome for
undergraduate physics laboratory courses. To better understand the role of
troubleshooting in electronics laboratory courses, we interviewed 20
electronics instructors from multiple institution types about their beliefs and
teaching practices related to troubleshooting. In these interviews, instructors
articulated the idea that \emph{nothing works the first time} in multiple
contexts pertaining to troubleshooting. We argue that this idea is an expert
epistemology and show how it informs instructors' beliefs that (i) students
need to know how to troubleshoot, (ii) students should expect to troubleshoot,
(iii) all circuit-building lab activities provide opportunities for students to
troubleshoot, and (iv) students' ability to construct functional circuits can
be a proxy for their ability to troubleshoot malfunctioning circuits. Moreover,
we discuss implications for instruction and assessment of troubleshooting in
electronics courses.
