Career Change

[APL4444]

I am 46 year old thinking about changing careers. Working with CAD seems be the most interesting option seen that I have an very esthetic and technical kind of intelligence. However, my knowledge about this field is very limited. All I know is that it seems very interesting.

 

What someone like me should know about the work market for beginners and the real life of a CAD professional?

 

Regarding training, should I look for a Associate degree in Architecture/Engineering or there is another more advisable training path?

 

Thank you very much in advance for any information provided,

 

Alex

[mikekmx]

People seem confused. AutoCAD is simply a tool, like a pencil is. Being able to use a pencil does not make you an engineer/architect/whatever.

 

So to answer your question - yes, do an asscociate degree in engineering/architecture/other discipline.

[BIGAL]

What was you past career ?

[Murph_map]

I changed my career when I was that young. Went from a nail driver, plumber, electrician to CAD. But I did have 2 yrs of schooling in drafting back when I was 18 yrs old that helped. Depending on your background as to a 2 year degree or more of a 4 year degree.

[ReMark]

What particular field are you interested in? Architecture, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, other?

[tzframpton]

I am 46 year old thinking about changing careers. Working with CAD seems be the most interesting option seen that I have an very esthetic and technical kind of intelligence. However, my knowledge about this field is very limited. All I know is that it seems very interesting.

The world of CAD is definitely interesting! As already stated, computer-aided design is a "tool" that is used in many industries. Depending on your background, it's best to enter into the CAD world that supports your most knowledgeable and experienced areas. For instance, if an electrician with 20 years experience wanted a career change, it would be best for that individual to be a CAD designer in the electrical field since the 20 years of field experience would greatly assist the learning curve. There's learning the software, and then there's learning the software AND "what" you're designing, which many CAD designers lack starting out but eventually gain this fundamental knowledge inherently through designing in a CAD software.

 

So if you're experienced in a particular field then you're ahead of the game in that respect, and any local community college or online learning institution can get you the credentials you would need to be marketable for job recruitment, however it's not necessary to gain employment.

 

-TZ

[Dadgad]

Welcome to CADTutor!

 

I started learning and working with Autocad when I was 58 years old.

I really enjoyed it right out of the gate, and I still do.

I was lucky, having been offered a job by a good friend, and it included

getting me up to speed on the software. I took the basic Autocad instruction,

one on one with the instructor, over 3 days.

Probably 90% of what was covered in the instruction, I already knew,

having spent about 10 days prior online, absolutely free, (http://www.mycadsite.com/) learning the basics.

This is a very well thought out introductory instruction, logically ordered,

and broken down into very manageable chapters.

I strongly suggest that before committing to paid instruction, you start

doing a little due diligence on that site. You willo be surprised how quickly

you will get the hang of it, if you enjoy it as much as I do.

Once you have been through all these chapters, and feel ready to

go a bit deeper, look on the TUTORIALS tab, at the top of this page.

There are lots of good Tutorials here on CADTutor, and there is a CADTutor youtube channel,

and more other CAD related videos on youtube than you could ever get through.

First things first though, learn to stand up and walk before you try sprinting and flying.

 

There are lots of different programs, specialties and scenarios in which you might be interested working.

There are lots of folks here who are eager to help, but you should try to give us a little more insight

into your personal interests, geographic location, and previous work history, which may factor into

paths of least resistance, and greatest personal and financial rewards on this new path.

[Dana W]

Just so's you know, it can be done without a degree. These days with the 'everybody's a winner, everybody is the same, nobody fails' mentality all through school, a degree shows more that one can survive four keggers a month for four years without a felony DUI, or alcohol poisoning than anything else.

 

In truth, I have the utmost respect for the people that actually earn a meaningful degree, with the talent to fill the shoes. I reserve most of that respect for the Theoretical Physicists, and Astrophysicists, though.

 

I started drafting in early 1967, in a high school architectural drafting class that lasted a semester. I was drafted (ironic?) the following September, did infantry for two years, and since there was no local market for my AR-15 and M-60 skillset, then took a three month drafting course, and went to work as the only draftsman for a large home builder in southern Maryland. That lasted roughly 10 years, until the Carter Administration. Thank you Werner Michael Blumenthal.

 

So, I went to computer school and learned to program. I did that for 20 plus years, until the last mainframe computer in the Mid Atlantic was put out of its misery in 2005. As the senior systems analyst, it was my job to put a 45 caliber slug through its tiny little 850 something megabyte brain.

 

No, actually my employer, a mid-sized publicly owned medical insurance company was bought out by Supermassive Black Hole Insurance Inc. We were told that if we liked our jobs, we could keep our jobs, and left to stew in the uncertainty. Then, a year later the acquiring company vaporised my and 25 other programmers jobs ON MY BIRTHDAY while I was on vacation in the Outer Banks. It's a damned good thing I didn't know about it during the subsequent 10 glorious days.

 

It's my first morning back at work wearin' a hawaiian shirt, and an outrageous tan, while I was getting coffee 25 minutes before start time.

 

"Meet me in conference room 3 in 5 minutes." There was a fifteen minute exit interview, where they gave me a LARGE offer for my not quite matured stock options, which I refused, and 30 minutes to turn in my security badge and clear the building. There were two Montgomery County MD Police cars in the parking lot. There had been violence during some mass layoffs at the time, and I was not the only one asked not to let the door pat my fanny that morning.

 

The ONLY other market for my programming skills in the tri-state area at the time that used the same OS and languages was also a publicly owned medical insurance company suffering great success, which put it on the event horizon, and was in no uncertain terms, not hiring anyone at all.

 

Then I took a community college course in AutoCad, sold my options at maturity:celebrate: and went back to drawing houses and fancy millwork seven years ago. I was 60 then.

 

Almost three years ago, I semi-retired and moved to Florida. I don't make a lot of money but I enjoy my work. Since we've been down here, I have done shop drawings for weird stuff built in Disney World, and Universal Studios, exhorbitantly priced millwork in three major Condo reno's in South Beach, The Ritz carlton on Amelia Island, The pool bar at the Marriott World Resort, a couple of high end executive retreats, one of those contrived reality renovation TV shows, and two celebrity mansions in Key West.

 

In a way, I kind of wish I had gotten a degree of some sort. Maybe I would be paying someone else to draw stuff for my own hugeomongus House now, "how close is Travolta's 707 to my garage, again?", maybe not.

 

Oh, never mind that. If I had gone to college, it would have been right in the middle of the Hippy free love explosion on campus. I would never have seen the inside of a lecture hall.

[steven-g]

I didn't realise there where so many old codgers round here, I started as a draftsman at 16 in the army apprentice college, and spent the first 3 years of my working life pushing pencils, before deciding to follow the money and pick up the tools to work on site as a joiner / carpenter / concrete formworker, basically anything with lots of hours. At 46 I decided that carrying doors up 4 flights of stairs in the middle of London wasn't really what I wanted to do anymore, I signed up for a 3D advanced evening course in Autocad, I had never seen the program, I passed that and with my new diploma went looking for gainfull employment with my crisp new bit of paper and a couple of drawings that I put together, all rolled up nicely, they are still rolled up. At the interview the only subjects covered where my previous work experience which was far more important than any knowledge about how some software package works. Since then I have had 3 employers, the second job I actually had to go for a second interview, the last one I walked out of the interview with a contract and a start date, and that was in Belgium.

 

 

I would never have made the step without the confidence that a diploma gives you. But in hindsight it's the practical experience in the field that is most usefull.

[Dana W]

I would never have made the step without the confidence that a diploma gives you. But in hindsight it's the practical experience in the field that is most usefull.

I can go with that. Awsome. I have this personal idea that university and/or college in the UK, and Europe (with the exception of France) , is more traditional than it is here in the USA, especially in the Peoples Republic of California, and what we call the Ivy League in the Northeastern states.

 

Codger - an often mildly eccentric and usually elderly fellow . I dunno if 67 is elderly, but I'd wear that on a "T" shirt.

 

I do have to get even, Steven. Useful only has one "L".:rtfm:

 

My recent contract client of 2 years tries to give inexperienced people a leg up, at entry level. I can't count how many times there, I have seen fresh grad's or interns come to work with only the coddled bubble of the classroom for experience. That combined with an artificial sense of self importance bordering on audacity, many times gets them eaten with morning donuts. The business world does not wait for lunchtime to eat somebody.

 

Last summer they tried four interns in the drafting department before they found one who either did not tell them they were doing it wrong because that is not the way they were taught in school, or even had the first clue. One of them committed a supercilious act of quitting because they felt they were in danger of picking up bad habits. Another one apparently sat for half a day staring at modelspace where they were supposed to insert a couple of xrefs, not knowing what to do and not asking anyone for help. They did not return after lunch break. I wonder what story they are going to make up for their career counselor back at school.

 

That last passage is mildly overstated, but is illustrative of the problems one sees these days.

 

Anyway, I highly recommend changing careers when a wall is encountered. It is difficult, and rewarding. Just keep an open mind, and remember that neither your professor, nor your mommy signs your paycheck.

[steven-g]

Luckily spelling hasn't stopped me finding work . You should see the fun I have trying to write in Dutch.

[Dana W]

Try being married for 34 years. Talk about being "in dutch". For edification of the masses, "in dutch" is an American slang term, probably from the 1920's that roughly translated means "butt in a sling", "in deep Kim Chi", or simply "in trouble".

[APL4444]

Wow ! I am really impressed with the amount of quality answers to this post.

 

Unfortunately, it seems that a change of career to AutoCad may not be the right choice for me. Presently, I a massage therapist. Therefore, i do not have any experience whatsoever that could give me an advantdage when looking for a AutoCAD job after school. The course offered in my city is a Associate degree in Architecture/Engineering. However, for what I understood from the posts above, it seems that school alone is not good enough for employers.

 

By the way, if i still decide to swim against the current and get this AA diploma, what is the salary (or hourly pay) one should expect as an entry level professional in the field?

 

Thank you very much again for your great answers !

[ReMark]

School alone is not good enough for some employers. Other employers may not give a damn. We have had people post here who got jobs based upon a certificate program offered by Penn-Foster which personally I am not impressed with but I'm not the person doing the hiring. Pay will vary by region, by the field you enter and by experience. It will all depend on the weight each criteria is given by the company you are applying to for a job.

 

Just to be absolutely clear....it is the Penn-Foster AutoCAD program and the way it is set up as well as what is taught that I am not impressed with. The majority of the students that have come here seeking help have generally demonstrated that they are willing and capable.

[Dana W]

School alone is not good enough for some employers. Other employers may not give a damn. We have had people post here who got jobs based upon a certificate program offered by Penn-Foster which personally I am not impressed with but I'm not the person doing the hiring. Pay will vary by region, by the field you enter and by experience. It will all depend on the weight each criteria is given by the company you are applying to for a job.

 

Just to be absolutely clear....it is the Penn-Foster AutoCAD program and the way it is set up as well as what is taught that I am not impressed with. The majority of the students that have come here seeking help have generally demonstrated that they are willing and capable.

Yep, kinda like a good jockey winning a race on a three legged mule. Lemmee be that guy's agent.

[ReMark]

I don't even have a two year degree in the field I am working in but I do make a good living. Most of my knowledge of AutoCAD came from self-learning and taking advantage of seminars, online classes and community college courses.

[APL4444]

I don't even have a two year degree in the field I am working in but I do make a good living. Most of my knowledge of AutoCAD came from self-learning and taking advantage of seminars, online classes and community college courses.

 

I believe you ReMark. However, the problem is to get an opportunity in the field without showing a diploma, experience or having acquaintance in the field who is willing to lift me up all the way from zero.

[ReMark]

Do you want to pursue this or not? It sounds like you have done a 180 and you are now trying to talk yourself out of the idea.

[brl2008]

a career change is hard, at the age 50 I made the change. working in a restaurant for most of my life, I felt like it time for change. had some drafting in high school back in the 70's. did a 2 year program, got a job with people that are willing to work with me(there like that I had no bad habits, they could me there standards) so the job's are out and the use of Autcadd is a big part of it. the quality of life is better for me now,weekend off, time with my kid and wife and in a short period time I have about $20,000 over what I was in the restaurant busy. I think that so should take jump and enjoy.

 

 

brl2008

[ReMark]

One of the reasons we take a CAD course is to learn the program. In the course of doing so we create numerous drawings. These drawings, upon completion of the course, can be used to create a portfolio of our work. This portfolio can be supplemented and improved, over time, by continuing to creating new and better executed drawings. As this is done we go into the portfolio and remove/replace earlier drawings with the better ones. This should be an ongoing process right from the very beginning of your course of study. Just don't do the drawings that are assigned. Go above and beyond and do more drawings and make sure to increase the complexity as well. Challenge yourself! Impress your instructor to the point he/she would be willing to write you a letter of recommendation and you are more than half way to securing a job in your newly chosen field.

 

BTW ALP4444...where are you located?

Edited January 20, 2015 by ReMark