Careers In CAD

doublehelix2

doublehelix2

doublehelix2

Associate
Joined
5 Jun 2007
Posts
299
What jobs can you have that involve using CAD programs that pay well? I imagine that regular CAD monkeys don't get paid that well, so Is there any area that does pay well and has a career progression path?
 
CAD as a general skill isn't worth much, CAD skills that back up a wider specialist area such as transport engineering is worth much more.

Just being good at CAD won't get you very far as its a tool not a career, so will never get you further than CAD Monkey status.

Edit* However i believe there is some money to be made in 3DMax work.
 
Some people can get away with being CAD monkeys on contracts with something like CATIA V5. Your looking at £25-28 per hour. Not much of a career as such though.
 
chimaera said:
Edit* However i believe there is some money to be made in 3DMax work.
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If you are in the top fraction of the very very best people in the industry. And its a very hard industry to break into with long hours.
 
doublehelix2 said:
So working with just CAD isn't a career, are there careers in which cad makes up most of the job? Or would it be something specialist, like architectural drafting?
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Mine has a high portion of CAD.

Design Engineer in the Aerospace industry. Usual route is an engineering degree of some sort.
 
You need to have some understanding of architecture to be a CAD in Architects practice, needs to know some building reg, and structural constructions. So plain CAD skills isn't enough, you need to have some specialist to go with it.
 
doublehelix2 said:
I thought that bumping your own threads was not allowed? Should I have done? :confused:
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It's better than starting another thread on the exact same subject, again.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Some people can get away with being CAD monkeys on contracts with something like CATIA V5. Your looking at £25-28 per hour. Not much of a career as such though.
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People who have been designing air craft carriers, submarines etc here for years wouldn't really agree with that.
 
Wardie said:
People who have been designing air craft carriers, submarines etc here for years wouldn't really agree with that.
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And some would, contract by definition is a non permanent job, main disadvantage is no development type courses. Its more luck of the drawer if you get good experiences to develop you. You do however get some excellent contractors who have check signatory roles, however thats a totally different mentallity to a 'CAD monkey'. Similar money, regardless, a contract is a job though, not a career.
 
Kinda like asking do people who use hammers get paid well.

Depends what they are doing with it.
 
Probably the easiest way into it would be to train as a draughtsman, just about all draughtsmen use CAD. If you want to get into the architectural side of it you could train as an architect who do all the pretty stuff, an engineer who would then sort out the steel side of it or you could be a steel detailer like me who does drawings based on the engineer/architects drawings so that hey can be produced. You could end up using one of the many 2D CAD programs like autocad or any number of 3D CAD packages.
You basically need to choose an area of interest then train in that field and you will end up using CAD, as already mentioned the CAD package is just a tool of the trade.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
And some would, contract by definition is a non permanent job, main disadvantage is no development type courses. Its more luck of the drawer if you get good experiences to develop you. You do however get some excellent contractors who have check signatory roles, however thats a totally different mentallity to a 'CAD monkey'. Similar money, regardless, a contract is a job though, not a career.
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Since when is a contract not a career? That is his chosen career path, his career as a CAD person, even if he changes between contracts it's still his career.
 
Point missed. My point is about personal development. Contractors tend to be at the more established point of their working life so they can move between jobs providing a service as a .ltd company in many cases. Certainly thats my opinion of of anyone in design industry who call themselves cad monkeys, they just have the jobs to do the draughting. Once you know your way around a certain software what else is there to learn? A contract by definition is a short term job with a fixed time limit thats is subject to extension or notice periods, not appraisal procedures either.

Its not like you will be offered a contract if you go in saying you have never used the software they are using unless the company really doesnt know how to manage its resources. Also with IR35 many contractors prefer to keep clear of staff training events etc.

Do plumbers have careers? My personal opinion is no as they provide a service, its more of a job. Self-employment is not really a career IMO its a business.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Also CAD is not a designers only tool.
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Also used as a mapping application, my company has 4 guys in a CAD team who do nothing but mapping.

However there are much better methods than CAD for these things, it may be able to do something but designing is what its best at.

My career is in geographical analysis and managing corporate mapping software and it always makes me laugh when people say they use CAD as a serious alternative to something decent.
 
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