Advice / Info on CAD / Drafting careers

Factual Questions
1

I was thinking again about potential careers for my 17-year-old son, and suddenly I thought of drafting (draughtsman). He LOVES Visio and drawing intricate pictures of various characters in his online games. But I know absolutely nothing about CAD / drafting, such as:
– What kinds of jobs are there?
– How prevalent are these jobs?
– What would the requirements be for an entry-level position?
Can you just get a certificate or something? What do you study?
– What is the pay like?
– What are the working conditions like?

Does anyone out there have any comments about this or can point me to some good resources for learning more about this?

2

My husband worked for himself for several years as a patent draftsman. He had an “in” to get his first jobs because some of my colleagues used his services (I am a patent attorney), but I stayed strictly out of the deal and any work he got after the first job was strictly on merit. He used per-page fees (which have since become the norm, but were much less common then), which generally worked out to be cheaper than most of the draftsmen he was competing against. A lot of his advantage was built on the fact that he was very good with drawing software (he used Adobe Illustrator), so he could knock out complicated drawings pretty fast, but it was also a selling point for him that he had a physics degree, and so was able to understand what he was drawing well enough to know what “mattered” in an application, and was sometimes able to catch errors in the sketches (if he got something showing a chemical structure that had an oxygen with four bonds, he would call and ask it if was supposed to be a carbon instead of blindly drawing it).

I think the going rate right now is about $70/sheet, but there are plenty of patent drawing firms online that he could look at to get an idea of prices and the market. A draftsman needs to be familiar with all of the drawing rules both of the USPTO and the PCT (all of which can be found online) - mostly stuff like required margins and line weights. I think my husband could typically knock out a $70 sheet in 1-3 hours. Of course, as an independent contractor, you’re paying for a lot more business expenses, so he wasn’t pulling in $70k doing it. Some of the drawing firms might subcontract, especially if they get overloaded - it would be worth looking into as a way to get started.

I have no idea how you get a job as any other kind of draftsman.

3

My experience is UK based so not sure how different things are where you are, and it’s also been about ten years since i was in that line of work. But for what it’s worth…

I was a draughtsman for about 5 years early on in my career. I worked for a consultant engineers (civil/structural). I’m not sure about other avenues but i would have thought that one of the more common types of permanent jobs for draughtsmen are likely to be, like mine, in the construction industry, either engineering or architectural.

Again, might be different where you are but over here it’s comon to be able to get into this line of work straight from school as a kind of informal apprentice. I started aged 15 with mediocre high school qualifications. I was allowed one day off per week to study at college part time. All my fellow students were the same.

Back then CAD was still relatively new and although i studied it i did all my actual work with paper, pens and razor blades.

However, CAD is really just a step up from the more advanced features of visio. In fact it wouldn’t be as efficient but you could pretty much use visio for the majority of draughting work, it just isn’t as powerful and flexible as modern CAD packages.

I was quite a natural for the role and my young age and lack of qualifications didn’t cause any problems. I really enjoyed it having aced at technical drawing at school. In fact i could easily have carried on doing it had the pay not been so lousy in the UK at the time. I have no idea about the pay where you are or what he would need to get in an entry position but it would be easy to find out.

It depends what kind of drawing he likes doing. If building plans are something he thinks he could get into why not call your local college and speak to one of the lecturers. Over here they were mostly former practicing engineers who decided to switch to teaching. Regardless i’m sure they will know what the story is for both salary expectations and qualifications.

To clarify one point though, i learned CAD in one 15 hour course. It’s not hard. The bulk of my training was not about drawing it was about what to draw, i.e. design principles etc. Engineering (and even a lot of architecture) is about maths more than drawing.

These lines of work can open pretty good career avenues. I’d be surprised if draughtsmen were generally huge earners, but here it’s common to start that way and through part time study and work experience move on to engineer etc.

4

He should become proficient with AutoCAD. It is the standard for architectural and engineering design.

Most votechs or community colleges offer AutoCAD courses but as in most things, it is not the certificate but his ability that will get him a job.

Look up Consultant Engineers or Architects in your Yellow Pages. Both employ CAD draftsmen. Entry level, 18 years old, reasonably competant will probably get you starting out at $13/ hour with full benefits (I am in the Baltimore area - YMMV).

The working conditions in such places are good. Dress is business casual. It can be stressfull as deadlines are always looming (may have to do some serious overtime) but a good draftsman will eventually absorb the ‘engineering’ part of it and can move up to a designer and possibly, with a bit more schooling, an engineer and then a project manager.

I am not in that industry any more but back in 1990 I had a draftsman who worked his way up through the ranks. He now works as a Project Manger for a well respected Mechanical and Electrical Consutant Engineering outfit here in Maryland. If he can get his Professional Engineering license, he will be made a partner. Not bad.

5

Our local community college has a two-year degree in what they call Tech Prep (or Pre-Engineering). AutoCAD is one of the things taught in the program, along with some materials science, surveying, etc. A person with this degree is qualified to work as a draftsman (entry level). In our area there is a shortage of draftsmen, so graduates of the CC are snapped up quickly. Co-op opportunities exist as well.

The pay is pretty good; around $13/hr here too (Central Mississippi). My daughter works part-time as a draftsman, but even part-time she makes $9.50/hr (she actually went on to Art School before completing the two-year Tech Prep degree).

The working conditions vary from firm to firm. At the large engineering/architectural firms, productivity is pushed and everything moves at a hectic pace. The opportunity exists to make extra income working overtime. In a small company, things are more laid back, with flexible work hours more common.

I think it’s an excellent career for anyone. Another plus is, as Mr. Floppy pointed out, he could go back to school later for engineering classes, work for four years under a P.E. and take his licensure exam.

6

Drafting with autocad is a good skill to know, and you can make a decent living with it.
But remember, for technical work, you also need technical knowlege. Most companies don’t need a “draftsman”–they need a technician. Somebody who can take an engineer’s sketch, and produce the finished design, following all the relevant professional standards. Drawing an architectural wall section is totally different than drawing a mechanical engine component.

So you should definitely begin with a 2-year technical college, if not a university. You might be able to start from scratch (without a degree) in a very small company, but having a formal degree is a very, very big advantage in the job market, and probably a necessity for larger companies.

If you don’t like the idea of studying engineering, check out the field of map making, (with its subcategories of cartography, aerial photgrammetry, land surveying, and GIS-geographic info systems). Unlike engineers/architects, who need technical knowledge to design and draw pictures of things that don’t exist yet, mapmakers do the exact opposite. They draw pictures of what is out there on the ground, and produce detailed plans linked to data bases of info. This uses slightly different skills–Less math, more drafting.

7

Another data point:

Our experienced engineering techs (who draft in AutoCAD 90% of their working hours) in my civil engineering firm make about $20-$25/hour.

8

Thanks to all of you to your very helpful information and advice! :slight_smile: