Career Path
by: Dana Rice
From Novice to Master…Forge Your Career Path
D
o you want to use Autodesk products to create a new world, design innovative structures or build futuristic machinery but are currently doing little more than cleaning up red-lined drawings from Architects and Engineers? Are you a student, either in high school or college, who would love to figure out a way to make a career out of your favorite AutoCAD class? Do your coworkers come to you when they have a Revit question? This article will offer advice, learned from career experience spanning twenty-two years, on moving up from a CAD technician drawing as-builts to being respected by design firms for your expertise in using and managing Autodesk applications. Five career tips will be presented that have helped this author build a fulfilling career from a love of high school drafting class and two years of learning AutoCAD in community college.
MASTER THE SOFTWARE, NOT JUST YOUR WORKFLOW.
Mastering an Autodesk application provides a solid foundation for various career paths in the design and manufacturing industries. Too many users only want to know the “picks and clicks” needed for their specific workflows. This approach can make them very efficient in their current role but how do they move up from there? How prepared are they for a company layoff? Like a master mechanic knowing how to use every tool in their shop, CAD users with full knowledge of their software open themselves up to more opportunities when seeking employment. 8
AUGIWorld Magazine | February 2022
The Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN) is an excellent starting point for training and houses a treasure trove of instructional videos from industry experts. Learning partners and authorized training centers can be found through this site as well. Another resource is your employers Autodesk reseller. Contact them to inquire if they sponsor local user groups or offer training. Don’t let a lack of employer support halt your learning. This is your career path at stake. AKN resources and local user groups are available to you. User group networking can help you move to an employer who appreciates a knowledgeable CAD technician and has the resources to send you to Autodesk University (AU) or help you on that path to becoming a P.E.
CROSS TRAIN…NOT JUST FOR FITNESS.
At my current employer we have over one hundred Civil 3D users and I would be thrilled if even one of them learned Inventor. Why? While we don’t have the workload to employ an Inventor user full-time, we could benefit from having someone with an intermediate knowledge of part modeling to build custom pipes and structures. Autodesk is encouraging cross-training of their applications and many employers are seeing the value of having employees who can do work traditionally contracted out. It’s important to master the software you use daily but to truly stand out, learn workflows in a secondary application that plugs in to your primary. AU and AKN are loaded with classes and training resources for Dynamo, Infraworks and Inventor part modeling. augi.com
