I am a third year college student, 2nd year of my mechanical technician toolmaking program and graduate of a 1 yr pre apprenticeship tool and die makers program. im currently an entry level cnc operator, i run lathes most of the time, but i also run the Fadal VMC4020 from time to time. Im goin for my general machinist apprenticeship as soon as i can get my school out of the way so taht i can get my basic and intermediate tradeschool exemptions (already have basic). i did do a fair amount of cad/cam in school, although i do have access to Mastercam 9, solidworks 2004, and autocad 2004 on a daily basis, so i keep workin on those whenever i can find the time (nightshift operator), Im in the process of building a mini 4axis vmc (hopefully one day ill be able to figure out a decent way to make an ATC, but until then im just focusing on the 4th axis... haha