[slashmaster]

Not too sure if this is the best place to ask or not. But if I want a job doing Autocad or any kind of Cad someday what is better to put in a portfolio for your job interview, drawings you did 15 or more years ago in high school? Or a recent cad drawing that you ultimately turned to G-code and milled out the object which you can show? Also is it safe to say an employer probably doesn't even want to look at a mechanical drawing you did on a drafting board anymore?

[diycnc]

if you want a decent job you would have to proabably get a degree... my last job had 20 cad persons and i was probably the best one they had, americans bought the company and fired everyone.. without a degree i am finding it hard to get a decent paying job.

look in monster or where ever and you will see that 99% of jobs require degree.. sad but true.

[ger21]

Not too big on portfolio's, but the more recent the better. I'm more concerned that the person knows what they are doing. Too many people think that just knowing AutoCAD makes them a draftsman. And I haven't seen a hand drawn drawing in over 15 years.

[diycnc]

ha my new job does mostly hand drawings... i use cad but they are afraid that computers make to many mistakes... stuck in the 80's these people.. the guy that i was hired to "help out" makes pencil sketches or paper layouts, then manually makes turret programs..

so the moral of the story is that if you applying at one of the last companys in the world that still does hand sketches (the company that i currently work for) they may be inpressed by your hand sketches... to bad you dont live in ontario canada.. lol

[slashmaster]

if you want a decent job you would have to proabably get a degree... my last job had 20 cad persons and i was probably the best one they had, americans bought the company and fired everyone.. without a degree i am finding it hard to get a decent paying job.

look in monster or where ever and you will see that 99% of jobs require degree.. sad but true.

Interesting, but if you really are good enough and knowledgeable enough can't you just take a certain test to get a degree real fast and cheap?

[slashmaster]

Not too big on portfolio's, but the more recent the better. I'm more concerned that the person knows what they are doing. Too many people think that just knowing AutoCAD makes them a draftsman. And I haven't seen a hand drawn drawing in over 15 years.

Just what do you mean when you say this? I thought knowing Autocad well was almost all of being a draftsman now.

[slashmaster]

ha my new job does mostly hand drawings... i use cad but they are afraid that computers make to many mistakes... stuck in the 80's these people.. the guy that i was hired to "help out" makes pencil sketches or paper layouts, then manually makes turret programs..

so the moral of the story is that if you applying at one of the last companys in the world that still does hand sketches (the company that i currently work for) they may be inpressed by your hand sketches... to bad you dont live in ontario canada.. lol

Interesting, makes me wonder why high schools and colleges teach so much manual drafting, not enough autocad and they usually don't even mention cam software or something like mach-3. When I went to high school more than 50% of the time it was manual drafting and in college 50% was manual drafting. My high school never even mentioned anything about Cam software or something like mach 3. It wasn't until I was a college sophomore that they even mentioned stereo lithography. This was 90-96 so maybe things are a little better now. Do you guys think that was behind the times for 90-96?

[diycnc]

i think schools are behind the times just because of the expense of running these high end cad packages. work stations arent cheap. what is cheap is the drafting table that they allready own.

also cad has really taken a turn since the late 90's it used to only be autocad before that. now there is dozens if not hundreds of good cad packages out there.

also just knowing how to plop lines in autocad doent mean that your a drafts person.. do you relize the importance of scale? do you know drawing standards ect.

[ger21]

Things were a lot different 15-20 years ago then they are now.

[Bubba]

My first trip through this thread and having just hired a cad operator, my memory is a little more fresh on the subject. But first, I notice the negativity of having basic hand drawing skills. Search around the zone and you will find a heated debate that several of us had. Bottom line was the BASIC skills are very important.
The reason we had to hire a new cad operator was because the old one thought he knew how to draw (he didn't). Also as we have an in house standard of how things should be done, we expected the written guidelines to be followed.
Now having said that, what I look for is knowledge in the basic skills of operation of the cad program, so if you have some recent drawings, by all means lets see them as we can then get a feel for your depth of knowledge possibly. How set are you in your ways? That is to say, can you accept constructive and adapt to requested changes. Our shop is not typical in that we often receive Background material from Architects and then Xref this into our drawing and continue on.
In summary,
Demonstrate your experience.
Have a good attitude.
Be flexible as EVERY house is going to have their own way of doing things. Sometimes you will be able to enhance them and at other times they will be in-flexible about changing!

Oh and being able to do field sketching so it can be drawn up in cad is a very valuable skill!