Is it hard to find steady work as a CAD drafter?
825574
You can definitely find steady work as a CAD drafter. Check to see if the school you are interested in offers internships or placement assistance. If so, they should have established relationships with companies that need CAD drafters and can place you there for a short internship so you can add some experience to your resume. \n\nMost large engineering companies use CAD drafters all the time. Look up engineering firms in your area and talk to them about opportunities for entry level drafters. Also, if you're not opposed to relocating or working on remote projects, you can always find work on design or architecture projects that pay pretty well. If you work on the project side, you will likely only have temporary employment (although temporary could mean several years). However, if you can get in with a major engineering company, you should have little trouble keeping permanent employment.\n\nGood luck
1051364
In the United States, some architects try to get as much as 15% if they include construction management services and commit to completion targets. They may present such a figure as if it is a set amount, but it is ALWAYS negotiable, and you can always go to a different firm.\n\nIf the architect simply designs, assists with permits, and hires subs but makes the client manage details, expect a figure closer to 10% of project costs or even less.\n\nIf you have clear ideas yourself, you are better off bringing some rough sketches to the architect and hiring him to AutoCAD them and stamp them for a particular municipality (since codes vary). That should cost between $500 and $5000 depending on the complexity of the structure and how complete your drafted sketches were.\n\nIn practice, most clients choose a builder and contract with him for everything. The builder then hires the architect. Unfortunately many builders cheat their architects, and buying a home does not entitle the homeowner to a set of plans.
1079500
I am a financial planner. The hours are long and yes, it is very difficult to acquire new clients. Most job opportunities are commission-only. If you do not go into this field with a sales mindset, you are not likely to make a great deal of money.\nI love what I do, and if I measure success in terms of how I have helped people, I am very successful indeed. But because I am not aggressive, not a sales-orientated person, and not willing to work 70 hours per week, I am not making as much money as I did before.
784776
You can do anything you set your mind to, if people discourage you consider it a challenge to prove them wrong. There is a serious lack of Quality engineers. There is plenty of time for your choice, many very successful people do not find their calling until they have experienced a number of choices. The main thing is to believe in yourself and perhaps you should try writing down your goals, and each year go back and review them; you will be surprised at how far you can go, and how things can change in this technical age. Best Of Luck!
695079
I use AutoCAD with a pretty good symbol library of comment elements in the utility industry.  There are many other computer programs that do the job, or you can scetch or draft them yourself.\n\nAs far as the conventions and symbols used.  Get a good book or do some research on the Net.
638405
well icertainly like my job . iam awriter and ineed to find publishers for my work . you have to keep aopen eye for it    . we should not get frustrated it takes time to get best
725982
I suspect there is an open-source product that would be free and pretty competitive to CAD.  Give http://www.sourceforge.net a try to see if such a product exists.\n\nEdit:  found this http://sourceforge.net/projects/brlcad/
693272
I'ts no problem so long as your reasonably healthy. I work in framing construction and we're always looking for good helpers.Buisness is booming now so go to it!\nJust remember to stay super hydrated (summer is definately here ! ) and do what your told. Your local paper should have plenty of oppertunitys.
64771
Good pay and steady work if you can become a painter.  You can learn in like 1 week and a half.  I actually did good painting.  As a matter of fact, I became my own contractor in my 2nd year of college.  It pays decent with soo many good options.  It might be low when you start, but you can move up fast.  Just stick with it.  I even hired students that didnt know how to paint.  Not a bad return for me, and not bad pay for them.  Its better then minimum wage at stop and shop.
781076
You can't spel;l worth a crap either, but than neither can I so what the hell:).\nEngineering is a good job but you usually have to do several things to make a good living in it.\n\n!-First you need to know that it is what you are interested in.\n2-You need to know if you are best and interesting in the actual engineering design or the business side.(the business side is always where the money is.\n3-You need ot know the location.  Location is all important in making money. Do you want to live in a small town area where there is good living conditiond or liv ein soem large twon with good pay which living conditions eat up every month.\n4-You need another degree besides engineering to back you up.  The engineers with a Business degree also are the ones into the money. management makes the money, engineers do the work.\n5- Consider if you would stay an employee or move into self employment.\n6-Be ready to move every few years or sooner/ Very few enginers will stay with one company. Companies simply will not pay them. For example if you make 60 grand a year, and been employed with them for 10 years a company will usually let yuo go and hire someone else for 80 grand a year before they will pay you a dime more.  They might later hire you back say a coupla of  years down the road for 100 gand a year. But that is how companies think, and act.\n7-Be aggressive. Ass   holes make the money, good guys get left by the wayside. That;s another factor of company life.  YOu can be nice to the  people under you butin dealing  with companies  they respect aggressive behavior.\n8-Keep a record of every inch of education you have ever been inviolved in from day one.  All of those little placs you get wiht your name on thenm for acheivement awards, and certificates ect., Use them to your fullest advantage. Get a coupla of online degress, NIO one checks or very few times and often a useless degree wil get you a job where you have soenmone else dong the work.\n9-Keep a record and running diary of your accomplishments and don't be afraid to make changes when you do get a job. It's expected. If you can doone thing to get you infront of the company's news letter than you accomplished more  than a raise, \n10-Always be on the looout on way sto save the company money. Money talks everythng else walks. It's the conmon bond between companies. They all understand money.\nKeep a record of your accomplioshmenst which save money. Always look out for new methods to reduce cost, increase production, and reduce labour or increase customers.\nSome engineers are pencil pushers and soem re engineering businessmen. The business men make the money.\nIf you are not serious and willing to go for a good education than forget it.\nIf you wish to make or are happy with 40 to 60 grand a year start putting in applications in counties, states, and cities giovernments. Those are the only place ot get a decent start in computers networking and repair.  Just repair alone will starve you to death. These vocation shops are turning out computer repair students by the thousands every year with no place to, Who is going to pay you 300 bucks to repair a compute rthey can buy new for 600.\n\nGood luck
658729
Depends on your talents and motivations. Few jobs will hire a home worker per se. To work from home you pretty much have to build your own biz. This could be freelance writing/graphics/websites/etc or it could be being a PI or it could be as a consultant in a field. You can watch children, do data mining or invent things. \n\nTo work from home you need a stable income to cover expenses of getting started. \n\nYou need to be good at some skill or trade. If you are good at making jewlry then get better. Get to where you are comercial quality. \n\nYou have to have or be a good marketer. Remember for every minute you spend doing your work you spend 10 finding it. \n\nYou have to be self motivated. There are always mornings that you get up and say I don't feel like working or you have a dozen apts that you have to go to like doc apts for the kids, etc. It is real easy to get to where you work 10 hours a week if that and spend the rest doing stuff. You have to set aside at least 4 hours a day taht are work. This means whatever else needs doing has to wait if it's not an emergancy. Then do it every day. \n\nYou need space to do yoru work. If it's writing it might be a corner of a room. If it's wood work you prob need a whole workshop as well as a shed to house wood and final products. How much space you need depends on what you are doing. You do need an evironment condusive to what you do. Working at home is hard enough without extra distractions. \n\nLast you need time to build up a clientel base. Repeat biz, word of mouth and or vendors who love your work are going to be your best sources of income. Takes time to build this. Often it takes time to learn a craft. For example if you want to be a screenwriter and are not writing proffesional quality screnplays right now, then expect at least a couple years of writing screenplays and producing local plays for free before you feel good enough to even attempt to submit one. Then expect 3-10 years of submissions before you make enough contacts to get one read from the slush pile and actually produced. That is IF you are good at it. Writing is a tough field and full of hidden gotchas. Most creative endeavors are. Being better than anybody else in your area is only the first step. You need to be better than most people in the nation or world to make a good living at something. \n\nHow long it takes to master what you do depends on what you do and how hard you work at it. Research your trade heavily before expending a lot of time at it. You might find that to succeed in a given market you will have to do something unreasonably expensive or something you don't want to do. \n\nHope this helps.
735119
SAP is definitely one of the demanding sofrware and to attain the skill in SAP will help you to achieve the best jobs, but your background is really not helpful for sap, I will advise you to take CAD instead of SAP because of your mechanical background.  In sap you will be studying entirely different things, which will find you difficult to carry on.  so my advice is that you go with your back ground than going a entirely new one, but if  you have the  confidence then carry on!
611828
If you are looking for a steady income this may not be the career for you.  You can go a long time with no grants to write.  Its a difficult job and you have to do a lot of self promotion.
537929
I am a Stationary Engineer currently looking on various job websites.  I have several leads from hotjobs, CareerBuilder, Monster, and the OPM website.
876883
I worked in the Prod dept and it really is going to depend on what you're good at, what your degree or specialty is and such.  Alot of the designers are from art schools that specifically specialized in designing.  Production is a job in which you are breaking down the design to basically make it....what you can do and what you can't do...choosing the exact colors, materials, etc.  They are VERY different jobs so I would look closely at the jobs and find out what they entail before you decide which one you'd like to be a part of.  Designers tend to make more money than prod but that also doesn't mean that it's going to make you happier.  Both are essential but I do know alot of the Prod offices did function for quite awhile without design people in the company i worked for.
295535
Cad can do either 2d or 3d, it depends on the software.\n\nSome of the programs are faily cheap( about $100 ) and quite good. I have been using various versions of TurboCad for about 12 years. I created all of the drawing for our house with it and continue to use it to design furniture.
1942
Microstation is another drafting software, however, I believe AutoCAD is the most widely used.