A Beginner CAD Drafter’s Plan for Income Growth

This post has been Contributed by Brian Curran of Drafting Services.com. If you would like to write a Guest post for the CAD Setter Out, please get in touch!

Our jobs are something that bring us both satisfaction and income. It should be every worker’s aim to have both increase as time passes.

This goes for any profession, but since my gig is CAD, herein I’ll describe a plan for what a beginner CAD Drafter could do to grow his income. Enacting the plan will hopefully be a satisfying one, as work is a good thing!

A Plan

If you are a newly employed CAD Drafter and you’d like to see your income grow, then you’ll require a plan of action. There are many different industries that use CAD, so your plan will need to be catered to your specific situation.

There are a handful of plan essentials that will hold true for any CAD industry. I’ll enumerate these, and then you could modify or flesh them out, as needed.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Caterpillar to Butterfly

If you want your boss to pay you more, then you need to become more valuable. For a CAD Drafter, that means that you will need to go from the “New Guy” who is asking everyone questions, to the “Guru” that has all the answers.

You don’t even have to become a Guru per se. You simply need to go from being a tapper of resources, to a supplier of resources. As a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, so you too must mature and be perceived as someone you once weren’t.

First steps to Growth

Your plan will have stages as time passes and you grow in your position. Here’s a progressive list of some of the essentials of a plan:

Grow in your understanding of your CAD software and industry. In no particular order, some ways to do so are by:

• Asking your coworkers questions.
• Attending software and trade expos. Maybe your company would even be willing to pay for such.
• Doing experimental projects on your own.
• Hanging out in online forums.
• Reading blogs. Preferably those that deal with the same software and trade as yours.
• Reading software manuals.
• Reading software and trade magazines and journals.
• Receiving tips and tricks newsletters.
• Watching software tutorials.

Learn your company’s CAD standards.

Grow in your understanding of how your position fits into the big picture of the product that your company is producing.

Be an initiator as you grow and are able to do so. You could begin to be a contributor in all the sub-points listed in point

For instance, you could make your own tutorials, answer questions in forums, and etc.  Additionally, you could:

• Be a visionary about how to get projects completed.
• Compile resources that are frequently used.
• Create time saving routines for repetitive tasks.

Have an open door policy as you become a resource to others. In other words, welcome questions, because you probably won’t have a door yet!!

Be ready to accept more responsibility.

Conclusion

Your plan to income growth is going to be based on going from being a dependent employee, to becoming an independent contributor and help to others. Be patient, stick to your plan, and have fun in the process!!

Brian Curran

This post has been a guest editorial by the New York City based CAD Consultant Brian M. Curran. Besides aiming to be the best provider of as-built drawings there is, Brian enjoys guest blogging and social networking within the online CAD community.

www.draftingservices.com/