Building a CAD Portfolio

[FutureAmerican]

Hi all,

(I'm posting a background of myself here first, if you just want to read the CAD stuff, skip to the end)

It's been a while since I posted on here - my background in summary is that I graduated from Imperial College London with a Bachelor's in Materials Science/Engineering, working in a Project Engineer capacity for a small Oil&Gas Company, mainly doing Project Management type work with MS Project, some procurement/budgeting, and some welding procedure qualifications.

I moved out to the US in 2007, made the mistake of not finding new Engineering work as I wanted to go in a different direction (Law Enforcement), unfortunately that didn't work out so well, but I went back into Oil&Gas Engineering in 2008 - I was on a good training program but the sector collapsed where I was and so I wound up working as a Hospital Security Guard. That's been my sector for 2 1/2 years now, although I'm now a Supervisor so we're just about covering the bills.

I enlisted into the Army National Guard last year, am currently in an Infantry platoon, and should be going to OCS next year (incidentally, Infantry and Airborne School is a great way to remind yourself things can always be worse - sleeping outside in a rainstorm or jumping out of a plane!). Although I might choose Corps or Engineers or Signal as my Officer Branch, at the end of the day I'm planning on using the education benefits as the primary way of furthering my civilian career, along with the contacts I've been making at the unit.

Now onto the CAD stuff - through a contact, I'm currently under consideration for a possible Engineering job, initially part time, eventually full time. My duties would be a combination of CAD work, GD&T, and Materials selection. As part of my preparation I got myself a copy of TurboCAD 18 (The program they are using for their designs), and have been working through the tutorials. My contact has recommended I build a "portfolio" of CAD work for the potential employer, and was wondering what the best way is I can go about doing this, since I'm not currently employed in any technical capacity? I've thought of emailing my Lt at the unit and seeing if I can help with things like drawing building plans for Urban Ops etc, finding personal projects to do like making a plan of my house etc. If anyone has any further suggestions I'd be more than happy to hear them.

Finally I would also like to mention that I have applied for at least a couple of hundred Engineering jobs since 2008 with no success - I have had my Resume evaluated multiple times by different people, have been attending job fairs etc, but this is the closest I've come to anything in 2 1/2 years!

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Marry Pippa

 

[MacGyverS2000]

If you have applied to literally hundreds of jobs over three years with no success, you may have to consider you're doing something wrong, be it a poorly written resume, poor interview skills, poor phone skills, etc. It also may not sit too fondly with a number of managers that you chose a security guard position rather than something closer to your chosen field... but with good interview skills that can be spun in the proper way.

If you really need to hone your CAD skills, pick a complicated object and copy it. Start with a water cut-off flange, draw all of the internal parts, and make a 3D exploded view. Make sure you're learning the ins and outs of the tool, not just a few commands over and over to make a large part. You'll want diversity in the parts you draw, but you'll want to also show how you've used as much of the tool's capabilities as possible.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[FutureAmerican]

Mac - the problem was that I wasn't financially able to not take the Security job (which was the best paying one in the area at a whopping $11/hr, and we had little to no savings) - I was signed into a year long lease on a house so we didn't have the option of easily relocating (although I did apply to jobs in other states just in case I was able to get some kind of an offer even without relocation).

I think part of the biggest problem is that I don't fall into the "new grad" category, having graduated in 2006, and I don't have a high enough skill-set to be considered "experienced". Some people suggested that it's because I have a foreign degree, although I've had it credentialed in US equivalents (which was accepted by the military to get advanced rank and for OCS).

Next year I'm planning on starting my Master's degree, most likely in Engineering Management, with a sub-speciality in Space Operations. The costs won't be an issue with the Guard covering tuition etc, and hopefully if I haven't got a Engineering job by then at least I can present myself as a "new grad" once again (I would LOVE to even have a below-average graduate Engineering salary, even at the $45K range is $10K more than I make right now).

 

[KENAT]

Assuming you're a UK national, or were, part of the problem may be that your education, qualifications, experience etc. aren't cookie cutter typical US qualifications. This seems to put some folks off, or at least makes filling in on line applications etc. difficult.

Have you had your UK degree examined for equivalency to US degree by a

http://www.naces.org/

member?

Unless you're a US citizen you may as well forget applying for almost any defense/aerospace related jobs - although it sounds like you may already be addressing this with you guard service.

You mention the job is partly for GD&T. US GD&T is to different standards than UK GD&T and there are some notable differences between ASME & ISO. I suggest getting a copy of the US std (maybe the local library has one) and ideally a copy of the ASME study guide. Some kind of training would help get over the initial bump - does a local community college have anything? Most folks don't have much of a clue on GD&T, if your potential employer are serious about it you probably have a lot of learning to do.

You may also want to familiarize yourself with other ASME Y14.100 stds that relate to drawing, though 14.5 is the main one.

Perhaps recreate some of the drawings from the std (illustrations in the std are typically incomplete so there'd be work to do filling in the other info) or from various drafting text books, paying especially attention to proper application of the GD&T.

Plans for 'urban ops' would be more 'civil' in nature so I'm not sure they'd be of much benefit for what sounds like a mechanical drafting position.

It took me over a year to get my first engineering job in the US having come from the UK, and that was in 2005 when the market was a bit better, good luck.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[KENAT]

Oh, and yes the job outside of engineering can be an issue with some employers.

The guy that eventually hired me had second thoughts because I was currently working as a sales assistant in a drug store to try and make ends meet.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[FutureAmerican]

KENAT - I did my evaluation through the WES, who is a NACES member...from that I was given the equivalent of a 4-year Bachelor's, GPA 3.19/4.0 The documents they gave me were good enough for the military, and for the Security and Engineering companies I've worked for out here.

I got my US Citizenship last year, 1 week before I shipped to Basic Training! I'm in the process of getting a Secret Clearance which is required for OCS, and I could get a Top Secret one if I wind up in Intel Branch or similar. A friend of mine from Basic managed to get a Top Secret one, and he emigrated from Iraq (got his Citizenship while in training), so I don't foresee any problems there.

I'll definitely take a look into the resources you mentioned - the Community College classes round here are so cheap they're easily affordable even if I didn't get them covered by the military. The contact who the potential job is coming through mentioned they could help with some training materials on GD&T so I'll get onto that as well.

If I did do some of the "Urban Ops" drawings, it would be more as way to start applying the CAD skills I'm learning, rather than being directly relevant (the project is, as you said, mechanical in nature rather than civil). I'm going to hit up my old contacts back in the UK who I used to work for and see if they need any basic CAD work done for free or extremely low cost - experience is more valuable to me than $'s right now - in fact one job-seeking tactic I'm considering is cold-calling employers, explaining that I haven't directly worked in Engineering for a couple of years, but am willing to work for well below the market rate and "prove" I still have the talent, rather than expecting to automatically come in on a higher salary.

 

[KENAT]

Well some folks definitely won't like your last line, they'll see it as potentially undercutting other engineers...

Once you have your secret clearance then actually that could open up some serious Engineering Doors for you.

On the base near us, there are supposedly times they'd rather employ a warm body with an existing clearance than someone with relevant experience/skills but no existing clearance.

Good luck.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[brandonbw]

I think you are going about this job hunt wrong. Graduated engineers shouldn't be looking for CAD jobs, they should be looking for entry level engineering work. The reason there is an assumption for you to know CAD is because with how many years you have been out of school and the time period, you should have become pretty good with it. Otherwise if not, then you would have held a position of redlining and calcing stuff and letting the drafters do your CAD work.

I think you should download a demo of Autocad and go through the tutorials, and skip learning turbocad for now. Since I work in Civil and we consult together with the other types engineers, there are some things that are similar that you need to understand in CAD. Such as xreffing others' drawings together and learning how to manipulate everyones' layers without screwing things up.

I also don't think you should be so eager to undercut everyone, it comes across as desperate, which isn't a positive in an interview or phone conversation. I think it may also lead to negatives when you mention you were a security guard after you had been working at an engineering job. So you have to figure out a way to make that sound like you learned a new skillset that can bring something to a new company.

And another thing, whenever I interviewed for jobs I was rarely asked anything about college. I have never been asked my GPA. And I have even taken tests and only knew maybe 1/5 of the test, since it was out of my normal daily job routine, and still was able to get the job. I wouldn't let anything hold you back at this point, what do you have to lose?

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil and Structural Engineering

http://bwengr.com

 

[KENAT]

brandon, good ol' 2D autocad isnt' used as much in the exempt portion of the mechanical and related worlds these days. So, probably not the best use of time. Given the potential employer users turbo cad, getting up to speed on it doesn't seem the worst possible plan, even if CAD work is below some engineers.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​