EIT contracting work for Drafting and Engineering Support 1

[jfarris]

Not exactly sure which thread to put this is in. Essentially I've recently started moonlighting drafting work for a few engineering companies in need of help producing structural drawings. I would like to expand this work and pick up more clients but am not quite sure how feasible this is and where to begin my marketing. For all the principal owners in this forum, what are your thoughts on outsourcing your drafting work? Is this a sustainable practice or something that commonly occurs in the structural industry? In my searching around I've noticed many Architectural firms outsourcing their drafting work but not a lot of structural engineers. I have nearly 4 years experience in the residential and mid-rise commercial markets and am a very adequate draftsman in addition to my experience as a structural EIT. I enjoy the added experience on top of my salaried EIT position at the moment, but would love to expand this work for possibly building a clientele for a future business. I am 6 months shy of sitting for my PE exam and would like to possibly do small consulting once obtained. Any thoughts and observations are greatly appreciated.

 

[WARose]

I outsource just about all mine. For me, it's to a guy I trust just about completely. You can probably get some business by hitting up the architectural firms.

The bottom line in structural drafting (to become a sought commodity): rise above being a drafter. Be a [red]designer[/red]. When I first came into this business (more than 20 years ago) you could give a drafter a set of GAs and equipment drawings.....and he could pretty much take the ball and run with it. Now, you pretty much have to babysit these guys. (At least at the last place I worked before I went out on my own.....and that was a big factor in going out on my own.) Not that any designer/drafter doesn't need input from the engineer.....but I can't sit with a guy for 20+ hours a week when I've got other things to do.

 

[Triangled]

very similar to WARose...
it's hard for me to hire that additional autodesk station when it's only needed, say 20 hours per month. but, it is definitely needed 20 hours per month and i've got to get that work done somehow.

 

[DETstru]

I've done my own drafting, had in house drafters, and outsourced to overseas companies.

I personally like to do as much of my own drafting as is reasonable and push the tedious tasks to others. I agree wholeheartedly with WARose. Good drafters are hard to find and I just can't stand having to hover over a drafter until the get it right while I could've done it much faster. So if someone with decent structural knowledge (sounds like you) wanted to do drafting for me, I'd jump on the opportunity.

 

[jfarris]

Most of the work I target (single-family/multifamily residential and mid-rise commercial)I have experience designing (as an EIT) for 4 years. So I do offer my services with additional "Engineering Support" (design work) if needed. It just seems like finding work is rather difficult (not that I imagined it wouldn't be - if it were easy every one would do it). Though I consider myself savy at generating leads and forming connections, however the responses I keep seeming to get are from Architects and Contractors, the engineers that I communicate with don't seem to like outsourcing any type of drafting. Just didn't know if this was usual. Seems like at the the last place I was salaried we outsourced some drafting work even though we had 10+ drafter on our staff.

 

[WARose]

Though I consider myself savy at generating leads and forming connections, however the responses I keep seeming to get are from Architects and Contractors, the engineers that I communicate with don't seem to like outsourcing any type of drafting. Just didn't know if this was usual.

As I indicated before: trust is huge. A lousy drafter can dig you into a hole you cannot dig out of. The best advice I can give is to cultivate those relationships as best you can.

 

[KootK]

I work with contract drafters and junior engineers on a regular basis. For the most part, it's a junior guy across town full time and a senior fellow in Vietnam sporadically. My take on it is this:

1) I steer clear of folks who have full time jobs with other companies. I've tried it numerous times and have usually been disappointed. I only want folks that are working for me full time or, at least, folks that are 100% independent. Doing meaningful work in my realm means regular collaboration and quick response. Folks working full time in addition generally are not capable of this in my experience. And, really, who can blame them? I attempted some moonlighting when I first started out and money was in short supply. It was mostly a disaster. I might consider it if I had a project with long lead times and I had nice, straight forward markups needing to be picked up. That's almost never the case though.

2) I suspect that most of the people that would be interested in such services would be folks like me: small time outfits not yet ready to take on traditional employees. Or, at least, looking to minimize risk exposure in that regard. For someone in that position, the trust that WARose mentioned is huge. Having some dude out of sight and racking up hours is pretty scary when you're small. To compensate, I favor a payment model of this sort:

1) I pay you a fairly generous hourly rate.
2) You agree to finish any project you take on, within reason, no matter what.
3) Your fee for the project is capped at 30% (or whatever) of the total fee.
4) If you don't like how it's worked out in the past, factor that into your decisions for the future.

It has been suggested that this arrangement is heavily skewed in my favor. Or, perhaps, even somewhat predatory. I'm fine with that and it gives me the degree of cost certainty that I need. And I find that a) with good people it's not a problem and b) when it is a problem, those are usually relationships best terminated. You can't charge contractor rates and then expect to get paid for rework and training like an employee. And by "you" I mean others in general, not you per se.



I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

 

[SAIL3]

IMHO, drafting should not be a primary focus of a structural engr whose talent and hard-earned knowledge lies in the field of engineering itself. That said, being familiar and able to do some basic drafting can certainly enhance one's engineering effort. But, to become efficient in using the these drafting programs requires quite an investment of time and resources which could be better used in practicing engineering itself. In my own experience I found that unless I kept up to date with every new iteration of these drafting programs I was basically wasting allot of time and added expense of investing in each new version of these programs. Trying to compete with someone that does this all day long just will not pan out.
So if the OP is a structural engr then becoming proficient in that field will require the major focus of one's effort.

 

[dik]

SAIL3: An essential of a set of documents is to know how 'things are put together'; this comes from experience and time in the field. I often put together CAD details because my sketches are terrible... and it is faster to do this than to sketch, check, review sketch with re-check.

Dik