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Career Change

Tristan
edited January 2007 in architecture
Hi there
I have been looking around at achitecture and drafting ect and came across this site. I have a few questions to ask regarding architectural drafting. Firstly a little bit of background about me. I am a qualified cabinetmaker and have been in the industry for 7 years now. I have worked with architectural drawings building all sorts of things ranging from simple small kitchen cabinets to much more complex large scale building fronts, reception counters ect. The past year and a half I have been stuck programming a CNC machine and doing small designs and layouts for some clients. I have been working with Autocad since 1997 and have used pretty much each version that has come out since LT97. I currently have the 2007 version of Autocad here at work but I prefer using 2005. I haven't had much experience in drafting and architectural design but I have done a few different things here and there. I am pretty much sick and tired of my job at the moment. I only did it because I have a love for building and creating with my hands and now I am not building anything so much and I am doing something I never really wanted to in the first place. I have only done it to gain experience and get contacts with people in the industry. I have designed and built some furniture that came second in the Australian Furniture Industry Association Awards which i thought was pretty good for a first time. It also let me know I have the ability to be able to come up with some new different and innovative ideas. It doens't help though, when my employer takes pretty much full credit for it without giving me much credit at all. I am just basically wondering what is the best way to get into the architectural drafting industry. I am looking at doing a part time Tafe course for the next few years to gain more knowledge specific for the industry but apart from that I am not sure what else I should be doing. I am highly proficient with Autocad which is one of my strongest advantages except I haven't done a hell of a lot with the 3d side of cad. I have done a little bit but pretty much nothing since I did the advanced Cad course at Tafe. I can draw simple drawings in 3d but nothing super technical just yet. I also think my knowledge in the building and construction industry that I have gained from building and installing shopfronts cabinets ect will also help. Is there any other things out there that I could also do that would also help me along? Also what is the industry like is it really cut throat where you stuff up once you are out or is it a little more laid back? I understand that it would get a little stressful trying to communicate what the client wants in a drawing and I have had to do that a couple times already, where the clients have all seem pleased and happy that I am able to get it across just the way they were thinking. I am only 24 and think that I can still afford to make a career change even if it takes me a couple yrs. Cheers for any advice
Tristan

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