Technical Drawing/Drafting

I've been doing this job for 20 years since high school. I am a mechanical engineer graduate, but I am no longer a breadwinner in the field of machinery. If you are thinking of starting over, my advice to you is to become a computer programmer. Although I do the big work in the places I work, the programmer earns the bread. this is a piece of advice to you. I hope it will be useful

I would IMHO, get a "SolidProfessor" (an online teaching aid) membership. and a decent computer and teach yourself any (there are many) modeling programs they offer. I use solidworks and I do highly recommend it. 4.5+ million users world wide. you will need either a student license or buy or lease the software to use solidworks. you can download a free copy to play with, but about every couple of hours you will get kicked off. Anyway, SolidProfessor offers A360, Catia, Rhino, and tons of others as well as SolidWorks .. they have hundereds of videos and probably thousands of hours of how to do stuff in each of the software programs they support. I would not diss the Vo-tech schools too much, that is where I got my Autocad and Solidworks training. and Having a live instructor is a huge bonus. There are also many many videos on youtube for free as well.

So what are you waiting for? Go and apply for some jobs. With your experience, there are many companies that will hire you. Do you want to stay in the automotive industry? Or try something else, such as aerospace? In my opinion, the CSWA would be nice, but not required

I actually have, but so far, I get in the door for an interview, but then during the interview, I get the "We want to hire you as a welder" routine.

If a two year mechanical technician or technologist diploma is not the route you want to go at this stage in your life/career, then completing a SolidWorks certificate program at a local community college might be an alternative for you. I have 20 years experience as a mechanical designer in heavy equipment, automotive and nuclear and this is how I started out. I had AutoCAD experience and picked up courses at a local community college and started applying for jobs. I am in Canada and one of the local colleges (Seneca in Toronto) has this option a certificate/recognition of achievement. This is a three course certificate.

As far as applying for jobs, you may want to emphasize your design experience or even leave your credentials as a welder out. I am not saying to mislead any potential employer but just emphasize those qualities/experience for the job you are applying for. Good Luck and don't get frustrated....keep applying for those SolidWorks jobs.

Firstly stay away from a degree in engineering, you will not get to design anything, you will spend your time doing tolerance analysis and FMEA and dealing with suppliers if my time at Cummins, Caterpillar and Perkins engines is anything to go buy. Stick to drafting and take a course in drafting, I would recommend PTC Creo as this is how I got into design. Most graduates I worked with have enough trouble reading a drawing let alone creating one. I would suggest you get a recognised qualification in GD&T as this is the language used in specifying components for manufacture.

As an aside I worked with a draughtsman at Cummins engines on th Hedgehog engine project. He had taken a one week course in Creo drafting and worked as a contractor for a long while.

Let me know if I can help you any further. Your skills using drawings will go a lot further for you than a degree

If you like 'drafting' then by all means, take that route but that doesn't mean you'll be designing anything. Most likely, you'll be completing drawings of a design, pushed down to you by your engineering team.

You mention 'hired as a welder'... why are you not customizing your resume to target the job you're after? Only hit on the key requirements they're looking for. When you go to interview, then you can get into the other aspects of your background, but I would never include anything that doesn't pertain to the position you are trying to land. A jack-of-all-trades, means that you will get pulled in for whatever they happen to pickup on in their keyword search and if it isn't what you want to be doing, then don't put it on your resume.

Drafting is one aspect. Engineering is another. If you're going to 'draft' then you should really focus on GD&T, Y14.5, etc.. A lot of companies are looking for strong skillset in this area. If Engineering, then that's another thing entirely.

I don't disagree with the suggestion (if you have strong computer skills) for a coding type job. There are 'boot camps' that do job placement for Java, Python and others and sadly enough... a lot of those positions don't require a degree and pay much better than engineering...