Trending post
Steven Carrier
Follow
Senior Mechanical Designer at Keltech Engineering
Report
CAD Designer
I am re-entering the CAD Design Drafting field after a long absence and have updated my skills on AutoCAD. I got side tracked into sales for over ten years. I feel I needed to find an entry level position but I get told I am over qualified but when I apply for jobs requiring experience I am told I don't have recent experience. I am open to a lower salary to reestablish myself. Any suggestion?
1 Comments
over 9 years ago
Like
Comment
Share
10y
Like
Reply
See all replies
Add
Hi Steven,
That is a tough one – not because you don't have applicable experience – but because of the sequence of that experience. I think I would write your resume with one thing in mind: to get the interview. It's a lot easier to explain gaps in your work experience in person than allowing someone to make a judgement without even meeting you. How do you do that? That's tricky because dates and general job descriptions can give you away. But I think I would deal with it in two ways:
Consider writing about your work experience in a non-chronological way. If you focus on the skills you have and just explain the people you've worked for, then it may be easier to avoid divulging that information up front. I'm not saying you should lie or even avoid the truth, but I've seen people in advertising do this quite often. They explain what they are good at and add a list of clients/agencies as proof of the companies they've worked for. It may be a bit different than what you are used to, but I've seen plenty of senior people your age get interviews with this rather ambiguous approach.
I don't know if you went into sales within the same industry, but consider how your previous years as a CAD designer might have helped you in sales. Think about designing, drafting and sales more holistically within your industry (it appears to be a form of industrial or mechanical design). Is there a way that combined experience makes you more useful?
When it comes to CAD work, I guess the bigger issue could be the recency of your project portfolio. If you have some good examples of classwork, that could help. But my guess is that you might want to develop some spec projects of your own to challenge yourself and help develop your portfolio. Hold yourself to a pretty high standard, because others will.
Freelancing is also a possibility. Can you get some work that can show your recent skills for less money? Are there other CAD designers you know that would be willing to hire you or let you assist for a project they are working on? It might be worth asking.
Good luck and let us know how its going. Best, Matthew