[Closed] Any ex. Architectural Techs in?

Colleague left architecture...he was a draughtsman/surveyor working with an agricultural shed company.. and became a CDT teacher.

Similar money but much less travelling/staying away from home as well as more job security.

Showing my age, I was MSAAT in 1985. Now Project Manager.

C

I used to work for a consulting engineers as a draughtsman doing RC & steelwork detailing, before the days of CAD. Got fed up drawing straight lines all day long & waking up in the middle of the night with a head full of dimensions. Now a Chartered Engineer & have been working as a Building Control Surveyor for the last 26 years 8O. Very varied work with a good mix of site & office. Can be quite confrontational at times! I'm currently going through a bit of a change of heart now, at (almost) 50. Would quite like to do something completely different myself, outside of the construction industry, not sure what though......

My wife was one, left to have our 3 kids....some days I think she wishes she was back.
Her company went bust, and she couldn't find another job. Is the industry picking up?

I'd like to get out of the construction industry as a whole as well, although I suspect my skills may make that difficult without completely re-training, which will be expensive and time-consuming.

I was an senior architectural technician before the recession hit. I got made redundant and had no luck finding a similar role. I managed to get a job designing lifts which I'm still doing and enjoying 6.5 years later. The money's nowhere near as good and I do miss designing houses sometimes but I enjoy what I do now more. A lot of the skills are transferable like the use of autocad and a logical approach to problem solving. I also have access to the factory workshop to make whatever I fancy on my lunch break.

I got out of a decent sized practice just before the recession, got a local job doing similar role (design/job running) but for the NHS. Now being funnelled into Project Management, dont enjoy it one bit and am looking to move sideways.

Does seem to be more jobs about than a year ago, plenty being advertised repeatedly, think alot of folk moved on to something else after the job cuts.

All these comments are just reinforcing my interest in completely re-training as none of those roles appeal tbh.

Best I look into funding 😯

Bump for the Thursday crowd 😀

I studied architecture, didn't get on with it, and am now training to be a DT teacher. Likewise, a friend on my course was a CAD monkey for an architect's in Sheffield, he's also no training to teach Tech 🙄

Anybody know anything about working as a architectural model maker? It really appeals to me but I'd have to retrain which would be expensive and I'd want to know there are reasonable employment opportunities if I did so. Any info gratefully received 🙂 PS I'm not young, is this likely to put potential employers off?

Cad monkey at a practice in Nantwich, cheshire. Big bad recession hit, work nosedived over six months to scratching around doing porches etc etc... made the leap into the bike industry (lucky opportunity) Got lucky, kinda living the dream almost.

I work in an engineering consultancy doing a fair bit of CAD monkeying.

But I all so do the Civil 3D modelling and site visits etc.

If I could ditch the CAD and keep the rest I'd be happy.

It pays the bills and my immediate team is great but the big corporation bullshit irks me something rotten.

From what I'm seeing currently, London based offices are farming work outside the M25, so if you can work for a firm that has offices both in London and elsewhere then there's definitely work to be had.

How did this go from me looking to get out of Architecture to being a resource for those looking for work in Architecture?

Anyway, in response to a few of the above comments: I'd be a terrible teacher.

A few of my colleagues used to work as architects, now they offer design advice to architects on using our products (bricks) as well as presenting CPD seminars - so still involved in building design, but not your typical architecture job. They work on some fairly mundane stuff like movement joint positions, but they also have input into some fabulous projects. I am sure lots of companies who work in construction would valve the skills you have.

I spend some of my working day visiting architects in London and generally they seem pretty busy, with a lot expanding and recruiting. Much better than it was a few years ago.

Is CAD monkeying that bad that everyone wants to get out of it? I'm bored of working in the web industry and am still thinking about getting back to my civil engineering roots (got an unused degree in it) and I'm handy with SketchUp. Is it any good as a way in to the industry even if it's not great long term? Is it pointless thinking of moving in to the industry until the economy picks up properly (if it ever does?)

Maccy B re: cad monkeying - i dont know about other firms but we (engineering firm) are flat out at present and have been for the last 2 years pretty much. its unrelenting.

margins are crap though. finding good staff is also hard.

Revit and BIM are the words you need to be good at to get decent money.

I know a few architects that moved into 3D imaging work and web design. i suppose it depends on what computer skillz you have gained at your practice.

I've become aware of Revit (and BIM) - thinking that's the way to go but not sure if it's worth taking a course before applying. Not cheap to get your own copy and there's limits on what you can learn in a 30 day trial!

3D Visualisation is something that does interest me. I am leading my company's move to BIM and have done courses in 3D design before (3D Studio Max and 3D AutoCAD), but I could do with some additional training in it as I don't really do presentation quality stuff at the moment.

There doesn't seem to be too many part-time or distance learning course in this, as far as I can tell, unfortunately.

I'm asked for some BIM training as we are having it rolled out here- seems to be a growing thing for NHS property.

All public projects have to be BIM led by 2016.

No chance 😆

we use elements of bim on most of our projects.

to be honest software is the biggest hurdle to doing a BIM job properly for us. linking specs in to models etc is pretty much impossible at present.

we pretty much train up all our staff in house. i imagine if you have a working knowledge of how to use the software you could wing it or get training. depends on where you want to pitch yourself in the market.

for 3d visuals i think you need to be able to show you can do it. A guy that worked for us spent some of his home time building 3d visualisations for fun. jobs he'd been involved with and just buildings and sculptures he liked just to see if he could. he went off to do some 3d design. he was pretty good.