I hope to get a good career without expensive schooling. My plan is to just get certified in solidworks. What kind of career opportunities will that provide?
I hope to get a good career without expensive schooling. My plan is to just get certified in solidworks. What kind of career opportunities will that provide?
I don't have a degree, nor am I certified...... I have worked in CAD for almost 20 years now and I had to work my way up to where I am.
I think what you really want to know is, "will you be able to get a high paying job right after you are certified?"
The answer is this: People who don't have work experience in the workplace rarely start with high paying jobs no matter if they have a degree or not.
So, get out there, pick up something that will give you the experience that you want/need and work at it. You won't get anywhere unless you get out there in the workforce. Sure, get certified. That might look better. It might take a few years, but life really isn't about happiness and money.
What Dan Pihlaja said (no degree or certification), though I've only been doing CAD for about 8 years instead of 20. I expect the certification might help you get hired instead of someone else with otherwise equivalent qualifications but who didn't have it, but I doubt it will get you a job by itself. And knowledge of SolidWorks is very near useless without knowing something about the product you'll be using it to design. It's just a tool. Knowing how to swing a hammer doesn't make you a carpenter. Find an industry that you're interested in and get some practical experience if you don't already have it.
Dan Pihlaja wrote:
but life really isn't about happiness and money.
Dan Pihlaja, I've been searching for the meaning of life and you just scratched off two top candidates! So, what is it really about?
Dan Pihlaja, I've been searching for the meaning of life and you just scratched off tow top candidates! So, what is it really about?
It's all about the number 42
I've always stuck with:
"If it isn't fun, it isn't fun."
(It won't always be fun, but if you enjoy learning new things, you should be pretty happy, because there is so much to learn.)
I've also said:
"If you are in it for the money, you will never be happy. If you are in it to be happy, you probably aren't as concerned about the money."
todd
Amen to that! I've seen many a mouse-driver designing stuff in various CAD systems that were not familiar with the manufacturing processes they were inherently specifying, injection molding, for instance. I'd ask them about their draft (there wasn't any), wall thickness uniformity (again, none), where the parting lines would be, where the gates would be. When I got blank looks in response I'd point them to a direction where they could spend a year or two learning about this stuff. Until then they were just cartoonists, designing things that had no consideration for their manufacture. Okay, I did give them a break, they were 3D cartoonists.
Dan Pihlaja, I've been searching for the meaning of life and you just scratched off two top candidates! So, what is it really about?
Everyone knows that the answer to life, the universe and everything is the number 42!
But seriously:
I know that this sounds wishy-washy and maybe you weren't really looking for a serious answer.....but life is about love and relationships.....and I don't mean $ex.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
Christian Chu wrote:
Reality ... it'd be hard to be happy without $$$$$$$$$
Happiness is a choice. You choose to be happy. It has very little to do with your situation. If it were situational, then the same litmus test would work for everyone: do this and it will make you happy.......that is simply not true. Head to any 3rd world country. The only thing most people see about those countries is from the news. But people are happy there for the most part.....and they don't have the resources we do here in the states (or wherever).
The constant striving for bigger and faster and flashier things will just result in frustration, because enough is never enough for those who pursue those types of things. Its easy to be happy with little or no money. You just have to stop comparing yourself and your things to other people and their things.
I don't have a degree, nor am I certified...... I have worked in CAD for almost 20 years now and I had to work my way up to where I am.
I think what you really want to know is, "will you be able to get a high paying job right after you are certified?"
The answer is this: People who don't have work experience in the workplace rarely start with high paying jobs no matter if they have a degree or not.
So, get out there, pick up something that will give you the experience that you want/need and work at it. You won't get anywhere unless you get out there in the workforce. Sure, get certified. That might look better. It might take a few years, but life really isn't about happiness and money.