Your CAD duties no matter how complicated or specialized, will ALWAYS play
second fiddle to your architectural abilities. I'm not cut out to be an
architect and the architect I work for is not cut out to be a CAD manager.
Some (like Dean, for example) don't think I should even ATTEMPT to be a CAD
manager. However, I'm the best that the architect is willing to pay for. I
do wish I had better programming education. I don't like to "just get by".
So, sometimes I spend hours upon hours trying to get what I want out of a
relatively long routine, when somebody else would have had it done in 20
minutes. Persistence pays off, however, and I must admit that I've done
some pretty good work. Much of the work I've done has been made meaningless
as new features become standard with the program. Boy, do I digress! Back
to your comment: An architect is NEVER going to pay a CAD guy as much as he
pays himself, no matter HOW much talent he has. But that's all the more
reason I do that much more for him. The more he makes because of the
productivity enhancements I create, the more I make. The more I am able to
do, the faster the money will flow.
--
_________________________
Bill DeShawn
bdeshawn@nospamsterling.net
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn
wrote in message news:5561166@discussion.autodesk.com...
Take all answers with a grain of salt. The term means whatever your employer
thinks it means, or whatever change of meaning you negotiate with them.
There is no established meaning for the term, and I've often thought that
this NG is poorly named.
My observation over the years is that most of the participants here are not
"managers" at all, in the normal sense of the word. IOW they don't hire,
fire, assign tasks, or handle personnel issues -- they aren't members of
management. They just happen to be the person in the firm most willing and
able to handle the design and maintenance of the CAD system, and (usually)
train and help the users.
In most cases the "CAD person" is a technical type -- that is, a
drafter/designer who is doing billable work most of the time. But they
happen to have this extra specialty in addition to their regular duties. My
job title, for instance, Is Senior Architect. I'm not a manager. I have
several special "overhead" type responsibilities, besides doing the same
bilable work as our designer/drafters. The CAD thing is only one of my
roles, and not the biggest one. I don't get any special title out of being
the CAD guy. Supporting one or two dozen CAD stations takes maybe 10% of my
time over the course of a year, less if there's no version change that year.
It's very uncommon, in my observation, for an actual departmental manager to
be the real "CAD dude." They have too many other responsibilities to handle
if they're responsible for a whole group of people. If you think you can
boot your manager out and take his job, go for it. But I doubt that you''ll
be doing any more CAD-geek stuff than he does, once you've stolen that job.
Your best bet might be to sell yourself as a "CAD specialist" and wrangle
for a pay raise or bonuses based on your record of production improvements.
Or go somewhere else with your dog and pony show. Most people don't
substantially improve themselves or change career tracks without changing
jobs.
![Autodesk Design & Make Report](https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/1350519iCB55845EBFC43016/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999" "Autodesk Design & Make Report")