I went to a vocational school for 2 years learning CAD. Durring my second year (which was tediously boring from day 1), I found out that they had converted it into a one year course, and so all teh first year students were doing the same work I was in a matter of months, whereas I had to work my ass off doing mind-numbing work jsut to get where I was. So i got my damn certification,a nd went to apply for countless jobs. i finnally get one, and not a month later, I was hardly doing any CAD at all, instead they had me in charge of the engineering end of a $2 million account. Keep in mind, that I was 18, and had NO office experience prior to this job. Two months later I get fired because of office politics, and the fact that a co-worker feared that I would replace her one day, thus she did everything she could to get me in trouble. I was so pissed off by it all that I went and joined the Air Force. My advice to anyone still in High School is: Make sure you're the only one who can do your job. Technology is changing so fast that a formal education means nothing. I've seen guys with NO certification of any kind do better int he engineering field than guys who spent 4 years in college. mainly becaue the guys in college are obsolete within 2 months of graduating. My prediction is that in 10 years, Engineering will be what burger flipping is today. Avoid it at all costs.
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I went to a vocational school for 2 years learning CAD. Durring my second year (which was tediously boring from day 1), I found out that they had converted it into a one year course, and so all teh first year students were doing the same work I was in a matter of months, whereas I had to work my ass off doing mind-numbing work jsut to get where I was. So i got my damn certification,a nd went to apply for countless jobs. i finnally get one, and not a month later, I was hardly doing any CAD at all, instead they had me in charge of the engineering end of a $2 million account. Keep in mind, that I was 18, and had NO office experience prior to this job. Two months later I get fired because of office politics, and the fact that a co-worker feared that I would replace her one day, thus she did everything she could to get me in trouble. I was so pissed off by it all that I went and joined the Air Force. My advice to anyone still in High School is: Make sure you're the only one who can do your job. Technology is changing so fast that a formal education means nothing. I've seen guys with NO certification of any kind do better int he engineering field than guys who spent 4 years in college. mainly becaue the guys in college are obsolete within 2 months of graduating. My prediction is that in 10 years, Engineering will be what burger flipping is today. Avoid it at all costs.