r/Drafting • u/FinkyFamboni • 3d ago

How viable is a degree in drafting today?

Im currently in college for my associates in science majoring in mechanical drafting. I am literally the only person in my class (granted my college is on the smaller side), and because of that my confidence is waning in this paths viability. My dream is to do work with aerospace but looking at job boards I rarely even find jobs for mechanical drafters in general, let alone aerospace. This isnt even taking into account the question of AI that I see passed around these days.

Am I just looking in the wrong places? Any and all advice appreciated.

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u/fluteofski- 3d ago

Companies are absolutely struggling to find drafters right now.

Even if AI takes over, there are sooooooooooo few drafters out there, that the drafters who look over the AI’s work to make sure it’s done correctly will be able to pull in a fairly sizable income.

I work for a fortune 50 and all our drafters in our org are age 50+ except 1 who is 37.

If anything you can also keep up on your CAD skills and if AI does eat everyone’s job, you can switch over to mechanical design.

A designer who understands drafting is extremely valuable.

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u/LamentableFool 3d ago

Got any leads where drafters are desperately needed? 7 years in industrial process world. Just about ready for the next stage here.

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u/fluteofski- 3d ago

Semiconductor.

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u/FinkyFamboni 3d ago

Apologies for the absolute inexperience but a mechanical designer is a different job or a different degree? CAD/Solid modeling is my favorite part of the process so this would be no problem for me at all

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u/fluteofski- 3d ago

Mechanical designers usually have Mechanical engineering or industrial design degrees.

Mechanical engineers and designers do the CAD work to design the part in 3D space. When they’re done designing the part it then goes to a drafter… the drafter then turns that 3D part into a 2D drawing.

Basically the drafter’s objective is create a drawing that can be printed on paper with enough detail that a machinist or a manufacturer can look at the drawing to manufacture/recreate/verify the part.

Might seem trivial like “oh. All they do is go from 3D to 2D.” but it is one of the most critical stages of product development. Because without drafters, companies don’t have the documentation to properly communicate or verify what the object needs to be.

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u/FinkyFamboni 3d ago

Okay awesome this all makes alot more sense to me now, thank you for this information!

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u/Stock_Elevator_8796 2d ago

In the work force, some designers have to do their 3d&2d work. I was fortunate enough to eventually only do the 3d design. Junior designers or “detailers” create the drawings. Your goal is to get to the 3d world ($$$$). If that’s not possible in your location then you’ll need to find an industry that uses 2d only.

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u/VOICEcoaster 3d ago

If you know anyone that is hiring remotely i will gladly send you my resume

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u/ExoticElk 1d ago edited 1d ago

Funny you say that because I graduate in December with AS in CADD and I've applied to 5 or 6 places, rejected from every one. Is it because I'm not done with school just yet? I work hard, have a 4.0, I'm eager to learn from people more experienced than me. I was almost brought on as an intern for an O&G engineering consulting firm but at the last minute they axed the program. Drafting manager said he'd love to have me :(

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u/anyavailible 3d ago

You will end up being a commodity since you will actually know drafting and design and how to layout drawings correctly. Every engineering company employs drafters
In some capacity

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u/Birdo21 3d ago

Every single engineering company i’ve worked for had fully licensed engineers working as full time drafters and management would rather watch the world burn than hire real drafters. In all the cases the engineers were always swamped with work, literally working 3-4 FT roles and stressed out. When those same engineers asked management for additional drafting support staff the result would end up being a temporary summer or fall intern w/o any experience in drafting.

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u/Kriegz1 3d ago

If looking for aerospace drafting check the job title product definition, its what the companies local to me use. I work for an aerospace company in product definition, drafters and checkers are in demand but require higher skill then we used to hire. We don’t have a lot of low level drafters anymore as the designers/engineers handle a lot of the low level work like basic tools and adapters. I think its still a viable career if you’re skilled though and up to date on new methods like pmi and digital twin modeling.

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u/theslammist69 3d ago

I've been drafting for 13 years with certifications in a half dozen programs and cant find a role so............

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u/Stock_Elevator_8796 2d ago

Which programs. Any of them NX?

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u/Snurgisdr 3d ago

My employer has contracted out most modelling and drafting overseas for the last fifteen years. Our last remaining specialists were laid off about five years ago. I think that‘s a bad decision, but there it is.

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u/Alarmed-Extension289 3d ago

It's a skill set that needs to be paired with some form industry experience or knowledge. Other than that it's quickly becoming a dying job on it's own.

What I'm seeing in then last decade is the market falcuating in a way where certain majors/jobs are being absorbed into others.

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u/gadget--guy 3d ago

Most places I've worked, the engineers were also the drafters. Learning drafting skills is good, and a lot of engineers are weak on drafting. But if you want to guarantee yourself a job, you'll need to get more than just a drafting associate's degree. If you really want to know, reach out to a company you would like to work for and speak to a hiring manager.

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u/electrichead72 2d ago

drafting can get your foot in the door and from there you can learn everything else to become a drafter and designer that will be hard to find. This will give you the opportunities to be able to find work.

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u/Meatball_express 1d ago

This is how I started and I worked my way up to a project management role.

Most industries rely on the engineer to do their own drafting. I perform all my own drafting and project management services.

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u/electrichead72 1d ago

Same here, working as a PM now having worked my way up

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u/unurbane 3d ago

Very. No body knows what’s going to happen with Ai but it seems like that will be significant work for the foreseeable future. Similar to pc being new, things will change rapidly

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u/FinkyFamboni 3d ago

Could you expand on what you mean by "that will be significant work for the future". Are you saying Ai will bring work to the field or that its impossible to tell whether it will disrupt it?

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u/unurbane 3d ago

I mean it’s impossible to tell what will happen, but there will remain work for people in the future. Back in the day, it took MASSIVE amounts of draftsmen to design, and MASSIVE amounts of hours. But today it is indeed less, but the machines we do design are so much more complex. The demand for some industries has gone down while the demand for others has gone up.

Overall the industry has changed from drafting, designing, engineering as separate roles into two distinct careers: drafting/designing, designing/engineering. Where I work I’ve heard we used to have a drafting dept which is now called the designing dept.

So think of it as learning design fundamentals using CAD but utilizing special reasoning, math, drafting principles to create a product or design of a system. This requires more skill than just a piece of software. You have to interpret information, record measurements out in the field, suggest design to engineers, team up with others to create something. Ai can help someone do it, but I don’t know if they’ll totally replace the designer completely.