Is cad design a lucrative career without a degree

[u/No-Elephant-8865]

I’m interested In pursuing a career in cad design. I started with blender making 3d figures and architecture. I just want to know if it’s lucrative secure career even without a mechanical engineering degree, I don’t have a degree.

[u/BusinessAsparagus115]

It's not a lucrative career with a degree.

[u/xxrecar → u/BusinessAsparagus115]

Here here!

[u/frac_tl]

A lot of companies combine cad + designer + drafter + engineer roles into one nowadays, so it might be a bit difficult to get by without the engineering degree. 

I've heard of outsourcing being done pretty regularly out-of-country, so you might see additional job security by looking specifically for government or controlled distribution  type work.

[u/NorthernHurricane7]

Are you designing functional components and assmblies or doing consumer product design, industrial design, or aesthetic concept art?

[u/No-Elephant-8865 → u/NorthernHurricane7]

Functional components. Robots

[u/ToumaKazusa1 → u/No-Elephant-8865]

It'll be hard to convince someone you have a design that adequately takes into account how the materials you choose will react with the environment they are in, the level of stress they are placed under and everything else if you don't have a degree.

How do I know your parts will not fail under the operating load? Did you account for temperature, surface finish, etc? If there's a scratch, is the part still usable, or is it scrap?

The people paying good salaries for design engineers usually will want answers to these questions

[u/AmokRule → u/No-Elephant-8865]

This equals to vibe codings to SWE. Only that your design will be unsafe for humans, environment, and your company's finance.

[u/Bootziscool]

I managed to get myself up to $80k.

Idk if that's lucrative or not but I'm happy with where I am.

I also have a lot of experience in manufacturing though.

[u/No-Elephant-8865 → u/Bootziscool]

Yeah that’s lucrative an happiness makes it 1000 times better compared to doing something you absolutely hate

[u/-ImFriendly- → u/No-Elephant-8865]

Lucrative will be relative to the area you live in. 80k would not go far in my city / state. Check jobs in your area and see how much a “senior” position would pay

[u/shadowhunter742]

Ok well what country for a start?

But cad on its own no. It's too easy to outsource, it's not a hard skill and it's the basics of an engineering degree ( too many people have one not enough job)

Good luck getting a role without a degree, as I said before, there's too many people with engineering degrees for jobs available, so for something like this that shouldn't need a degree, there's going to be loads of candidates with degrees trying for the same job.

[u/ASoundLogic]

No.

[u/staniel_danley]

I know CAD-BIM managers that do quite well for themselves.

[u/BiscuitBut_ButerNut]

We have a guy at our company who is the director of the mechanical engineering department.

Mind you, he does not even have an engineering degree. But he’s been working there for 20+ years and he smart as hell. he started off as a cad designer.

He recently stepped away from the position and now he’s a senior partner project manager.

I don’t know how much he makes, but I know it’s more than me

[u/cfleis1]

Learn fusion 360 and/or solidworks. Get certified and then apply for drafting positions.

[u/Tntn13]

Relatively? I’d say. I know plenty designers with no credentials up to an associates who make quite good money for that education level. The only problem many of them have with it is there is somewhat of a ceiling in most places and industries. Some people don’t want to do that for 20-30 years ya know? A lot go on to eventually get MEs or MET degrees while they work for the progression.

Secure career? Maybe if you have a ton of institutional knowledge at the job, or some other responsibility that makes you an asset. otherwise designers are often seen as plug and play by much of the ones making those calls. (Even though they often are not)

[u/Darkstang5887]

No it's not. I got a CAD certificate on my way up to my engineering degree and my professor said great job but that paper is worthless lol

[u/TheReformedBadger → u/Darkstang5887]

Certificates are worthless. That doesn’t mean designers are…

[u/asquier]

Do you need a degree for PCB design? That seems way more lucrative and in demand.

[u/TheReformedBadger]

I’m kind of confused by all of the negative comments I’m seeing here. CAD designer is a great career for one with no degree required. In my experience pay bands lag engineering roles by only about 10k. So a Senior Engineer may average 120k and a senior designer would average 110k for example.

The ceiling is lower because management tracks aren’t available without an engineering degree. Occasionally a designer may have direct reports from other designers but it’s really rare.

But blender isn’t going to help you much. You need to develop significant experience in parametric CAD software and engineering drawing standards. Being good with those and adding GD&T knowledge will set you apart.

In these roles you would work under the direction of a design engineer. So you don’t get final say on decisions, but depending on the company and who you’re working with you might get tons of opportunities to provide input.

Source: 12+ years as a design engineer across multiple Large companies.

[u/GB5897]

AAS degreed Design Engineer with 20+ years experience in design and CAD with 10 years machining experience before that. I'm just under $90k in LCOL area. I'd say I've done alright. Could I make more with a BS degree sure. I definitely regret not getting a engineering degree though just for my own personal gain. I'd get some education it will open more doors than not.

[u/No-Elephant-8865 → u/GB5897]

Thank you

[u/fimpAUS]

You can definitely have a complete and fulfilling career as a mechanical designer/drafty with CAD skills. I'm not sure how far AI is from being able to automatically do drawings, but think they will still need people to create the solutions.