jimbo_d

You working at FMG in the Hyatt? I work for Worley too. With regard to Autocad there's tons of work in WA/Queensland, and whoever was saying about $20 an hour that is the biggest rip off ever, beginner trainees are on $25 in Perth. Microstation is a bonus and no it is nothing to do with Autocad, they're completely different packages, although work on same principles. Most large scale mining and oil gas use PDS and Microstation, although some turning towards Autoplant which we use. You have to know 3D to get the big bucks, good design knowledge and be able to understand and design from P&IDs. Perth jobs go from $35-$100 an hour d.o.e. right now, it's boom town.

Amazulu

Yeah, I'm at the Hyatt. My youngest, 18yo, school leaver trainee is on $40k. Other trainees, 20yo are on nearly $70k. Senior designers are on $85/hr ($200kpa with bonus). CAD operators at least $60ph ($140kpa with bonus). Rates will be going up at the end of the year again too.

It's all good at the moment.

northernbird

My husband works for Transfield Worley and they use PDMS which is becoming increasingly popular over here and is also paying big money for designers because they just can't get decent ones.

xzibit

A draftsperson earning $90-$105k a year? Where do I sign?

Amazulu

In reality, as a contractor, it's more than that. Probably $30-40k more.

Do the TAFE and the training. Get the experience. The candy will start rolling in.

pacey

Wow. Sounds like a good time to retrain! What kind of quals do you need for this sort of position, realistically? In terms of background and experience.

Also, to repeat my earlier question - do any of you work with visualisation artists, or are they not really required?

$30-50k extra would certainly be enough to convince me to retrain.

jimbo_d

Yes you can get $40k to start off, rising to about $70k+ after 3 or 4 years, but it is experience and knowledge that get the big bucks - i'm earning good money now, certainly not high levels but its taken 10 years to get here so like anything don't expect to jump straight into big money, and companies are outsourcing a lot of the easy tracing work, as I said you've got to do 3D, have a good knowledge of the engineering - as for visualisation artists not sure what you mean, if its 3D rendering and modelling then we do all that ourselves

Amazulu

Most of the senior designers are ex-sparkies. A trade is a great stepping stone into engineering.
For a CAD Monkey (operator), no previous experience is required. You would need computer literacy, and a desire to learn. You would need to do a 1 year TAFE engineering course - it's easy peasy, or get a traineeship with an engineering outfit. My trainees do 3 years. After that, it's just work and get experience. Ultimately, CAD is just another tool - like Excel, Word, a spanner, paintbrush etc - that enables you to do your job. Experience and knowledge are the things that count - and these are things that take time to acqure.

pacey

thanks for your replies guys. I'm already a well-versed 3D and 2D graphic artist, so think i'll stick with it if there's no direct transition to architectural 3D work.

Jimbo: yep, i meant 3d modelling, lighting, texturing, rendering etc for press materials, brochures etc etc.