Even though you might be extremely skilled in a certain area, it won’t necessarily mean that you will get paid doing it, it doesn’t matter how much you might love it and dream about making money from it, you need to start somewhere and that can be difficult.
Well….
I’ll let you in on a small “secret”. It’s easier than you think, especially with CAD.
I’m not here to tell you that it’s easy, just that it’s possible and how to do it.
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably asked around to see if someone needs a drafter but the responses has been
If you are anything like me then you have probably asked around to see if anyone needs a draftsman. Maybe your response has been great but more than likely they will want someone with a ton of experience.
Everyone always says that you need to have experience, even if you’ve made a couple of hobby projects they will still want you to be up to date with standards and have references from previous work.
I knew I was good (decent) with CAD but I hadn’t actually done any real work yet, only small hobby projects. I thought companies would be knocking on my door because of these hobby projects, I was wrong. I tried something else…
I’m betting you’re dying to know what I did but first let me tell you what I got from it.
- For the first time in my life I got paid for doing something that I enjoyed.
- I understood the importance of being on time with projects and meeting deadlines.
- I got my foot in the door and managed to secure some contacts that I still get work from today.
- I had an insane increase in confidence and knowledge.
So what did I do?
1. I looked up a similair website to this (Freelancer) and then after hesitating for a while I decided to create an account.
For the purpose of this tutorial I’ve redone the process and taken a few screenshots.
2. I put some of my previous hobby projects up on my resume… another good way to impress your employer and be better than the competition is to create your personal interactive resume.
3. I wrote some information about myself and kept it honest to 95% and then I tried my luck by searching for things similar to the items outlined in the picture below.
(Remember to only search for contests!)
4. I joined about 10 “lower-end” contests, I did all the required work and I did it well.
I didn’t really present the products in a good way nor did I make great renderings but I did make good products!
5. I won one of the contests and I got my first $300 by doing something I loved doing.
Now stop reading and go try a contest yourself, let me know how it goes!
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work”
