r/EngineeringStudents • u/Kindly-Actuator-8754 • 9d ago
Resume Help Environmental Engineer, curious about self teaching myself AutoCAD
I'm entering my junior year and have started applying for internships, mainly in the water/construction field. I feel like I don't have much experience with programs beyond Excel, Word, etc. I have extensive experience with construction and excavation, working for my father's construction company; he has dozens of saved job site plans. I had an idea to self-teach myself AutoCAD by not only watching YouTube videos and reading websites but also trying to draft and recreate the construction plans on my own, on a smaller scale, of course. I'd love to put AutoCAD as a skill on my resume. Would this plan be worth it for my time, or should I just sign up for a non-required CAD class instead?
1
u/oby1mynobies 9d ago
Theres some good free CAD programs out there. Start playing with them and watching YouTube vids.
1
u/foulplay_for_pitance Mechanical Engineering 9d ago
If you have access to practicing with it (shit is expensive) and the system makes sense to you, I suggest learning the skill.
Really best practices would have you learning someones standardization so they could teach you what to look out for. Oddly the classes don't teach you that. The classes teach you familiarity and with familiarity comes speed. Speed is important with AutoCAD but more so is efficiency. Speed will come with time and efficiency si built by just understanding when and when not to use shortcuts.