CAD is now the lingua franca of just about every design industry in the world. Since Computer Assisted Design began, it has literally rewritten the rulebook in engineering, architecture, industrial design and practically anything which can use grid reference. The result has been drastically improved design methodologies, and a huge increase in productivity from designers. CAD is theoretically a technical skill, but it should really be considered as a true creative skill as well.
CAD is both an independent study and a formal study linked to all areas of design. Fashion designers, for example, can not only design their products using CAD, but they can even design the machines that make the products with it. For engineers CAD is absolutely indispensable, and for construction and architecture, CAD now even controls how buildings are put together with project management software attached using CAD data and financial and site data for reporting purposes.
In most cases CAD careers are directly linked to formal design related qualifications and the normal processes of developing skills in these fields. However, CAD skills are perhaps the most portable professional skills ever invented, and can be used both across disciplines and across forms of employment.
For example, if you're a CAD drafting professional, you're not just confined to 'a job'. With even the slightest degree of entrepreneurial skills, you can also go and get work elsewhere as well, creating multiple income streams with absolutely no effort required. This very high level of flexibility in terms of CAD skills and the employment market is a very good indicator of how career progression in this field works.
CAD skills are very much in demand, across all industries, all the time. Outsourcing CAD work is also a very popular option with employers, because it saves time, money and space and helps manage workloads very effectively. For freelance CAD specialists, the job market is always wide open.
CAD people working in organisations tend to progress hierarchically, but only to a point. Unlike other types of technical skill, CAD careers naturally evolve into much more advanced, more specialized work overtime which creates a huge range of professional opportunities. Many CAD people start their own businesses, competing for contracts with major corporations for design work in just about every industry. Specialization and business skills can be truly effective professional combination in CAD related fields, and it's not at all uncommon to find that professionals in this area are highly successful on the basis of their own personal efforts, rather than within the confines of 'a job' scenario.
If you're interested in design, are independent minded, and prepared to explore your own ideas, CAD includes probably the most useful skill sets you could possibly hope to obtain. This is the technology which is quite literally building the world these days, and you'll be part of it.