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Many different positions fall into the employment category of draftsman jobs. The one that may come to mind most readily is that of architectural draftsman. A person who is involved with this type of work makes a living drawing plans and blueprints for different kinds of structures.
An architectural draftsman may be asked to design an home, an office building, or any other type of structure as part of his or her employment duties. Some people working in an architectural draftsman position may use low-tech devices, such as a pencil, drawing board, and ruler in their work. Other people working in these types of draftsman jobs use Computer Aided Design Drafting (CADD) to do their work. When the building plans are at the point of planning how the electrical wiring is going to fit into the project, the electrical draftsman is called in. This person is charged with preparing diagrams for houses and buildings indicating how the wiring will be run through it for maximum efficiency.
Another example of draftsman jobs are civil draftsmen. These professionals work with different kinds of maps. They have expertise in reading and drawing relief maps and topographical maps of different areas. A trained civil draftsman may find work on projects for local municipalities and companies involved with making regional planning projects a reality.
Anyone interested in working as a mechanical draftsman will be involved with making drawings of various machine systems as directed by his or her employer. Most people who are doing this type of work are using a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program to develop original drawings or make updates to existing ones. The mechanical draftsman will likely be working under the direction of a design engineer or a senior designer.
People who start off working in entry-level draftsman jobs can eventually qualify for supervisory roles where they are responsible for leading and coordinating the work of a group of workers. A combination of a few years of practical experience and further courses to give the individual skills they need to step into a management role are needed. Most employers who are recruiting for these types of draftsman jobs prefer to hire someone with an undergraduate degree.
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