Can I go back to tech work?

tittybiscuits · 01-02-2022 10:16PM #1

Hi all I hope this isn't outside the rules of this forum, obviously mods can remove if it is. I worked as an architectural technician until the recession in late 2008 when I lost my job. I took the opportunity to go down a different career path and happily worked away as a photographer for over a decade. A while back I came to the conclusion that photography wasn't for me, I wasn't happy, and more importantly I was often skint, and I thought that in the current climate it might be an idea to go back to working as a tech.

My question is - do you think this is possible? I spoke to a friend who is also working in a different field now but he suggested I could jump back in. I could get up to speed on Autocad and Microstation pretty quickly; are they still the standard software packages or would I need to learn Revit or something else? I also doubt I have much of a portfolio, I might be able to cobble some drawings together from old computers but would the lack of a portfolio be a big disadvantage?

Any help on this matter would be really appreciated, and thanks!

BryanF · 03-02-2022 01:37PM

How many year experience did you have before you left the industry?

Do you have revit for experience?

do you have a knowledge and interest construction? Have you say built an extension or somehow kept your construction mind set since 08?

beng out of the industry for so long, you’ll have a steep learning curve in terms of 100’s of pages of building regs.

Also just cause you of a certain age, your experience won’t match others of similar age, so be prepared to do the mundane grunt work :)

CreadanLady · 03-02-2022 01:41PM

You will have to know Revit and Civil3D. Basic AutoCAD is not used for much now, only odd bits of detailing and such.

woody1 · 04-02-2022 11:59AM

yes you absolutely can, i had the same situation, office closed in 2009, worked almost 6 years in an accountancy office, got back into it in 2015 and had no major hassle with it, i had almost 15 years experience at that stage though, so as brian says it could be different if you had a lot less, in terms of where you slot back in,

i would learn revit, we dont use it here ( yet, smaller offices like ours get it hard to justify it for the scale of work we are doing ), but its the way things are going / have gone , so if your job hunting youl need to know it ,

Mellor · 10-02-2022 08:57AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118575307#Comment_118575307

Curious why you said Civil3D (an engineering rather an architectural software) is needed.

woody1 · 15-02-2022 11:28AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609170#Comment_118609170

yeah i thought the same thing

Can I go back to tech work?

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