Product Design / CAD Roles

[MrWhale]

After a bit of help for my Brother, He is at good Uni studying Product Design , Graphics using CAD etc. not sure of the exact course.

Anyway he is on his placement year but it has fallen through and now he is looking for a replacement internship / placement. Can anyone recommend any companies / agencies to target?

I can think of things like BAE, Honeywell etc but suspect they are already filled out with internships for the summer.

Would Architects / Oil and Gas firms be a good area to look? I suspect this would focus more on the CAD side?

Any help would be appreciated as this is not my area at all.

[MidlandDan84]

Has he thought about highway design or drainage?

Some of the Transport Planning / Civil Engineering consultancies have roles for CAD technicians.

[Frik]

I'd be targeting the smaller product design firms given the late stage of application.

Which CAD packages is he familiar with and where in the country is he?

[TopCAD]

I'm a CAD tech, as said try engineering companies, I work for Jacobs, our department has no openings but others may.

[shirt]

if he's studying product design and wants to pursue that as a career, being a cad tech in an engineering company will bore the bejaysus out of him.

architecture firms may be worth a look if he can work on conceptual models / 3D renderings rather than detail drawings. electronics companies are also worth trying, i know phillips hire a lot of product designers but they would be NL based [not a problem language-wise though].

[rhinochopig]

I'm an ID grad and i would say avoid a cad only role if he possibly can. He really needs to be doing some design work or he'll end up pigeon holed as a cad operator.

[Karyn]

Aye, try to avoid CAD positions in larger companies; he'll end up doing CAD donkey work, which, as mentioned, isn't exactly challenging.

Smaller companies, and more creative/design-based will give him the chance to broaden his modelling skills, rather than just producing detail drawings.

"Design Engineer" is worth a punt as a search phrase on the recruitment websites.