For my Interview I interviewed one of my dad’s friends, Brendon. Brendon in a Sr. Manager for a team who works on CAD (computer-aided design) products. He works through making CAD projects as efficient and as low-cost as possible, as often he is competing to make lower-cost designs for clients against many other CAD Engineering teams.

I chose to interview Brendon because I am interested in the technology and engineering, and CAD design fills in those roles. CAD design involves using computer software to visualize and model products, such as mechanical parts or 3d printed designs. CAD also uses technology and there are different CAD software’s and models that are used, involving different technologies and systems.

Here is our interview that we did by email. Also Brendon does not have social media and has asked not to be contacted by other Riverside students.

What is your job?
Sr. Manager, CAD Engineering. I’m responsible for a team of people that develop and maintain the CAD (Computer Aided Design) tools and environment the design teams use to create our products.

Why are you passionate about your job or role?

The work I do impacts the company for years – good decisions now lead to cost savings and revenue, bad decisions – not so much! There is a direct impact on many other people so we’ve got to get it right.

What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?

I’ve worked through 2 major economic downturns (now in a 3rd) and 2 major economic up-cycles. I’ve been part of a company acquiring another company and been acquired by other companies. The external factors can’t really be controlled, but doing what you do well helps get you through them.

What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?

Learn as much as you can and learn to love learning. The jobs emerging will differ from the jobs today in both content and environment, so be prepared to be adaptable and keep your knowledge current. My own role has been disrupted by things like linux displacing unix, compute “farms” and data centers coming on line as opposed to individual computers, parallel processing, distributed teams and remote management, software as a service licensing, and now machine learning and application of “big data” to design. None of these were imaginable a few years prior to them happening. Be prepared that things will be different.

When you were in high school what job did you think you would one day work at?

In high school I knew I wanted to be an engineer, but always more on the designing things side. For a while I was more interested in robots and computers than electronics and semiconductor devices – that interest came while in University.

What further education did you need to get your job?

I hold Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Engineering.

What are the best and the worst parts of your job?

Best parts:

I get to work with the newest technologies outside of research labs. I work with cutting edge technology, tools and software and analysis techniques on a daily basis.

I get to interact with people all over the world on a daily basis.

The work I do changes on a regular basis so I’m learning something new every day.

I get to see some of the stuff I’ve worked on turning into products we sell. 

Worst Parts:

The work can spill over into home hours if I’m not careful as there is almost always deadlines and schedule commitments to be met.

 

From the interview, I learned many things. I learned how cool his job is, and it might be a possible job for me in the future. CAD design seems really cool and it seems like a very involved and fun job. I also learned about the upsides and downsides of this job, and what he needed to do to get his job (education). I also learned about the industry as a whole, as there are the people doing the CAD design, the people ordering the CAD designs, the people who engineer and bring the design to life, and the people who manage the CAD design teams and connect everyone together.

I think I really connected with Brendon and I think everything he said really relates to me. I am interested in the same topics as he is, and I think that everything he told me about his job was really cool. I learned a whole lot about the industry and about CAD design through this interview, and it was very eye opening and showed me many new potential job opportunities. I think having this knowledge can be very useful in the future when I go to find a job myself, and I think this interview was really great for me.