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Survey: CAD Managers Reveal Effects of the Economy, Part 2

CAD managers around the globe report how their workloads, jobs, and department overheads have changed recently.

In the previous issue of the CAD Manager's Newsletter, I began analyzing the results of my latest mini-survey, designed to gauge how the current economic downturn is affecting CAD managers. I know that many are tired of reading negative news about the economy, but I feel it is my duty to report the status of CAD managers whether the news is good or bad. (Believe me, I'd rather the news be good!)

In this issue, I'm going to wrap up my coverage of the survey with some additional results, as well as some recommendations for hanging onto your job and making the best of tough times. Here goes.

More Responses

To recap, the mini-survey comprised a brief list of economy-related questions, and was conducted during September 2009 via my web site, CAD-manager.com. I received roughly 400 responses from the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, South Africa, and other countries. It seemed that CAD managers in every region are experiencing more layoffs, reductions in training and software budgets, and reduced CAD operator headcounts corresponding to generally reduced workloads.

The issues I'll focus on this time are:

• Are you performing more or less CAD management than before?
• Are you under increased pressure to be billable?
• Have you been forced to cut overhead costs? 

CAD Management Duties

If companies are having a tough time, how is the workload of an average CAD manager changing as a result? I attempted to gauge the change by asking CAD managers whether they are performing more or less CAD management than in the past.

Let me draw a few conclusions and recommendations from these results, based on my personal experience speaking with CAD managers over the last year.

CAD managers are now more production-oriented. Since 43% of CAD managers report doing somewhat less to much less CAD management than before the downturn, they are spending more time working as architects, engineers, designers, and product designers. For these CAD managers, who are struggling to do what CAD management they can while juggling production pressures, life has become more hectic.

CAD managers are less in demand than we used to be. When only 20% of CAD managers are seeing growth in their CAD management duties, I assume that most senior managers see CAD management as less necessary than they used to. My personal experience has shown me that many companies that would like to expand CAD management have determined they simply can't afford to do so. I've also observed that getting a job as a CAD manager is very tough now, whereas in years past CAD managers could easily migrate to different firms when desired.

Stay put if things are going well. If you happen to be working for one of the 20% of companies where CAD management is being expanded, do everything you can to keep your job — the market elsewhere doesn't look too good.

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