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CHAPTER 1: WHAT’S INVOLVED: DEFINING THE POSITION ■
The burden is on you to define how you’re going to do your job, given the reali-
ties of the mandatory job responsibilities you must tackle. Therefore, in this chapter I
want to acknowledge the various tasks, pressures, and expectations that CAD managers
must deal with in a constructive, analytical way. At the end of the chapter, you should
have a clear idea of how you’ll define your job, how to approach it, and how to keep
all parties in your company happy.
Figure 1.1 Sometimes it seems like the CAD manager has to manage everything! The good news is you can manage
the load with careful planning.
Overview of Tasks
CAD managers must accomplish many tasks. Any list I write is likely to omit some-
thing that you’re responsible for already, but I’ll go ahead and throw out the more
common CAD management tasks as a way to start our conversation. Here’s what I
see CAD managers doing:
• Supporting CAD software
• Supporting CAD hardware
• Providing user support
• Providing user training
• Facilitating timely work completion
• Reporting status to management
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