My name is Emori Smith and I currently work at a survey office doing CAD work. Most of it is just bringing in information that the field crew gathers and using it to make all sorts of maps. I worked at a chiropractor's office for a while and just decided I wanted something more long term, so I started looking, and this really seemed to fit. I wanted to learn the software, but I wanted to do it quickly, and most of the conventional routes for that would be like a technical college or something that required like 2 or 3 years worth of study. In fact, that's what most of my coworkers have done - they've been through a 2 year institution.
I really liked the fact that VDCI could get it done it under a year, and the cost was astronomically better. Most of my coworkers paid 5 times what I did, and it took them 2 or 3 times as long to do it. I thought it was a really well-rounded program, considering all the avenues you could take in the CAD world, and that really prepared me for what I was going to be doing in survey work.
My final project for VDCI was a doctors office, where I created architectural sheets and the site plans, also a partial design. My goal for my final project was to use all aspects of civil and some of the architectural skills I had learned. I felt very equipped to do that, but it was still a challenge.
I was open to either online or a conventional brick-and-mortar college. I researched both, actually, and ended up going VDCI because they allowed a faster program - you can be done in under a year - and it was vastly cheaper. But one of the main reasons I went with VDCI was because of the hands-on experience and just the practical, real-life situations that they offered in the program.
After I got hired, my boss actually told me I had more experience just from coming out of school than most people they hired from a 2 year institution. At VDCI, you just get more real-life problems and situations, and they do a good job of taking you through that. In one course, as part of the training program, we had to go back after making an intentional mistake and fix that problem. That happens in the real world all the time, so I thought it gave me a step up.
Studying online was easy for me because I was homeschooled, and it allowed me to be flexible while I was working a part-time job at the time. So, I was able to come home, and get in my pajamas, and log in to do my work in the evenings. It was not as difficult as I expected it to be to get questions answered by my instructors. It was just really streamlined and smooth. They always answered really promptly and sometimes even had me email them directly with an upload of my software so they could troubleshoot. I didn't ever feel isolated, like you might expect with online learning, and it was really convenient for sure.
