Technical Illustrators.org Forum

Hi, I hope I could ask for some feedback, regarding the subject of becoming a Senior Technical Illustrator I work for a medium sized manufacturing company in the UK and I have had the role of Technical Illustrator since joining May 1999 at the age of 22. I am the only Technical Illustrator in the UK area of the business and I do a lot of varied tasks from black and white line drawings to fully rendered illustrations, poster designs, exploded illustrations, basic animations and other 'creative' tasks. Over the last 5 years I've also taken on the role as Spare parts list Coordinator, so whilst creating the annotated exploded illustrations I now do some authoring and desk top publishing.
I only had basic qualifications under my belt before landing my 'dream job', (BTEC national diploma in graphic design and GNVQ level 2 in art and design) So I'm hoping that the years I've gave the company at a high level of service, should get me recognised as a Senior right? I have no other avenues within the company to advance, unless I ditch the Technical illustrator role, and that would break my heart as this is the profession I want to work in for the long haul.

Any advise/suggestions welcome.
Erik

I say you're definitely senior material, your years and the volume of work should speak for itself. (I'm only 3 years into being a Technical Illustrator and I've just gotten word that I'm going to soon have the "technical illustrator 2" title.)

Hi Eric,

I have been a technical illustrator for 4Oyrs, close to retirement. There have been many changes in this field. One thing that has not changed however is the need to have good portfolio and a few years under your belt to achieve this. I would say it is a lonely job that does not really offer advancement in the form of a graded title.

Moving every few years will certainly be a salary improvement. A lot of illustrators work on a contract basis meaning they are self employed. I am fortunate to work as a full-time employee in the Newcastle upon Tyne area as a Technical Illustrator.

One piece of software I use is IsoDraw. Great for converting 3d CAD content. I spend more time removing unwanted lines than adding them.
I refer Illustrator and import all IsoDraw lifework into this.

Before the comments roll in on how much better one program is over the other I would just like to say this works well for me.

Good luck for the future

Neil