What Is Hands-On Practice?

Hands-on practice. Something many people have heard of and few people obtain before they find employment. Usually hands-on work comes from employment. You get a job, start drawing, make a few mistakes and your boss or a co-worker corrects you. It really is one of the best ways to learn. Sadly, this is something the education system fails to teach. Instead of teaching you how to do things in real-world scenarios (creating and editing floor plans for example) you're taught how to make things fit together at a basic level (such as make this line fillet with that line). How do I know this? Well for starters, I went to post-secondary school. I know for a fact that the 6 or so classes I took on AutoCAD design taught me nothing of substance. I only really learned how to get faster and better at designing when I managed to land a position at an engineering firm. When I got this job I was taught how to manipulate drawings, how to draw, and most importantly how to speed up my workflow. This story isn't unique. I've had conversations with many people on this topic and they all give the same answer: "They taught me nothing about doing hands-on work in school". This can create issues when you try to go out and start your career. When looking for work / starting your own business, people want to know that you are competent. What is competency? Well, they need to know you know what you're doing. I remember having a job interview (it went very well) and I was called back for a second round. The second round consisted of the business's lead designer asking me workflow questions for AutoCAD, and Civil 3D. Luckily I knew the programs pretty well at this point and I succeeded in the interview. The questions they asked were directly related to how much work I'd done in the programs and I couldn't have answered those questions if I never worked on any real projects. Hence why hands-on work is important. It should be noted that at the time of this interview I also starting to teach AutoCAD at a professional level, but I was still solo and relatively new to the training industry. The business was small and it was more of a side-project than a full-time job. With all that said I implore you to get as much hands-on practice as possible. It doesn't have to be in the industry, it can be in formal / informal education. With education and having a tutor you can have your practice work reviewed and learn the workflow faster than if you had to figure it out for yourself on a real jobsite.