It's a brave new world out there. The days of the T square and converted-door drafting tables are long gone. A firm's start-up costs now include computers, software for drafting and design, office administration programs, plotters, copiers, fax machines, and people to staff this new computerized world of architecture. Many architectural firms find themselves with a flawed employee pool that contains the few who are truly technically and electronically proficient, the many who think they are technically and CADD knowledgeable, the many more who are either technically or CADD conversant but not both, and the very few who understand and admit their limits. A firm with weak technical skills and managers who lack CADD knowledge can suffer inefficiencies such as data loss, unnecessary data duplication, and errors and omissions on projects.
Firms tend to value CADD expertise without fully valuing technical expertise.
The trend is to hire CADD-literate interns, or to raid other firms for trained CADD staff who may be technically weak. Interns may move through three or four firms in two years, never seeing a project completed, let alone built. In this transitory climate, CADD-proficient staff rarely learn to produce accurate, technically correct design and production drawings. Another option is to hire and train an unskilled employee, but if you do, you'll need to take into account the cost of downtime for training. Don't assume that the drawings your CADD personnel produce are accurate simply because they passed through computer software.