American in Davao

As I posted a while ago, I am now working here. I am doing AutoCAD drafting for an Engineering and Architectural Firm.

The main workload is outsourcing for projects in America. Most of them are Motels such as Comfort Inn, La Quinta, Holiday Inn.

The funny part is the Filipinos work on the American projects and me, an American do the Local projects. I am currently working on 3 houses.

The Architect loves the way I use AutoCAD by using intelligent walls instead of just drawing lines. With the program I can use Door and Window schedules and Area calculations that are part of the drawing and attached to the items. If you change a door window or building size, the schedules update automatically.

I was afraid that being a "Foreigner", older than most and not a graduate of Architectural school, I would be treated with contempt or as an outsider. It turned out my fears were never realized.

At first everyone called me Sir out of respect, but I tell them, I am just one of them, and just a draftsman and they can call me Bruce.

It is nice, while my car was in the shop, if I didn't realize it was lunch time, one of the guys I eat with would come over to let me know it was lunch time and to come join them.

One day as I was leaving for lunch the Architect stopped me to go over a design element. I had to stay and let him finish. As I came around the partition towards reception, one of the guys was waiting for me and as we left the building, all of the waited for me to go eat.

Talking to them about it and mentioning how I thought I would be treated, they told me the office is like a family and I am part of it.

Now for the bad parts, here we work 6 days a week. Sunday is my only day off and that is busy taking Elena to the market for the weeks food shopping.

Another thing is I am used to a cubical or office with counter space for the computer and to lay out papers. Here is is like a Internet cafe minus the dividers. We sit on a long table with a hutch shelf, shoulder to shoulder. There is not much room for papers and a lot just have them on their laps.

Here in the Philippines, the Architect is also the project manager on site and has to go out most days to make sure it is built to plans. The Architect has told me he is going to take me with him to learn how to manage a project and will also teach me how to cost out a project. This way if I am ever let go, I could do projects myself.

One thing interesting is I am drawing in metric and the architect tells me to add items in feet and inches. I smile and say, "Oh, 4 inches, you mean 100 millimeters." before someone writes in and corrects my conversion, all things are rounded except where we dimension.

Well it is a learning process and accepting Filipino style of houses. At times when I comment of something being to small or things I find strange, the architect lets me change to what I feel is more logical. For instance, one Master Bedroom, to go to the Bathroom you go through a door to the walk in closet and then through a door to the bathroom. After commenting he let me change it to have a door to each right from the bedroom.

I hope I did not bore you all too much.

Last week a friend of mine called me for an interesting proposition. He is involved and soon to be a partner with an Architectural and Engineering Firm here in Davao.

They are in need of someone to help get some drafting for about a month. The pay is not much but it gets my foot in the door and hopefully it can grow to a higher position for a better salary.

My friend would like to have me support him with his marketing role. Also Friday I met with the Architect and showed him how I use AutoCAD Architectural Desktop, not just the basic AutoCAD. In Desktop you draw with 3D walls instead of just lines. Then you insert doors, windows and other items that are inserted into the drawing and become part of the building. Then these items can be put on a schedule that will update if an item changes. This relieves the worry of the schedule not truly reflecting the items on the plan.
There is also an automated area schedule that updates if the size of the building changes.

The architect was very impressed with the quality and speed using this system.

This firm is involved in both local work and outsourcing. Outsourcing is where a company in another country hires a company in another country to do their work.

If you live in the US you know about talking to a customer representative for a company and you hear a strong accent. This is because a lot of companies have their customer service or tech support outsourced to a company in India.

The nice part in the Philippines, most people speak English well. Also since the wage in the Philippines is so much lower than the USA or Middle East you can get qualified people servicing your company for a lot less then hiring staff locally.

This firm has a Civil and Structural Engineer, a MEP Engineer (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) and an Architect in charge of a department with a staff of graduates that are licensed too. In America you see more drafting school graduates or fresh graduates working to get their requirements for their license.

The firm is also knowledgeable of the building and structural codes. They are using the latest software.

If you know of any company in need of the services, please contact me and I will pass the information to the principals.