How To Become A Building Drafter: What It Is and Career Path

What is a building drafter and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a building drafter. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.82 an hour? That's $53,715 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -6,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreBuilding DrafterUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $53,715

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.3

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.70%

Asian 7.02%

Black or African American 3.09%

Hispanic or Latino 11.66%

Unknown 5.20%

White 72.33%

Gender

female 4.35%

male 95.65%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

4.3

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.9

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.0

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a building drafter

Explore building drafter education requirements

Most common building drafter degrees

Associate

33.3 %

Bachelor's

25.0 %

High School Diploma

16.7 %

Start to develop specific building drafter skills

Skills	Percentages
Autocad	100.00%

Complete relevant building drafter training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 4-10 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New building drafters learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a building drafter based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real building drafter resumes.

Research building drafter duties and responsibilities

Learned and utilize AutoCAD by practicing several drawing types from restaurants to hotels.
Render complete assemblies of conveyor systems to customer's specifications using SolidWorks.
Utilize extensive skills in CADD technology, complement by construction industry expertise to provide tailor designs meeting customer needs.

Prepare your building drafter resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your building drafter resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a building drafter resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable building drafter resume templates

Build a professional building drafter resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your building drafter resume.