Are you an aspiring CAD Designer or maybe a seasoned professional seeking new digs? Perhaps you are hesitant to start your search, not quite knowing which geographic locale will offer the best ratio of income to living-expense. Well, here’s a little tip “Go Midwest young man!” (and ladies too). I’m talking Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. And as it turns out among these, Detroit and Niles Michigan are the cream of the crop for stretching a buck! How do I know this you ask? Well, for one, I got the skinny from Modis. Last spring they published the results of a survey aimed to identify the 10 best cities to live and work as a CAD Designer.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I am a living testimony of a designers ability to thrive in the Midwest. I “came of age” right in stride with CAD. And my niche as a Class-A surface modeler has been one of the most lucrative skills in my creative arsenal. Over the years I’ve made some big bucks! And all of my growth and success has taken place in Ohio and Michigan. These states have been very good to me. My wife and I have raised eight children on a single income and we’ve managed to enjoyed a wonderful standard of living! So, when you couple the Modis findings with my testimony, I believe there’s a compelling case to look toward the Midwest for your next adventure in CAD!

For this post I’ll be highlighting the Midwest given how well it fared. For the full report hop over to Modis. Also given the original report was published back in March 2017 I thought I’d do a cursory online job search at Monster and Indeed to see if the sun is still shining on the Midwest. I’ll wrap up with a few current CAD job listing stats.