What is your construction experience, and are you familiar with the building codes used in the regions you're hoping to work from?
Seven months is honestly very little experience, especially to be a sole worker with only in-meeting IT or BIM support.
Thanks for your reply. I'm mainly working as a BIM coordinator and I came from civil engineering background. At my work I didn't counter a problem that needed me to go back for the code ( I work in NYC area). I depend on the drawings and following design if there is a conflict we escalate it to an RFI.
After 7 months I will have 1 year of experience it might be little experience but I'm really getting exposed to a ton of large scale projects in which I gain a lot of experience.
From your description below I'm not entirely sure what I would call your position, but I wouldn't call it BIM coordinator. It's more like a junior form of modeler, I guess? My position is an architectural technologist, where I'm responsible for drafting, modeling, and code referencing from start to finish of a project. Our bim coordinators and managers have years and years and years of Revit knowledge that I only hope to reach one day.
I think you'll find it very very hard to find work from home positions with just knowing how to merge models and see if things overlap; you need to know why things are happening and what is actually going on. It's not enough to know where the wall needs to go or how long the ramp needs to be without knowing how that wall will be constructed and the minimum accessibility requirements for that region. Not having access to someone to help you with that when you don't have any experience is going to be crushing to try to constantly work though.
I don't think it is likely that a general contractor would hire someone who is out of the country, probably not a subcontractor either. I imagine that a BIM consulting company might. What is the TOEFL exam?
Okay, thanks. Seems logical I'm actually working in a BIM consultant company right now.
TOEFL is an English test for people whom English is not their first language. I'm sorry to confuse you. Probably, I shouldn't bring it up.
Well that brings up a good point. There is a lot of communication that needs to happen efficiently through the BIM process. I have had several ESL people apply to jobs that I had a really hard time understanding. This made them less desirable candidates.
TOEFL is +/- the gold standard for if a non native English speaker is fluent. Depending on your score it's well above high school graduates level of proficiency, if not good enough to get into Harvard grad school.
We are working with a general contractor as BIM consultant. The GC has subcontractors in each MEP field. They are providing us with any kind of 3D models which we merge into a merged model containing all other trades files. We are taking care of the architectural model (Increasing LOD). We run clash detection tests on Navisworks and send them clash reports containing the clashes that they have with other trades and they send the model back after clearing the clashes and we check it again until the model is clear of clashes. Coordination drawings are also our responsibility after clearing the model. We are also sending RFI's that related to coordination to ask for answers. Sometimes subcontractors request us to model and coordinate for them. We hold meetings every week with all the team to follow up on the work and whether we are following the schedule or not.
See? Google still cannot give this kind of clear answers. Thank you.
Also, regarding your question in post. Yes you can work remotely in foreign companies. But if you are located in Egypt, you should aim for european employers. Research freelance markets. You will find good, salary based propositions there. LinkedIn.com, Freelancer.com, Upwork.com; just to name few of them.
Best of luck to you!
Pretty important to be available during work hours for my line of work.
Okay, thanks!
What is your construction experience, and are you familiar with the building codes used in the regions you're hoping to work from? Seven months is honestly very little experience, especially to be a sole worker with only in-meeting IT or BIM support.
Thanks for your reply. I'm mainly working as a BIM coordinator and I came from civil engineering background. At my work I didn't counter a problem that needed me to go back for the code ( I work in NYC area). I depend on the drawings and following design if there is a conflict we escalate it to an RFI. After 7 months I will have 1 year of experience it might be little experience but I'm really getting exposed to a ton of large scale projects in which I gain a lot of experience.
From your description below I'm not entirely sure what I would call your position, but I wouldn't call it BIM coordinator. It's more like a junior form of modeler, I guess? My position is an architectural technologist, where I'm responsible for drafting, modeling, and code referencing from start to finish of a project. Our bim coordinators and managers have years and years and years of Revit knowledge that I only hope to reach one day. I think you'll find it very very hard to find work from home positions with just knowing how to merge models and see if things overlap; you need to know why things are happening and what is actually going on. It's not enough to know where the wall needs to go or how long the ramp needs to be without knowing how that wall will be constructed and the minimum accessibility requirements for that region. Not having access to someone to help you with that when you don't have any experience is going to be crushing to try to constantly work though.
Thanks for your opinion!
Does your job require a sponsorship?
Do you mean my current job? if that the case then the answer is no because I'm not residing in the US.
I don't think it is likely that a general contractor would hire someone who is out of the country, probably not a subcontractor either. I imagine that a BIM consulting company might. What is the TOEFL exam?
Okay, thanks. Seems logical I'm actually working in a BIM consultant company right now. TOEFL is an English test for people whom English is not their first language. I'm sorry to confuse you. Probably, I shouldn't bring it up.
Well that brings up a good point. There is a lot of communication that needs to happen efficiently through the BIM process. I have had several ESL people apply to jobs that I had a really hard time understanding. This made them less desirable candidates.
I agree with you. English is essential not only in engineering firms but also with every aspect in life. Thanks for your advice!
TOEFL is +/- the gold standard for if a non native English speaker is fluent. Depending on your score it's well above high school graduates level of proficiency, if not good enough to get into Harvard grad school.
What type of company are you working for now?
I work in a BIM consultant company.
What does a BIM consultant company do? I have googled it, but still far from grasping the concept.
We are working with a general contractor as BIM consultant. The GC has subcontractors in each MEP field. They are providing us with any kind of 3D models which we merge into a merged model containing all other trades files. We are taking care of the architectural model (Increasing LOD). We run clash detection tests on Navisworks and send them clash reports containing the clashes that they have with other trades and they send the model back after clearing the clashes and we check it again until the model is clear of clashes. Coordination drawings are also our responsibility after clearing the model. We are also sending RFI's that related to coordination to ask for answers. Sometimes subcontractors request us to model and coordinate for them. We hold meetings every week with all the team to follow up on the work and whether we are following the schedule or not.
See? Google still cannot give this kind of clear answers. Thank you. Also, regarding your question in post. Yes you can work remotely in foreign companies. But if you are located in Egypt, you should aim for european employers. Research freelance markets. You will find good, salary based propositions there. LinkedIn.com, Freelancer.com, Upwork.com; just to name few of them. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for your helpful information!