After graduating tech high school in 1979, I went right into the workforce as a mechanical drafter for a major NE Utility. Being exposed to many forms of power generating facilities, I had many opportunities to produce piping designs, schematics or other types of drawings on the IGDS/Microstation platforms. I started on the Intergraph System in 1984 and soon became a leader in my field due to my extreme curiosity in computers and particularly, CAD. I began administration in the CAD environment in 1991 and have been developing the platform ever since. Some of my developments have integrated with other applications -- such as Microsoft Access -- and some even made it outside the walls of my company ("lifted", apparently by contractors), which I took as a compliment (I know this because I hired a contractor years later that had used my developments -- IsoMenu -- at Foster Wheeler prior to working for me.)
Taking a breather from CAD and Design in 1985, I moved to the IT department as a business analyst, then programmer in Access and Lotus Notes. I've also dabbled in C# on the .NET platform.
I'm now back using Microstation after a 15 year break and loving many of the innovations developed since that time.