Choosing to be a Mechanic

[illapino]

i wanted to hear your guys' opinions on choosing automotive service as a career. the financial aspects, the social aspects, all of it. my love for cars is solid, but the dirt and grease and "class" are always being put into consideration on whether to make this a career choice. thank you in advance for all interesting insights ... especially to the instant impression i used to get (before i knew anything about cars) that anyone working in an environment as that of a mechanic is surely not making that much money, or respect ....

[Aston Wards]

Hard to give a definitive answer, there's good money to be made if you're talented and get into top-end stuff, or if you use your new-found skills to buy-fix-sell cars.
But a much cleaner way is to make money in a suit and then pay someone else to fix/build your car!

[solo_ryder]

I was considering this myself, but there is some decent schooling invloced to work your way up as you keep needing to go back to keep up with recent technilogy changes. Even though it wold be nice to be a master mecahnic for mazda or toyota.

[2RotorsNaDream]

Its like any other career. If you are hard working and reliable you will move up and make decent money. Good help is hard to find no matter what trade you are in. Working for a dealer is actually great money as they are all union and employees make prevailing wage. Here in NYC prevailing wage is about $35/hour for a mechanic.

[Tunes67]

The only person that can make this decision is you. What I have seen from friends and family members that became mechanics or machinists is that they burn out quick on working on cars.. they got tired of working on peoples crappy pintos and escorts and yugos. They then didnt feel like working on their own cars. Try this before you make a decision.. go to any car show.. find any UNSPONSORED car thats built sweet and talk to the owner.. ask him if he is a mechanic. I'd bet 75% of them say no.. that they built the car in their spare time. Becoming a mechanic can be a great career.. I am not trying to talk you out of it. I am saying if your doing it because you love cars and you want to build cars and play with cars.. You need to choose carefully the path you go down. There is a huge difference between being on a pit crew on a race team and being a oiler in your local Jiffy Lube.

Tunes67

P.S. Btw.. I am not a mechanic.. I am a backyard grease monkey. All the knowledge I have attained (a drop in the ocean in my mind) is from hands on experience, friends, family and websites like this. I can say that I would have loved to have gone to school and gotten a proper education for automotive mechanics.. but I would never want to work a on Yugo.

[illapino]

ya no kidding. that's one thing i know is uninteresting about fixing cars: fixing dumb old cars. Fixing cars that aren't japanese in my case. god i'm racist. ok, case closed. Architectural technologist or Manufacturing technician, here i come ... ... .... i'm so indecisive. or so uninterested .... ... ...

[tehbrookzorz]

Illapino, I'm in the same boat. My gf is trying to convince me to go into mechanics. Presently I'm an automotive service writer (surprisingly I had to work up to this position from Automotive Partsman, to Back-partsman (basically the same as the first job but also maintaining the parts pass-through so the mechs have parts, etc.) and now I'm in 'service.'
I get to deal with mechanics every day, and I'm not sure that's what I want to do. I am VERY interested in my own car, and applying suspension, brake, engine electrical, and other performance mods to my car. It's ridiculous. I have 4 reman calipers sitting on my dining table, along with 4 new performance rotors, a set of Hawk front pads, a set of ceramic rear pads, and 4 strut boots for my ZX-2 tokicos that should be here Wednesday that will be mated to my Eibachs which should be here Monday. I'm waiting for confirmation on the availability of my rims. I just did my water pump and timing belt a few weeks ago and when I got my car it was because I'd solved the ignition failure problem plaguing it for the previous 6 months.
The only service I'd ever done for my Civic was to change the oil, twice, over the 3 years I had it. Half the time I checked the oil on that car there was nothing on the dipstick.
Where am I going with this. I need to think. Hold on a sec. Oh. I agree with the fellow who was talking about how mechanics fizzle. I've heard firsthand conversations between mechanics at work discussing the same issue. How you get into it thinking its gonna be fun because you're so interested in your own vehicle. etc, etc. Some people are like that. At the same time, one of the guys at work I look up to immensely just because of his attitude. He understands that the vehicles he's working on belong to real people and cares more about the customer than his performance reviews, not that he has bad reviews. He took computer classes in school, had never changed his own oil, then decided in college to look into automotive. He's our main guy for electronic diagnostics, and he finds almost every problem a customer comes in with. Really most circuits aren't that complicated, but seeing them all side by side can be overwhelming.
So I respect mechanics, at least the ones with dignity and respect for the others around them. I'm still pondering it. I keep finding myself finishing sentences on diagnostics issues, so maybe it is a good avenue for me to look down, and maybe for you too.
What is your primary goal in finding a career? Money, or satisfaction in a job done to your standards, and how do your standards compare with the competition?

[95 rs]

hey im actually in school for my first lever and well its not as bad as you think....... for school you go for 8 weeks at a time and well when i finish all 4 levels it will take me roughly 3 years...... theres so much you learn in the trade and you pretty much understand how everything works and if you start off witrh a dealership like chevy or ford they have there own programs so they will tell you some short cuts on the vehicles and the tricks that you can use. it is very good paying after you complete every level.... after every level my employer is giving me a $2/hour raise. then by the time im done my 4th level i get paid $31/hour. it takes quite a bit of time but to me its totally worth it. your always learning and honestly no one in this world knows everything about cars........ its rather interesting and well after you get your ticket it doesnt mean you have to do it for the rest of your life.... as i see it im 21 right now and ill have my ticket when im 24 ish and well i wanna do it until im about 30 then become a service manager or maybe do something else but that way i always have a profession to fall back on.... mechanics are always going to be in demand and well we will always have vehicles..... thats my .02

[Franko]

Obviously weve got a man here who wants to find out where to go from here in his life.. Judging from this post and the "how much do you make annually" thread this man wants to go places!

I do know how you feel dude. Its kinda like "What in the fu#k am I going to do with my life?!?!?" But you know what? I dont think you can plan these things, only try and guide it in a direction you want.
Things always work out dont they? Imagine yourself in grade 11 again thinking ahead to when you will be 23. You were probally wondering how different life would be and might have even gotten freaked out about it because you didnt know what things would be like. Well look at you now, things arent that different are they? Youre 22 now, you got your own car and your healthy. It all worked out.

You wana know my opinion, go and take the mechanics course. It dosent mean you have to be a mechanic.. Afterwards, youll have something under your belt and you can get a job wherever you want.. maybe working at a porsche dealership ya never know. But if nothing else.. do it for you! Not everyone is cut out to be a business man some people just have a different kind of thought process I guess.

Dont think you wont have any respect either.. I think that a hot girl with a car that wont start will be very impressed with you when you pop the hood and diagnose it as a bad ground wire and fix it right there. What the hell is the guy in the business suit going to do besides call someone else who knows whats really going on.

You obviously want to be a mechanic or be in the field somehow so just go for it and if you realize that it dosent put you where you want to be well then I guess cross that bridge if you come to it.

Just remember, you dont have to work at wal-mart changing brakes on ford tempos there are many more jobs out there in the field that you can snatch up so go for it!

[Nd4SpdSe]

What I have seen from friends and family members that became mechanics or machinists is that they burn out quick on working on cars.. they got tired or working on people crappy pintos and escorts and yugos. They then didnt feel like working on their own cars.

I totally agree. My old boss at the computer store said it best "Turn your hobby into a job, than you have to find a new hobby". His reference was exactly the same as Tunes' automotive/mechanic ideal, but toward computers. When you work on computers all day, the last thing you want to do when you get home is work on your own, I know that personally as well...guess that's the reason why my Mx-3 became my new hobby. But even then, as my experience with computers as a hobby got me jobs, my experience with my car as a hobby had done the same, however I do mobile communications, so it's not exactly the same as my hobby, which doesn't ruin it.

It's good to have a career from a personal passion, it'll usually mean you care and should excel, with plenty of knowledge and expertise in that field, but there is a good chance you'll loose that passion, and a hobby.

[Custom_V6_Limited_SE]

I personally love working on my car (even though I usually end up shouting obscenities part way through any major project); but, I don't want to do it for a living. I have chosen to be a software design engineer (or something of that nature) because it is something that will be useful to me outside of work and it interests me greatly. I also chose it because it will allow me to do MUCH more with my car(s). I am double majoring in Computer Science and Computer Engineering with a minor in Mathematics and I graduate in about two more years. Starting salaries range from $70k-95k USD and go up to around $120k after several years of experience. Having an extensive knowledge of computers and software will also allow me to do more extreme tuning setups with my car(s)... Whatever you do, make sure it is something you wouldn't mind doing for the rest of your life. A high-paying job is a VERY bad idea if you hate it. On the other hand, you want something that will continually challenge you to become better. You'll need to find a healthy balance somewhere in there; however, once you find something you want, go after it at all costs no matter what the challenges may be. One of the reasons I originally chose my field of study was that I didn't really understand it. Whenever I don't understand something, I take it as a challenge to learn.

[Juans_93_MX3]

Im in the same situation aswell
Going into college soon, looking into getting into AutoMotive technology.

Right now I am working on getting my starte certificate in Auto Collision. Earnign $30 bucks a hour would sure be sweet. Cant wait for college.