I was wondering how often auto repair shops hire completely untrained employees. I'm 17 and cars have always intersted me but I have no way to learn besides on my maverick and that's not going very well so I thought to myself," why not get a job at a mechanic/body shop?". Should I just walk into a mechanic shop and talk to the owner/manager about maybe hiring me? I'd be fine if they didn't even pay me as long as I got an oppurtunity to learn it's my dream to fix cars. Anyone got any ideas?
Oh boy do I have ideas. 20 plus years in the trade now for me. First off dont ever work for free. Your time and effort is worth something. No reason anyone should take you on for free. They pay you so you can earn your wage. Got to earn your keep in this trade. Work hard, listen, watch and learn. If your good at these things a shop owner will gladly pay you. In this trade its tough to get a decent job to start. Most young guys start on the lube rack. Dont let them stagnate you changing oil though. We have a young guy whos done all his school and hours but hes been on the lube rack for probably 80% of his hours. I know where your coming from with a love to fix cars. My honest advice.... If you want to learn thats fine but keep your options open while your young. I started flat rate in my dealership at 21 years old. 3rd year apprentice and the only flat rate apprentice our dealership has ever seen. I made a ton of money(14.00/hr 1991) but it wasnt long before I totally lost interest in cars as a hobby. Only the past few years has that interest came back. I'm a little older now and a lot calmer so the flat rate issues dont get to me anymore. If I had to do it again I would get into something like HVAC, or electrician... before I was stuck in my job with lifes responsibilities. I've often thought about a career change but its tough when you have a family and need the income. Your only 17. Even if you worked in this trade for say... 6 years. You would learn a ton and still hopefully be young enough to decide if its what you want to do longterm. Dont get stuck in a rut and think all you can do is fix cars. You could change your career path and still retain all that auto knowledge for your hobby. The money is pretty good but still not on par with other trades. Its a really tough job. Its very hard on your body. I know at 17 your indestructible but believe me 40 rolls around real quick. I was told by my doctor to change careers 10 years ago(31 years old). What we do is not normal for our bodies. To start out up here we have a good apprenticeship program. You need an employer to sign you up for it. You have in school training throughout the years of work. Once your have all your school and hours in you can write your Class A technician exam. If you pass it your now a licensed tech. Takes our guys 4-5 years with steady employment. Not sure how your system works in the US. Friend of mine (canadian) went down to work in N.Carolina in a dealership. He was surprised how many guys in the shop had no training or a license like we have. You dont really see that up here. It did have the ASE guys but also these other guys to fill the bays. Any questions feel free to ask.
Darren, You have to be licensed to turn wrenchs?? Down her nothing is needed except the ability to do the work but most shops anymore are looking for a piece of paper that says you can do it ASE Cert. I have never had any training myself except for the Ford Training program I went thru back in 74 but I sure have had my fill of training the certified. One of the shops, Ford dealership that I worked at sent all of the new hires back to work with me for a couple of months. I was the only one in the shop that had 4 bays to work out of and I did put some work out. Back to original topic. Laws differ from state to state and some require the shop to be registerd and some don't. Colorado don't. As for getting into this profession, STAY OUT, do something else. Pick up a part time job on the weekends or evenings if you want to learn enough to play at home. It is expensive for tools, software, boxes etc etc. I have been in it for 40 years now and have spent well over $300,000 on equipment and it has got me a busted up body that aches every day in places most people don't even know exist. Good luck
You should check out your local community colleges / trade schools. I earned an Associates Degree in the GM Automotive Service Education Program. https://www.gmasepbsep.com Its is not expensive at all, and you earn your GM certification and ASE Master certification by the time you graduate. You are also partnered with a dealership in the program, and get to flip between semesters of work and school. When I graudated, I was 21 years old, ASE Master w/ L1, earning pretty good money and had some of the veteran guys coming to me for help. Toyota and Ford have similar programs, http://www.toyota.com/about/tten/ http://www.fordasset.com/tcep/New_TCEP_Home.asp The automotive repair industry is not that bad. But it is more of a gateway into other things in my opinion. For example, the Secret Service just advertised locally for an ASE technician with atleast 5 years experience. They need someone with hands on experience to manage and maintain their fleet, and also do modifications to vehicles to meet personal security requirements, etc. The job started in the mid $40k range. Automotive repair careers are also a good start into an engineering career. A hands on background definitely helps when moving on into mechanical or electrical engineering (like myself). You can also get into the world of auto racing or automotive design. Both of these being engineering type careers. There is a lot out there, but you gotta put in the effort to look.
I run a body shop and have hired guys such as yourself over the years as a helper. They usually start out cleaning the shop and customer cars, then progress to helping my painter sand and tape. After about a year or so if they stick around I usually start letting them do small jobs such as painting small parts and such. My present helper does a lot of small jobs now including spray-in truck bedliners. He seems to be happy with his job but I figure he'll eventually move on to another shop one day as a painter. When he does I'll hire another. Now...as stated above...this industry is not the best way to make a living. I've been doing it for 35 years and the last 10-15 of those I have done very well for myself. The first 20 were pretty rough. I have two sons. I convinced one of them to go to college and get a real education. He's now a computer programmer at Northrup Grumman Industries making better money than me. My youngest son, now 25, dropped out of college after two semesters to come to work at the dealership I work for. He's a counter person in the parts department and makes enough to keep him happy. He's moved out of the house twice but can never afford to stay gone long. He's back at home now. Looks like he's gonna have to find him a rich girl before we get him back out again. I'm not trying to tell you to not go for your dreams but please think long and hard and talk to the school councelors a lot to make sure this is what you want to do. Good luck to you! :Handshake
Thanks guys I don't mean to turn wrenches to make a living my whole life I just need some way to learn because I don't have one and if I can get paid well most of that money is gonna go to college I want to be an engineer actually. I have a huge passion to fix cars but no outlet. I live in Texas if that helps
WE have a full apprenticeship/licensing program. Organized by the government. Ministry of Skills and Development. Our guys do 2 month intervals at college then back to work. They also get our factory traingin at the dealer through Chrysler. My program was called Map40. IT was 2 full semesters in college theory and practical. Donated vehicles and equip. from auto industry. All the latest toys. Then 3-4 years work before you could write. You get paid unemployment insurance while your in school. So I got paid to go spend a year in college. We had full courses from cylinder head rebuild/machining, trans overhauls,diffs and every other system. We had to design our own body electrical diagram for a functioning car. That was fun. Mine had sequential tail lamps. The program turned out some excellent techs but they dont run that program anymore. Funding. We do hire general but not to work on vehicles. The only general help we hire is for shop clean up a few hours a day or so. Our body shop guys are the same. Full app. and licensing. Even our hair dressers up here do an appr. and license. When I wrote my test for my Class A I had 2 girls in the room writing for hair dressing. We even have to have a separate ticket to do air conditioning. Ozone depletion card they call it. Just a political BS piece of paper that we have to pay for. My employer covers that one.
Words of truth. It was a desire to work on MY car the sent mo to Pheonix for school. While there I had a life changing moment that changed that course drastically. I was changing tires at work on a 112 degree day watching Randy the service writer sit in an airconditioned office order parts. When I got home I got a job in a parts store. Made many good connections/friends and used that as a path to broaden my knowledge. Between that and simple hands on learning the hard way I can now make n even bigger mess out of a project! How cool would that job be? Time to network yourself. Find a car club that has decent people that aren't afraid to help a young guy learn. Many of us that have been around would gladly help someone like you. Hit all the car shows and make some new friends. Go to the drag strip, you can wander the pits, ask questions. Learn to read people, if they seem bothered thank them for their time and move on. When you find someone that seems willing/excited to share info and help you out, LISTEN and even if it seems they may be wrong don't outwardly second guess them (Turns us old guys off very quickly!) just find another source to verify it with. This worked very well for me and can for you too.
Another avenue to get government training is the military. You mentioned learning about automobiles and turning wrenches and being an engineer. They have that, or have you considered being an aircraft mechanic or heavy equipment mechanic? Lot more money in those fields.
So I've decided to look into finding a local training program or a shop. When I look for a shop do I look for a body shop, a mechanic shop, or like a customs shop? Which would be better for general knowledge because I'd like to know how to do it all: engine stuff, body work, audio, other stuff.
you can buy some video's or a few books i have 4 video's from this guy they are very good and go into detail watch this video http://www.badasscars.com/index.cfm?ptype=article&article_id=10 http://www.badasscars.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category_id=25/home_id=25/mode=cat/cat25.htm
