Hi guys. If it's not too late, I have a few comments to add. I started out as a tv / vcr repairman in high school. Went to a community college for their two-year Electronics program, then transferred into the last half of their TV Servicing program. From there I transferred into their Automotive program. One of my instructors in the Auto program talked me into going to college for "Vocational Education". Years later I took his teaching job when he retired. Today he is one of my best friends. I taught for nine years and really loved it, except for the politics among the other instructors.
One thing to consider is how you like to learn. Some people read the instructions to put something together. Some just look at the picture on the box. Some need to watch someone else do it first. If you are good at visualizing things in your mind, Automotive Electrical, and Suspension and Alignment are the two best areas if you want to specialize in something. You can't see current flowing through a wire, and you need to visualize alignment angles to know how to solve problems. Old, antiquated alignment machines provided light beams you could see, but today, computerized alignment equipment just gives you a screen full of numbers that you have to interpret. Most mechanics learn best by touching, seeing, and manipulating parts to understand how they work. Those people have a difficult time understanding alignment angles. Most mechanics are the hands-on type of learner, so the electrical and suspension areas are always lacking qualified people.
One of the requirements to teach in Wisconsin's Technical College system is you must have seven years related work experience, OR two years work experience and a college degree. I met those requirements both ways, so I was able to teach Automotive or Electronics classes. I worked for seven years at a Sears Auto Center where their main concern was time spent on the job. It was somewhat stressful with low pay. Next, I was the Suspension and Alignment specialist at a very nice Chrysler dealership for ten years. At the same time, I worked for my cousin for 30 years, part time, in his tv repair shop.
I thought I had reached to top of my field at the new-car dealership, but it didn't take long to figure out I was receiving very nice factory training, and I was working on mainly one brand of car. Turns out it is the independent mechanics who are really at the top of the heap. They have to learn new models and systems multiple times per year, and on a lot of different brands. They have other places to find continuing training. One that we had was through the Carquest Training Institute. A very good instructor came up from Chicago once a month and used a classroom in my school for two-night classes for the independent guys. I was allowed to sit in for free. We also had a Chrysler training center near Milwaukee. To reduce the mechanics' travel time, Chrysler used three schools for remote training centers. One of those was my school where I was, again, allowed to sit in. I was a student again in my classroom. There's no homework and no grades in these classes. Dealers also get training videos every month. My manager used to buy pizza for us and open up the pop machine when they ran that video. Today more training is done individually, on a computer, when you have time.
As a beginning mechanic, you will typically be paid by the hour, so expect someone to be looking over your shoulder to offer help or advice. At Sears, I tried to please my supervisor by working fast, often while compromising quality. There comes a point where you can waste too much time to get very little reward for the car owner. Your boss will show you where you can speed up and where you should probably slow down and use extra care.
At the dealership I was put on "flat rate" after my first year. That is where you get paid by the job or parts of a job. That system rewards speed but it has its checks and balances. If you make a mistake or a job comes back the next day, you have to do the job over for free. I preferred this system because I took extra time doing alignments so I'd have pleased customers. Fortunately, in my ten years there, not one single person ever complained that I was working too slowly. The dealership owners and managers were very happy with the quality of my work, and rewarded me with numerous pay raises. They understood that happy customers were likely to be repeat customers.
With flat rate, you still have an hourly rate that you earn, but instead of being paid by the hour, each job is assigned a standardized time. For example, a four-wheel alignment paid 1.3 hours. If my hourly pay was $10.00, for example, I got paid $13.00 for that alignment, regardless if it took me ten minutes or all day. Compare that to a barber charging ten dollars to cut your hair, regardless if he's scalping a hippie and it takes an hour, or he's cutting the last hair off a bald guy, and it takes two minutes. Pay is the same, but you earn more per day if you can squeeze in more jobs. In that way, a lot of mechanics earn 12 or more hours of pay in their eight-hour day. In an 80-hour, two-week pay period, it was common for coworkers to go home with 100 - 120 hours of pay at their hourly rate. I hovered around 100 hours, but mostly because I worked through half of my lunch hours, and I often stayed late to help with emergency cases. I had a reputation of being willing to stay late if they needed me.
One thing you might consider to get started is new-car dealerships are often looking for people to be "lot boys". That gets your foot in the door. Typical jobs include filling gas tanks and setting cars out when the customer is coming to take delivery of a new car. They will drive a car to a local car wash or run it through the dealer's car wash on site. Sometimes they rely on retired people to do this, as well as shuttle customers to and from work. Once you've proven you're responsible and trustworthy, a step up might be an installer. As far back as the 1990s, we often installed factory cruise control systems on new cars when they didn't come from the factory with them. You might install running boards or mud flaps, and some do rustproofing jobs. When there were no customer jobs waiting or scheduled to arrive soon, time could be filled in with, "New-Car Preps". Those paid one hour and included such things as screwing on radio antennas, banging on wheel covers, checking lug nut tightness, removing plastic seat protectors, installing front license plate brackets, and simple stuff like that. Mechanics would also grab those easy jobs when an appointment didn't show up or there were no other jobs waiting. Every New-Vehicle Prep included a test-drive at highway speed. My bosses said, "if you didn't go at least ten miles, you didn't go on a test drive".
One thing that was hard to get used to at the dealership was the need to run back and forth to the time clock for every job. That's how the times you were on jobs were tracked. Take my alignment job, for example. Once I "punched on", I'd do the alignment check, then tell my service writer of additional things that were needed. In this case I was already getting paid 1.3 hours, but if I found a rear wheel had to be removed to install a shim, that paid another 0.3 hour per wheel, but only if it had already been approved by the car owner. I'd have to run to the parts department to have them add a shim to the bill, then run back to install it. If I could get all of that done in an hour, I still got paid 1.6 hours, but I could move on to the next job sooner. On the other hand, if I did a fast, sloppy job yesterday, I might have to stop and do it over today, for free. I don't get paid a second time if it was my fault. I don't get to move on to a new job, so I lose twice. The dealer loses because that's one less job they can squeeze in. The customer loses because they have to stop what they were doing to bring the car back, but they are not expected to pay again for the same service. The goal of the flat rate system is to work efficiently and carefully.
Other specialty areas include transmissions, engine repair, electrical diagnosis, brakes, and emissions systems. Many high schools sponsor a career night where you can visit different businesses to see what might appeal to you. We did this every year, usually at a very nice GMC dealership just down the road from the Chrysler dealership I worked at. You might also be pleasantly surprised to find a number of shop managers who will drop whatever they're doing to give you a private tour of their shop. If you have the chance, observe if the mechanics are whistling and joking around or if they all look crabby. That will give you an idea of what it's like to work there. We had a lot of really nice dealerships years ago, but the local Chevy dealer was the well-known exception. He couldn't keep employees or customers. Today he has bought up a half dozen other dealerships, and all of them have rather empty parking lots.
You'll need your own tools too. Don't go nuts and buy everything you can think of. Basic wrench and socket sets will get you started. Craftsman is a good, inexpensive brand to start with. We used to say if you have to borrow a tool twice, buy your own. I was always happy to borrow tools so they would get some use. You'll be surprised how others are careful with them and are sure to return them. You'll be visited by tool trucks each week where you can buy high-end tools, often on credit. Here again, wait until you're sure you're in a field and specialty you enjoy before you spend a lot of money. The tool truck guys also have that "used drawer" that I would rifle through every week. Found a lot of good deals in there.
You'll usually be expected to clean up after yourself. The fellow I replaced on the alignment rack was well-known to need to be kept out of sight of customers after the first half hour each morning because he would be covered head to toe in grease, ... But he could fix anything. Every Friday, the last hour was spent scrubbing floors and emptying garbage cans. If you didn't like running outside in winter, someone else will grab your garbage can while you run the Zamboni through their stall. Cooperation gets the best results, but there will always be the one or two guys who constantly grumble and complain. I used to laugh at them or just stay away from them. Managers appreciate a positive attitude. In return, they hand out the best jobs to the best employees.
One thing I learned from my first boss in a tv shop was there's no harm in sharing secrets with customers or other employees. Showing someone how to make an adjustment to their tv at home doesn't make them a tv repairman or take work away from you. Some mechanics are very arrogant and won't help you or answer questions truthfully. They rarely get much help either. Any coworker who stops work on his job to answer a question or show you what to do is worth his weight in gold. I looked forward to doing that with other beginners I worked with.
One thing I told my students every year was if they found they didn't like what they were doing, get out now and find something they enjoy more. Knowing what I know now, I'd probably go into banking or insurance, but those types of jobs don't offer as much satisfaction you'll get from solving a problem few others can do. "Doctors only have to learn two models in varying sizes, that don't change". Only the treatments change over the years. And, doctors bury their mistakes. We have to learn new models every year, and our mistakes keep coming back. One of the things I liked was no two days were the same, but every job was something I had done before. That makes for confidence that you can help out a customer and make their day better.
If you can attend a career fair, there will be other mechanics their volunteering their time to show you around and answer questions. You could end up working next to one of them. Let us know if you have other questions related to any of these areas.
Tuesday, February 11th, 2025 AT 5:43 PM
