Considering to do a car mechanic apprenticeship. Should I do it?
I really want to git gud if I do it so I'm thinking which kind of employer is best, here's a few options that I've seen:
>common repair garage A lot of work, many different types of cars, usually stressfull but I imagine a high potential for skill gains
>authorized repair shop limited car models, probably fewer customers, less potential to git gud but also usually better wage and less stressfull
>motorsports working exclusively on motorsports cars, hard to get into, overtime but also traveling wages not necessarily better, I won't be allowed to work on my own car in the garage probably
>historical cars/ sportscars /niche cars repair shops Very relaxed working speed, limited customer numbers. As an apprentice you'll only be allowed to do menial works because muh super expensive customer cars
Mabye there are more?
Anyway, I know that in order to get those skills I need practice so option 1 is probably the best for the biggest amount of customers but it also means a high amount of customers who come for common repair jobs like changing some fuckin breaks or oil changes - I imagine that is very annoying and not contributing to my skill level.
What's the most challenging environment where I get skillfull real fast?
Evan Lopez
Its a shitty career and you make no money. Hit the books, get some internships and do something in an office so you don't come home tired and hating your hobby.
Eli Jones
You'll be obsolete soon, when electric cars are the norm. Unless you become a dealership tech or something.
Colton Torres
No. Cars will still have brake and cooling systems that will need servicing. Tires, body work, suspension everything that isn't the drive train will near enough stay the same.
In fact being a tech would be a lot easier without all the drivetrain servicing stuff.
William Murphy
Since I've worked at a majority of the places you're interested in I'll chime in. Family shops are great, different cars was a plus for me because I get tired looking at the same shit everyday. Most have their own rules but are usually laid back and give two shits about their customers so you'll get more work to do. Dealerships are a hit or miss, I work at Nissan now and it's cool but all besides two cars are trash to look at. Plus Nissan's love blowing CVT transmissions like a hooker. Benefits are better, pay is usually better since dealerships have that sort of capital, factory scan tools are nice. Now I've also worked at two speed shops (performance shops, tuner shops, motorsports, whatever you want to call it) and it was fun. It's usually the same repair work or you're adding new parts to cars that shouldn't be there so you have to figure it out. Pay's shit, let's be honest. Compared to dealerships it is never that great. It's hard to get into but if you have automotive repair experience they'll want to take you. At all those places I've been able to work on my cars after work. They don't care, but you have to do your job first and private stuff after. I started at family shops and I've learned more there. They have the time to slow down to show you things and you get tons of different issues throughout the week. Dealerships are usually just warranty work and brakes, from my experience.
Hudson Nelson
> do something in an office so you don't come home tired office work is mentally exhausting instead of physically exhausting, I think I'll rather be a bit tired than fucked in the head
>and hating your hobby I have no fucking opportunity (tools, equioment) to even work on my daily car - working on project cars is so fucking out of reach if I continue this hobby
Anthony White
Sure, but manufacturers won't allow home-gamers or independent shops to touch their shit anymore. Just look at Tesla and how everyone else is copying their every move.
Dylan Hernandez
who will change the batteries on 10 year old electric cars? I think that will be the car mechanics + this
Juan Thomas
You think when the cars are out of warranty anyone gives a fuck about the dealerships want!
Ian Sanchez
Thanks for the insights.
I understand that dealerships suck, I think I'll cross it off my list then
the tuner/motorsports shops sound interesting of course. If I would be able to work on my provate cars after work, this would be my choice. But I kinda doubt that it will be possible.
Family shops, yeah, they're family right. I imagine they're very nice if you're actually kinda acquainted with the owners but that's not me.
Anthony Robinson
But, buying the tools to work on your daily + the parts you need to fix is cheaper than 1 garage stop to get them to do it for you...
Robert Taylor
that's why I need a car garage workplace, isn't it obvious? I have no workspace, no tools and if I get another job, I'll probably also lack the time.
Logan Evans
You don't need a garage though, and you can rent garages for a few days quite cheaply. Most of us don't work in garages.
Is it worth having your body destroyed by 45 (especially in the US where healthcare is expensive as fuck) just to have a hope your employer might let you use garage space? In a low-paying job that is oversaturated and highly competetive? Where the average work environment is abusive?
Zachary Ortiz
> and you can rent garages for a few days quite cheaply project cars stand around for weeks and months until they're done
> (especially in the US where healthcare is expensive as fuck) I'm eurofag but you have a point. It's not really healthy but office work isn't either, it fucks your brain by age 45. All work sucks desu, I'm just trying to pick a career that's actually profitable for me in non-monetary terms as well.
Caleb Harris
You were talking about repairs for daily.
I'm also euro, currently living in NA. Office work is perfectly fine as long as you manage your mental health, the only people who get fried by it are people working in crazy abusive environments and people who are overworking themselves.
Pick up a sport and a hobby, office work won't fry you aslong as you're in a decent environment. Which country are you in and how old are you to be picking out your career?
Parker Cooper
I'm an apprentice at a common garage right now. Working on the cars is fun, but they don't trust me to do much other than basic fluid changes, brakes and maybe and alternator here and there. When you aren't working on a car it truly sucks, but it's part of working at a shop. The guys as my shop work flat rate and are always stressed over money /time which seems shitty. Not much variety, just the same few beat to shit kias, Hondas and f150s I'm also clumsy as fuck so that doesn't help my case
Matthew Scott
>currently living in NA. >NA >naturally aspirated I don't get it :---D
>Pick up a sport and a hobby, office work won't fry you aslong as you're in a decent environment. no thanks, I dropped university recently - mental work is not what I'm looking into right now.
>but they don't trust me to do much other than basic fluid changes, brakes and maybe and alternator here and there. Well, that's why I want to pick the right employer really. If I set out to be a car mechanic, I want to become the best. For that I need the right learning enivronment.
>I'm also clumsy as fuck so that doesn't help my case That's fine. I think people with good motoric coordination skills should become electricians or doctors anyway. You'll get better only with practice and that's why I need it as well.
Benjamin Lopez
>I dropped university recently - mental work is not what I'm looking into right now. office jobs... don't have you use your brain pal... the hardest part is not dying from boredom.
Dylan Lee
I post this is everyone of these threads.
Fuck automotive, go heavy equipment/heavy truck repair route
I worked in the automotive field for 3 years before I entered the heavy equipment field, and I honestly can't think of a single thing I missed from the automotive field.
I can only speak for the area i live in, but compared to automotive tech's I know, i have better pay, better benefits, loads of OT, work is generally better, and you dont deal with retards that hardly know what they drive. And from what i see there's going to be a huge shortage of young heavy equip tech's in the next 10 or so years
I worked in a freightliner/western star dealership and a fleet garage for 5 years doing my apprenticeship after I decided I hated working on the general publics shitty econoboxes. A good diesel tech can easily make $30/hr here
I'm 27 now, red seal automotive and red seal heavy equipment/truck & trailer.
Ian Flores
Another bonus is that it hasn't killed my drive to wrench on my own project cars, and I still do mechanic work on the side from home when I want some extra dough
Julian Williams
>I dropped university recently - mental work is not what I'm looking into right now. I did the same. I took the wrong degree. After traveling and working dead end jobs for 2 years I went back to uni and got a mech eng degree. I like you, knew I wanted to work with cars but also knew i would hate being a mechanic and would be bored with weeks.
John Powell
I think I'm not even looking into career choices desu
All that I actually want is fix those damn depressions and shitty life situation. I doubt a career choice will fix it anyway so all I want to do at this point is just working on my cars and race them, using it all as escapism for the rest of my life until I die.
r8 and subscribe
John Miller
plot twist: I dropped mech engineering because I couldn't take this autism anymore
Bentley Edwards
are you going to do something about it, or let it take over your life? Dont be a victim to yourself. Life sucks, internalize the struggle and do something to make this world a better place for yourself and others
Christian Anderson
as you can see I'm currently trying to get a fucking job that won't make me feel like killing myself. So that I can get money and actually afford some fucking hobbies and (((life)) in general
Julian Bell
GO INTO LITERALLY ANY OTHER TRADE
BECOME A LINEMAN
OR A PLUMBER
OR A WELDER
OR A MACHINIST
BUT NOT A FUCKING RETARD WRENCH MONKEY
Hunter Gray
well, just based on a visit to a local nearby BMW dealership today, I'd say that the mechanics look polished & professional & they seem to wear somewhat dressy wear for mechanics
Joseph Brown
Spent 4 years at a Mercedes dealer and 3 years at a indy mom and pop euro only shop. The family owned shop was so much more enjoyable than the dealer. Dealer felt like dealing with high school clique bullshit. Must kiss ass to advance. Fixing cars didn't seem like a priority. Now the independent shop was just plain enjoyable. Not nearly as stressful, kinda felt like it was just a hobby. Fixing shit was legitimately fun there and goddamn I learned so much more in 6 months there than I did in 4 years at MB. Had a key to the shop so almost every weekend I would go there with a few friends and wrench on our cars get drunk and BBQ. And the owner didn't care if I did side work there so I made a shit ton of extra cash. I fuckin loved it. But I'm only 25 and can feel my back and knees starting to hurt... This can be largely avoided with preventative measures though, just take the extra time to do it
Jacob Collins
If you already hate cars and hate working on them and love owing money to tool companies and love doing tires and oil changes and hate your spine then go for it
Noah Taylor
I fucking hate my office job and make no money. I want to do some physical work that pays more
Brody Richardson
Aircraft Mechanic / Engineer instead.
Christian Cox
I've worked at all of them. Like the other user said, they all have their ups and downs. If you do decide to go this route, and you want to have a rewarding career and have the option to move past being a tech (the possibilities being service engineering/manufacturing side tech work if you are at a dealership, or starting your own shop if you are coming from any specialist shop), you have to
1. Advocate for yourself. You really have to be aggressive as far as moving up, making more money, and generally being where you want to/need to be. If you sit around and wait for something good to happen it's not going to happen. 2. Learn EVERYTHING. Don't fall into the trap of getting good at a few niches and avoiding other work. Don't be a gravy grabber that's afraid of diag. Don't count on learning by repetition, really make the effort to understand what you are doing. 3. If things get stale or you aren't moving forward, seek out another shop. The best part of the field is how easy it is to move around between shops, anywhere in the world, and unlike many careers it doesn't look odd on your resume if you worked at a few shops for a year or so since high turnover rates are the norm.
Also, start at a shop where everyone is payed hourly. Flat rate shops, even if you are payed hourly, will severely stunt your growth because people will always horde information and generally not be helpful, just a waste of your time if you are a fast learner.
Colton Cox
I've worked with many aircraft mechanics that have switched to cars, but never the other way around. The pay sucks for most aircraft techs considering how difficult and tedious it is/the certifications needed.
Wyatt Ross
Its a decent job in europe, what you need is to work your way up, into upper management of a smaller company. running the hangar or other projects. high stress but high pay.
Hudson Fisher
Why do you want to be a mechanic? Wrenching all day is hard on your body and will not be fun no matter how much you like cars. Mechanics also don't get paid vey well. If yoy want to work with your hands, become a plumber or electrician or hvac specialist, something with a higher wage and more earning potential. If yoy want to work with cars, become a mechanical engineer, that way you can choose whether you want to wrench or draft, and you also have more earning potential.
Gabriel Lee
That's my problem too, I started with engineering. I had the luck of having a high school auto shop class and I realized I hated working on others' cars a lot. I preferred working on my friends or mine. Good luck to you in school!
Anthony Evans
this is solid career advice for most any job
John Lopez
Honestly you become friends with the owner. I was the youngest when I worked there and the owner pretty much treated me as one of his sons.
Jaxon Richardson
If you want to make good money and still work with your hands, go become a union electrician, plumber, pipefitter, etc. You'll make way more money and benefits.
Mechanics never unionized properly and now it's a shit job with shit pay.
Daniel Cruz
Can confirm. I make more as an 2nd year electricians apprentice then I did after 10 years as a wrench monkey at various dealerships.
Elijah Martin
Do not become a technician/mechanic. Do. Fucking. Not. Ive been doing it for 6 years and am so fucking tired of it. It is just endless bullshit.