I am making this thread because i myself would like to make a career out of the one thing that I love to do. I love learning about automotives and anything i can do to give me an edge over another person is worth putting effort into.

I'm interested in hearing from the people who do automotives day in and day out. What do you do? How did you get to where you are now? Do you enjoy your job?

I am currently in my last year finishing my BA for criminology and its not what i want to do for a career. I am looking forward to moving back home and attending a junior college to get an Applied Science degree in automotive technology while working on the side to save up money. I'd like to get my ASE certification and take other automotive classes like EFI101. I would REALLY like to become an AEM trained tuner, but i am unsure on how to reach my goals. My goals are like many others. I would like to run my own shop or work in a shop where i dont do oil changes and basic "mechanic" work.

So really i am interested in how the guys with "reputation" on honda-tech reached their goals.

 

A few years back i was a shop tech and didn't have all too bad of a time. The career was started out of a love of street racing that turned into legal drag racing. A few things i can tell you are: #1 buy the best boots you can get, Danner etc. #2 expect to spend thousands on tools #3 realize that the majority of what you do will be general repair. Many 2yr colleges have programs with local auto dealers to bring you on as a factory tech. This is where the normal guy makes livable wages. High end tuners are born from reputation and thus make big dollars; but almost always have big money to start with. One of the best GM tuners in our area was already rich from the tech boom in the 90's and decided he would tinker with cars. He now has a supercharged C6 z06 that is seriously insane as a daily driver. Nice life. For the rest of us, getting in a decent shop and gaining your one year of experience in order to get your ASE is where it's at. There's one school in Arizona that caters to high end engine building and general race car design. I remember looking at the program and the students were building NASCAR motors and trying to dream up ways to increase power. Fun stuff. I just have to ask why you spent so much on your degree only to go elsewhere? Ever think about doing something fairly easy like being a small time P.O. just to make a few bucks and race on the side?

 

i've thought about doing that as well. It all depends if any kind of job offer comes about when i graduate.

 

Stay within your BA field. You have some good solid advice given to you up above by idrivesideways. Once you get into the industry, at least the dealership side of it, where you can make an honest living, you will hate hate hate it. All the other fun stuff in the industry, ie. opening your own shop, working for a NASCAR/INDY/whatever team is very much hit or miss.

PM me if you want to talk about this some more.

 

if you really want to try out the auto field go into a general repair shop and spend a year there trying it out. If you are really into cars as a passion you wont like working in a dealership because you wont want to work on your own cars after work because you have been doing it all day. You could try and get on at an import tuner shop and work your way up to doing big things like motor builds etc.

 

I would say get some solid basic mechanic experience 1st. Then formulate your own plan with what you feel is your strength.

Whatever you do, don't wait until you hit 40 to decided you want to do something different.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Combustion Contraption &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Stay within your BA field. You have some good solid advice given to you up above by idrivesideways. Once you get into the industry, at least the dealership side of it, where you can make an honest living, you will hate hate hate it. All the other fun stuff in the industry, ie. opening your own shop, working for a NASCAR/INDY/whatever team is very much hit or miss.

PM me if you want to talk about this some more. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i have to agree 100% i'm a certified general motors diesel tech and before that i was a doing diesel performance and had a diesel performance business on the side. i absolutley loved doing the performance side of things and i still have my own business, but i went to gm for more money and along with more money all i got was more bullshit to put up with. i used to enjoy what i did until i worked at the dealership for the last couple of years and it's making me not like working on anything at all. my car has been sitting the last couple of years and i have a 260whp b series to go into it and i just don't feel like messing with all the stuff to do it anymore

long story short if you like the performace side of things stick with it and stray away from any kind of dealership work because it gets old quick. i'm just hoping i can get my name out there i can start making enough side money i can look for another job i enjoy like my last job.

 

Have you considered pushing off your graduation by a semester or two, and taking some engineering courses. Apply for a masters in Mechanical Engineering.

 

i was actually in mechanical engineering for a semester but decided it wasnt the direction for me. I would be in school for way too long considering i was close to 3/4 of the way done with my Crim BA. I'd have been starting basically as a freshmen when i was almost a senior.

 

No no, I meant take a few engineering courses just for a foundation. Get your BA as planned. Then study/take the GRE and apply for a Master's Engr program if you're inclined.

 

the problem with that is many of the eng courses that i would be interested in taking require math and science prereq's that i have not taken.

 

I wouldn't look too much for any sort of payout from working on autos.
keep it as a hobbie and finish your degree. if you were still 14 and started taking apart engines already then i would tell you to get a internship/low paying job at a machine shop and start learning from the pro's.
but if you do not have any financial obligations then you can go for it. you might feel happy working on your hobbie for a living but i will quickly loose its enjoyment when you find out that you're fixing other peoples problems more than building hot rods to pay the bills.

just start a small company working on local cars in your spare time and go from there.
good luck

 

i'd love to hear from some of the guys who do build the big stuff every day......cough cough

 

Have you considered some sort of low paying apprenticeship to start-off with? Work and learn with some of the more experienced engine builders.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vinuneuro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have you considered some sort of low paying apprenticeship to start-off with? Work and learn with some of the more experienced engine builders.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes, i had thought about that actually, but i do not consider myself close enough to any of the engine builders here for them to offer me an apprenticeship, lol. If that was possible, i would definitely go for it and would make any moves that i had to do....besides getting another BA

 

If you can afford to: I don't know that anyone would be opposed to you working for them without pay or low wage. You obviously already have a sound foundation in theory and practical experience.

 

i've had this same thought for the last week or so. I'd like to see a few more posts from some of those big shops.

 

indeed, i'd like to know the steps some of them have taken.

 

Any auto sport is fine with me. As long as I'm around cars

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 98vtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i'd love to hear from some of the guys who do build the big stuff every day......cough cough</TD></TR></TABLE>

funny. i went with my own advise
good luck again
also this should be in the general discussion forum, not the ALL MOTOR

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alterdcreations &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
also this should be in the general discussion forum, not the ALL MOTOR </TD></TR></TABLE>

You're telling the mod of the forum?

 

 

haha, welcome too hell. oh man were to start off. for me it all started doing model cars, rc cars, and so on when i was little. i had magazine subscriptions from 4x4, sport truck, car craft, to mm&ff. i learned alot of diff types of aftermarket areas as well as oem stuff and so on, i loved cars so much and was always good mechnically. when i turned 16 in high school and was of legal age to work, the place that worked on my moms jimmy hired me to clean up and what not. it was a independent shop that worked all types of cars and maintenance. i worked there for about 5 years and moved my self up to were i was a tech and shop manager. i worked there while i was at uti till i graduated. i went through basic auto and the ford fact program. when i graduated i found a ford dealer by my house and they hired me. i started as a apprentice and moved up to a 3 year appretice after 8 months. i was at ford over 1 year when the owner sold it and asked me to go with him to the new dealer. so i now worked for mazda. at this time i also started working at a performance shop. i was always into performance and had modded cars already, so it wasn't new to me. i worked for them for 2 years until the owner decided to close the doors due to family issues . i still work for mazda but am now also a lincoln, mercury, and subaru tech, now still with my service director at a bigger dealer. i am now master mazda certified as well as Lincoln-merc-ford, but not subi. dealer life is ALOT different then indepentent shops and performance shops. there is a big politic's side to it. be prepared to bleed alot, sweat, and swear alot. working on your own car or friends is fun, but when working on someone elses car, meeting dedlines and testing your mental and physical skills to maximum constantly, you will be burnt out. i've now been wrenching for 10 years and i love it, but it gets very frusturating at times. the position i'm at now whatever comes through that door your either fixing or proving there is nothing wrong. no passing it on to someone else. it's not chit chat time either when your on book time. you don't book time you don't get paid, peroid.. we don't get guarentee time either. if you have certain Q's i would be happy to answer,but as far as pay i make enough. a starting journeyman pay for booktime per union in my area is $28.50 per book hour. book time is a suggested time to do a job. example an oil change pays .3 tenths of an hour you get paid $9.50 for however long it takes you (normally 10-15 min). the faster you work the more you make.
hope some of this helps. just so you get a better idea of pay the oil change is on the low side. another example is a 60k & tbelt on a subi, pays 11 hours takes 3 to do. you do the math.
p.s. be prepared to spend alot of money on tools my tool box alone was 11k.


Modified by boosstboy at 7:40 PM 1/3/2008

 

I went the tech school route after getting an oil change job at a grease pit disguised as a tire shop.
You get out of it what you put into. Learned alot. Graduated. I had gotten a job with the Honda dealership i'm with now about 1/3 of the way through school.
Graduated and became a full time technician with them.
Been there for coming up on 3 years. Personally I love/hate working on cars.

I love solving problems. A car comes in and it's messed up, won't start, etc.
Put my hands on it, get the gears in the brain turning and drive it out of the shop good as new.
Love that type of stuff. Big services are always good. Making money is fun. Like that.

Hate tight *** spaces and engineers who put that thing behind this thing thats right next to the other thing that makes it long and arduous to change out a damn sensor or something simple and stupid. Hands get cut up. The get burned. You gotta contort your body to get up underneath the dash to perform some stupid recall or something.
I hate services advisers who take 4 years to get back to you about an upsell for the car that's in your bay. Hate doing transmissions all the time because they weren't made better from the factory(damn odysseys).
But i'm not bitter. LOL

What can you expect in a dealership as a tech? Besides the normal services,brakes,alignments,etc,etc,etc you'll get Squeaks, rattles, driveability concerns, electrical diagnosis, recalls, updates, no starts, and the dreaded WARRANTY WORK!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Be totally honest with yourself. You almost have a dag on degree in your hands that ultimately leads you to more money than you'll get wrenching on cars. If you absolutely love cars and want to get dirty everyday even still then I commend you. Knowing what you want in life is key.
I'd recommend now a days to go to tech school cause working on cars in todays game requires more than a set of wrenches and screwdrivers. If you want to be a repair technician that is.

If you want to do motor swaps and build custom turbo builds and what not then you need to try to beg your way into an entry level position/apprenticeship at a performance shop. Maybe you know somebody who can put in a good word for you or something. Don't NEED tech school for that. You can learn that as you go as long as you can train under people who know what they are doing.

Hope that helps shed some more light on the automotive business. Good luck with making your decision.

 

Im in a tech. program at my local community college. Its a fun program to go through. But for a summer internship I got hired at Firestone Complete Autocare.

I was like you. Hade high hopes for the futre of tuning and building race cars. But now I see that it is much harder than I had once thought. After I get done with this program I might go to another college and do a high performace class.

Working your way up to the top with no degree might be pretty hard. Everyone that works with me has a degree in automotive or is going to school for it.

I figure the more degrees I have, especially if i get one in high performance, the better off i will be and I will have better chances at getting the jobs I want.