Could i get some advice from some of the certified techs?

[DJ metadelic]

how'd you go about doing what you're doing, basically?

now that i'm done with school and there's no market for filmmakers here in NE, i've averted my attention/set my sights on the possibility of becoming an auto tech. guess i haven't done enough research, but for instance i asked my mechanic and he said he is sort of "grandfathered"-in. he's been in the business for so long, he never needed to be trained into ASE. i know this is a stupid question, but what's the advantage of being a certified tech, besides easier transitioning and job placement?. i've heard that you can make just as much money being uncertified, but find that hard to believe.

[ChIoVnIdCa]

You don't need to be certified. If you want to do dealership work most manufactures want ASE though ... In most cases you wont get paid more in an independent shop but it can help get you in the door... I have one ASE certification ..... I just took the test without the schooling.... I am not 100% but I think you either need a certain number of years of work or school to take it..... Not sure though...



Id recommend getting a job in a small shop doing simple stuff and work yourself up.... That way you can find out if it is something you want to do for the rest of your life... It defiantly isn't for me... Id hate to be wrenching on someone elses car when I am 40+..... Hard way to make a living




Most people I have talked to regretted spending the money on schooling.





BTW .... Drive a couple hundred miles down to civilization .... More jobs down here..

[Ralphie]

Ya he's got a good point.

My dad wrenched on cars from 16 till he was 58. Took a toll on him but im sure he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Id say start in a small shop to see if it is what you want to do.

[TypeG]

get a job at a dealership as an oil change tech, you'll advance from there in time. later.

[DJ metadelic]

BTW .... Drive a couple hundred miles down to civilization .... More jobs down here..

yeah, true.

i've weighed out the pro's and con's. it really is tedious work to make a living doing it when you're older, guess it just depends on the person. some mechanics seem grumpy as fuck, but mine's always chipper and honest. he's a car maniac though anyways. it shouldn't be a line of work you'd go into if you didn't love cars, but i'm a honda fanatic on the sidelines so figured i'd try my luck getting into the local honda dealership as a parts advisor which is what i did @ my old job. i'll keep ya'll posted, but auto tech was my second choice back in the day. disadvantages to living in the country, plenty of small shops with no real way to get your foot in the door unless you know them prior.

[wed3k]

get a smog license, this requires A6, A8 and L1or equivalent. it's pretty much the bachelor's degree to being a tech. most techs dont know shit and i just tear apart engines.

[Accrdwgnguy]

Go to where the film jobs are man

[red07frontier]

I started about 4 years ago at a small shop doing oil changes and mopping the floors. I had no tools and started just learning my way around working on cars. Now I am the lead tech at another shop. I have done everything from oil changes to a full frame swap on a f-350 truck. I am not ase certified.

A few things I have learned along the way,
It is very expensive to gather the tools. I have maybe $40-50k in tools and still don't have everything I need.

My personal experience is that it is very different between working on your own car and working on customers cars every day. You have to be fast and have a good memory. You can't take time to bag and tag everything. Most shops pay you on a flat rate which means say book time to do lower rocker seals and valve adjustment is 1 hour. If it takes you 3 you only get paid for 1.

I work on cars every day and I have found it very hard to get motivated to work on my personal car. It is just not fun most of the time.

I think someone else said it before, but a dealership is an excellent place to start out. You can start doing oil changes or cleaning, have minimal tools and see if you like it. If you do then most dealerships have a factory training program to start out getting certified and move on up. I would suggest this route as nothing beats hands on aproach and training.

[DJ metadelic]

hmm, that is some great advice! thank you. i guess i haven't put that much thought into it, besides considering it as a career. 50k in tools? well guess didn't think of that, either. And eric, still gotta pay down those vsac loans before i can more anywhere the market is.

[deevergote]

hmm, that is some great advice! thank you. i guess i haven't put that much thought into it, besides considering it as a career. 50k in tools? well guess didn't think of that, either. And eric, still gotta pay down those vsac loans before i can more anywhere the market is.

Professional quality tools are no joke. They're expensive as hell! True mechanics/techs have pride in their equipment, and every one I know will spend top dollar on the right stuff. Not to mention, when your living is based on having the right tool, that will perform exactly as you want it to, you don't cheap out. There's no running back to Sears to replace that busted Craftsman ratchet mid-job when you're working! That stuff is fine for hobbyists, but when you're a pro, you want Snap-On, Mac, Matco... I borrowed an OLD Snap-On ratchet from a neighbor when my Craftsman failed on me. This thing was beat to hell, and it was still amazingly precise. I didn't want to give it back!

ASE is like having a degree in business management. You don't NEED a business degree to be a manager, but it'll give you more options.

If you get a job as an oil change tech, it's possible that the dealer/shop that you work for will pay for your ASE certification, or at least help out. For full certification, you'll need a certain number of hours logged anyway, I believe.


If it's a path you want to pursue, be VERY sure that you want to do it for a living. Doing fun stuff to your own car, according to your own timeline, is much different than working day in and day out doing work (often mundane work) to other people's cars. I know I sure as hell wouldn't want to do it! Then again, I don't even like working on my own car...

[MikeW]

I work at a dealership and im ALWAYS talking to the techs about why they do it, how long theyve been doing it and how they got started. Most of them dont enjoy it or wish they hadnt gone into it. There are 3 World-Class techs here. One makes around $40k/year and im not sure about the other 2.

One of those 2 guys has absolutely NO life, wahtsoever. The man works from 6:30am until 6:30 or 7pm, 6 days a week. He also has a wife and 2 or 3 kids. She doesnt work, so i can see why he works so much, but he's arrogant and has a HUGE ego. I will admit, he is good at what he does but alot of the other techs dont like him cuz he kisses ass and turns like 12 hours a day, even when we're dead. He turned 24 hours on a saturday once. That was nuts!

I can vouch for expensive tools as well. A nice sized, EMPTY tool box(just the box) can run you several thousand dollars. And you need at least 3 of every tool in every size. Not to mention custom shit. Hammers, scrapers, chizels, drills of all sizes and powers, breaker bars...the list is endless. And yes, the GOOD, quality stuff costs you.

Being a mechanic is cool because if something DOES break on your car, you can fix it, but thats the ONE thing ive heard almost every tech say, "I dont wanna work on my car after working on 10 other people's cars all day.."

[deevergote]

There's a thread about tool boxes in the Beginner OT section... someone had mentioned some high quality boxes running upwards of $10,000... the box alone!

When your hobby becomes your job, it USUALLY ceases to be your hobby. That's one reason why I refuse to even attempt to make this site financially profitable. I could probably figure out a way to make a living off of this site alone... but then I wouldn't enjoy it the way I do now. I refuse to do that. (not to mention it would compromise the integrity of the site... but that's beyond the scope of this discussion.)

A good tech can make a hell of a lot more than $40k a year. A BMW master tech could easily make over $80k... possibly even over $100k a year. They'll usually start over $40k. However, you can be certain that it's competitive, demanding, and difficult to land a job. In a private shop, you'll make less... in most cases. Most private shops aren't gold mines. A large, successful dealership is where you'd want to be. There, you'd have job security, a good chance for high pay, and a chance to move up.

It's demanding work, though. My back hurts for hours after 45 minutes of wrenching on my car. My knuclkes are always bloody, no matter what I was working on. Granted, you'll get used to it, and having the right tools and environment will most certainly help... but it will still take a toll.

[Ralphie]

This is 100% true of everyone I know, even my pops. He would work from 630am to 6pm and he would have to be reminded constantly to fix our own cars because after busting his ass all day for Honda I'm sure he didn't want to come home and fix his own cars lol.

I had another buddy I knew on active duty. He worked for Dodge but was an import fanatic first and he often found it hard to get his motivation together as well.

[MikeW]

Not to mention, after so long, you start getting that dirt and grime that WONT go away. It gets DEEP under your fingernails and you have permanent blacks spots etched into your fingers, lol.

[wed3k]

thats why you dont wrench, do something else like a smog tech, service writer, lube boy, detail cars.