If your reasoning behind looking into being a tech is hooking up your car, I'd say there is a 90% chance you won't like it.

 

Working as a tech definitely IS NOT a fun job. It's not glamorous, and is, in fact, quite stressful. I did it for almost 6 years and could easily make a damn good living off of doing it, but would never even consider it. Talk to a few guys who've been in the industry 20+ years and see what they have to say about it. I grew up in a family where my father and grand father were both highly respected techs, and both of them will gladly tell you they would never suggest it as a career.

 

speaking from personal experience, i do NOT recommend becoming a tech in lieu of college. let me elaborate to perhaps help you in a critical decision (long read).

for one, tools are fucking expensive, and you need them to work. next, unless you work for a dealership and/or have extensive experience, you will not make shit for money (note- you need experience to make money as a tech, no way around it). i actually had a really good opportunity after fucking up in college for two years- i got hired at a dealership as a lube tech. definitely not a glorious position, but it got my foot in the door. changed oil and rotated tires for a year, got moved up to apprentice. it was fun for about 8 or 9 months as i was learning, but then i hit a plateau. i was making a shitball 350 a week, was at the point where i knew about everything i could know without going to classes or busting ass studying on my own, and would need to really invest (when i say invest, i mean $5k AT LEAST, that's alot of money @ 350/wk) in tools if i wanted to get off on my own. it did not take long before i got really burnt out on working on cars. and even had i decided to take the leap and buy tools and get off working on my own as a line tech, i would have made a measley 13 bucks an hour and got all the shit work as a new tech (you'll notice that places that offer 13 an hour usually have master techs they give all the good work to) which would equate to about 15-25 hours a week, MAYBE 40 if i got luck and busted my ass. still completely shit money that you cannot live comfortably off of.

and then even as a line tech at 13 a commissioned hour, you hit another glass ceiling with training. first you have to work at a respectable enough establishment that believes in properly training its workforce- and let me tell you that in the auto repair industry those are few and far between. then you have to convince them that you are trainable. then you have to pass the tests (if you're really motivated you can attempt to take the tests without attending the classes, but then again why not just go to college?). granted, if you can get far enough to become master ase certified you could potentially make good money, it still isn't good enough to write home about until you've got a good 15-20 years experience under your belt, or you're just a shit hot tech that is just naturally good at diagnostics and extremely gifted with manual dexterity to get shit done faster than anyone else. i won't lie, some of the guys at the dealership i was working at made in excess of 60-80k a year as techs... but they each had at least 20 years experience and master certs working for them.

you want a good alternative to college that can really benefit you in the long run? look into joining the military. seriously. but that's another topic entirely...

 

blackout, I'm starting a toyota sponsored technician program at tcc in august that is supposed to prepare you to be master ase certified by the end of the program. do you think someone with no previous employment experience as a technician but who is master ase certified would do well?

 

Honestly, I wouldn't expect being a mechanic to be a good part time job, that is, if you could even do it part time. Most places require that you work full-time or not at all.

 

At my dealership, we wont hire you if ur lookin for parttime, maybe as a porter, and then ur stuck @ 10$ an hour...

@ Parts i make 15$ a hour + 1.5% Commission.. so do some math, and i usually hover around 85k-110k a month in sales... but i work M-S 8am-730pm

 

put it this way... in my opinion there is no substitute for experience. that being said, however, having a master cert is paramount to making money in the auto repair field. it would definitely give you a leg up... especially if there is any kind of job placement assistance going on. to my experience toyota takes care of their techs. if you can get on at a reputable toyota dealership, you could be on your way to a successful career.

but one thing i noticed about a lot of the guys who came out of big money schools is they really didn't know how to fix anything. yeah maybe they learned how stuff works, but the key to making good money is being able to diagnose quickly- for example, knowing common problems on specific car platforms can give you a huge advantage in knowing exactly what part is associated with a certain symptom. i know that if a mercury mystique comes in with an a/c inop, the harness and switch for the blower motor is a frequent problem so that's the first place i'm going to look, and most likely that will be what's wrong. another tech who'd never seen it could spend hours trying to figure out what's going on. this is just one example... but you only get to know these types of things through experience. but having the knowledge will definitely help you out... i'm just not sure if it's worth the price you might be paying for it.

and i wouldn't be overly optimistic on a starting salary either, unless like i mentioned previously there's some kind of really good job placement hookups that goes along with the training. i think a lot depends on how dedicated you are to learning the field, and definitely where you end up working. i for one knowing what i know now would not choose it over college, but it's still a good trade.

 

yeah i missed this point as well. part-time just give it up. not going to happen, unless it's at a quick-lube type place, and you might as well hit up burger king for the money they'll pay you.

 

Most of the techs that come out of Lincoln Tech.. UTI... arent Mechanics.. they are Parts Replacers and hope that fixes the problems..

 

but then again this is sort of the type of techs that dealerships are molding... most people won't even look at a dealership unless their car is under warranty, and warranty techs want to get cars in and out as quickly as possible anyway and it's at no cost to the customer so they'll just throw parts at it.

needless to say there's no money involved in warranty work either...