7 Reasons to Avoid a Career as a Automotive Technician
Have you ever wondered about venturing into a career in the automotive world? If so, I have something to tell you that may change your mind. I have 7 things to tell you to be exact. Hopefully you read this article before you make any rash decisions. If you know someone who is contemplating making a jump into this career, maybe you should share this article with them.</
7.) Expensive Tools
The tools you need to do your job efficiently just happen to cost quite a bit of money. I know what you are going to say: There are of lots of jobs that require you to purchase your own tools excluding the self-employed ones. For example, a Cosmetologist. When I am getting a trim, the cosmetologist always mentions that they have to buy their own clippers, scissors, ect. They tell me in a way that tries to make it seem like I should feel sorry for them because they spent $800 total on their equipment. But I don't. I don't feel bad because I have spent thousands on my equipment.
The truth at issue here is that you have to spend thousands on your tools. Sure, you can go to Harbor Freight and buy up everything you think you need for less than a grand but you would be getting inferior quality tools. I am not saying that you need everything Snap-On, but you still need good tools that have high reliability. Just for some examples: Matco 1/2 Impact $425, MAC 1/4 Air Ratchet $320, Snap-On Ratchet $100. The stuff ads up quickly. Oh but don't forget the variety of lights you need to stock up on. I buy cheap ones in bulk because I lose or break them constantly.
The situation gets even stickier. Most technicians will not loan you tools to use from their stash. Its easy to understand: Why would they loan you tools that they spent money on so that you can make money. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to borrow the same tool twice, you need to buy it. Most dealerships have OEM specialty tools for you to use but you still need everything else. The only reason this is not higher than a #7 on this list is that tools make your job easier. I enjoy buying and using new high tech tools. Its just expensive. You figure with all these required tools that you would make extra money to make up for it. Just keep reading.
6.) Mental Stress
If anything, worrying about the possible physical stress listed later is likely to stress you out emotionally. It all plays in together. As soon as your realize that you are stuck in this career, which believe me regardless of what they say a career change is difficult. is when its too late to change it. Now you're going to be stressing about your future. The only thing you can do is hop on and hope for the best. Third party shops are the most likely to go belly up as technology begins to require certain services to be in the capable, trained hands of dealership employee's.
The part that eats at me the most is when I worry about my repairs. I worry that some random person is going to be driving down the road and all of a sudden the wheel comes off and kills someone. Or you just fixed the brakes on a family minivan, those brakes fail fail in an emergency stop situation on the interstate which leads to the death of all the occupants. Could you live with that? Before you say that it will never happen to you, you should realize that mistakes do happen. Some things will happen to you especially if you believe it won't. That kind of thinking leads to carelessness. Of course you're mistakes may not be as devastating as the examples above. You could have lackluster things happen like loose drain plugs or a nut that fell down an engine.
Every time I put something together I am always nervous when starting it the first time. I always sit there for a second and think over what I have done. At that moment, your sitting there ready to hit the key, it really doesn't matter anymore. There is only one way to find out if all is good - crank her over! In both these situations your employer is likely to cover all the incurred expenses (or their insurance) but you should always strive to achieve good results. This is why I don't do this kind of work on the side because if something happens financial responsibility runs on you. One way or another, you will be held liable for your repairs. With all these responsibilities, mental and physical stresses, you should be well compensated in pay, right?
5.) Politics
This job has politics. You must appease your fellow technicians if you want to ever ask for their help or borrow a tool. You must appease and befriend your service writer if you ever want to stop getting all the crap no body else wants to do. You also should appease your customers. Once a customer has found "their mechanic", it becomes a special bond. They begin to bring everything to you, request that only you do it, and they want and expect you do things for free because you are now buds. Sometimes this relationship works out great with well tipping or connected customers or if you have a salary or hourly only paid position.
Borrowing tools was already mentioned earlier. If you borrow too often, you can hurt your friendships. If you forget to bring tools back, you will quickly become the "thieving" enemy of the shop and be blamed for every tool that goes missing.
Lets not just talk about shop politics. Lets talk about family and friends. Suddenly all your family and friends are asking you for advice or for help. For friends: I don't mind helping you out sometimes. Free information is no problem. I may even do the work for you depending on how much I value our friendship. Especially if you offer valuable services in the future such as I fixed your car so you offer to help me roof my house. That's how friendship works; give and take. Once it dwindles down to the point at which you are only ever contacting me for help with your car or you never make time to help me, your out. That's just the way it works.
Family is different. I try to help family members regardless. Family should stick together, right? Don't take advantage of me and things are all good. Sometimes my family members even extend my services out to their friends. I don't appreciate that. If you like fixing stuff for free, then this may be the career choice for you.
4.) Required Vast Knowledge
This is a career that is ever changing. You need some sort of schooling. It doesn't have to be a college of sorts, could even be a computer based courses offered by your employer. You will need schooling. Actually, I do not recommend going to a college for this unless it is a manufacturer supplied program like Ford Asset. It's more like an internship of sorts. I graduated from Lincoln College of Technology near the top of my class. For the price tag of 30K in student loans, I didn't learn much. I learned more from hands-on experience while working and dealer supplied educational classes. Find a good employer, or dealer, and get them to pay for proper training. You will need to constantly update yourself with technology and stay current.
I acquired a associate degree and several ASE Certifications. My previous job even paid for the ASE tests, but there was no benefit to me passing them. I did not get a pay raise. It's only a pretty mark on a resume` and that is about it. OEM dealers really don't even look at ASE and consider them anything special. The only reason to even have them is for shopping around for employers.
As I developed in this career field, there was a technician I worked with that I really looked up to. His name was Steve. He was very good at what he did but I think he really specialized more as a brute force suspension and exhaust man. Either way, I looked up to him not because of what he could do but his general opinion and mindset. Anyway, that part doesn't much matter but he told me about a conversation he had with a customer that happened to be a doctor.
Steve says he should be paid more than the doctor. The doctor becomes enraged. Goes on and on about how he "had to go to school for 8 years to study the body!" Steve's response is "There are only two models of a human body, male and female. There are several models and brands of a car, all with completely different parts that look, function, and are positioned differently." The doctor mouths off and says "I save lives. If I make a mistake, someone can die." Steve's response is priceless; he says "Sure, you make a mistake and one person may die. If I mess up, it may kill you, your wife, your kids, and the family in the car you just plowed through."
Knowledge in this field is everything. It's like they say "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". The knowledge of knowing common issues will save you lots of time, but the knowledge on how to actually diagnose the concern will be your saving grace. The best thing a teacher ever told was "Work Smart, Not hard." If you need to be so knowledgeable then you should likely get paid a bunch, right?
3.) Poor Working Environment
I am not afraid to get my hands dirty. It's a daily routine. I touch something in the shop and magically I am covered in grease. I wash my hands and arms as if I am scrubbing in for surgery every time I need to pull a vehicle out. I constantly wipe my hands on rags and wipe my tools off but a single rag is no match for all these grease. Now you call in the chemicals and spray down your tools with brake parts cleaner. Once I get home, my hands and nails are permanently stained with black diesel oil. No, I am not afraid of getting my hands dirty but it would sure be nice if I didn't have to.
The poor working environment goes deeper than dirty hands. All shops are poor environments, but some are naturally worse than others. The most common issues are skin contact with known carcinogens (oils, chemicals), breathing in chemicals and carcinogenic dusts ("Want to snort some brake dust, anyone?"), poor lighting, and imminent danger of bodily harm creeping around every corner.
The winters are cold. The constant opening of garage doors letting the heat out creates moments where you need winter gloves and a coat but other times your sweating getting baked out because the heaters are just blasting away and your leaning over a hot engine. It's even colder when your outside laying under a truck in gravel trying to change a starter motor. You know what I think is worse than the cold? The heat. Summer rolls around producing blistering heat. It always seems to average a few degrees hotter in the shop than outside. So when your working your butt off in a shop that may reach 115F laying over that hot engine that is at least 200FT sweating so profusely that you can hardly see. So your looking at yourself and saying "I am tough, I can do it". That's fine, me too. All of us technicians do.
There are plenty of jobs out there requiring you to risk your life and future or jobs that take place in a hotter more dangerous environment. But is that what you want? If your all gun hoe and still want to be a automotive technician, then just keep reading. Working is such bad conditions should come with great pay, right?
2.) Physical Stress
Remember when I mentioned that there was imminent danger of bodily harm creeping around every corner? I wasn't kidding. This job is physically stressful. It will keep you in modest shape. It will keep those muscles from deteriorating. It will likely permanently injure you.
On those days that I make it all day without a single scratch I jump for joy. The usual day includes several injuries. My arms, legs, and hands regularly get cuts and scratches from reaching in to tight spaces trying to remove a component. At least once a week I get a deeper cut that involves wrapping my finger with a gauze and electrical tap under my gloves. I have bumped my head on the lift arms so many times I've lost count (or maybe, I have lost my ability to count due to brain damage). I have bumped my shins on protruding trailer hitch ball. We are still talking about short term damaging injuries here. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises heal.
There is long term damage as well. Every time you bend over and lift that truck tire to mount it you are likely deteriorating your discs in your back. Walking on concrete all day and kneeling on them is horrible on your knees, so they will likely fail eventually too. All those carcinogenic dust you are breathing and chemicals you are touching could easily increase your risks of cancer in the future. That repetitive wrenching motion and use of air pneumatic tools are slowly destroying the ligaments in your wrist. Ever look at a technician that has turned wrenches for 20+ years? They look old. They look tired. Their body shows the stress of the job.
There are good jobs out there that have similar risks. If possible carpal tunnel syndrome, lung cancer, and herniated discs do not deter you from this job, then continue reading. If you have all these risks you should be well compensated with pay, right?
1.) The Pay
It's all about the money, right? I mean, who would want to put up with the barrage of family members asking for free repairs, sniffing brake parts cleaner all day, the greasy hot environment, included responsibility of work quality, the fear of loosing the use of your back, and the constant education that's required to get you no where? No one would put up with this stuff if the pay wasn't up to par.
That's where you are wrong. The pay in this field CAN be very good, but there is potential for good pay in any field to be good. Even Walmart has some high paying positions, but most people who work there are stuck with something close to minimum wage. These high paying jobs are far and few between. A position on a NASCAR team would be fun and likely pay very well, but again these positions are not very common. That's what these private schools try to show you. These high paying jobs that don't come around often.
Lets just talk about the median salary for an automotive technician. For a senior technician, the median is a modest 52K a year. Lets also remember that there are several types of pay for the technician. Salary which is rare for this job, Flat-Rate which is common, and Hourly which is somewhat common. A entry level position only earns a measly median 35K a year. All those occupational risks and schooling to make less than the average pay for a Garbage Collector. I'm not kidding. I am not bashing on garbage collectors, they are generally in good shape to do such a physical job.
Even look at the fast food industry. If they get their wage hike they are asking for, they will be making 32K a year but you having a associate degree with student loan debt and thousands of dollars in tools only make an few extra dollars per hour. Before you know it, years have flown by. Congrats, now your just as stuck in this career as the rest of us. Might is well stay with the ship now.
Conclusion: I'm not trying to scare you away from this career but you need to be prepared for what lies ahead. I am happy with working on cars. I am semi-happy with my pay for all these years of experience, so far. If everything I have wrote about today has not scared you off, then perhaps this is a great career choice for you. Maybe you will be lucky and be happy too.