Becoming a Mechanic
What follows is a point by point argument based on factual situations and experience as to why one should be encouraged to carefully consider their decision to become an auto mechanic. This is not to be interpreted as the ineffectual rant of an emotionally bias individual. Great care has been taken to present the facts, and after much consolidation with many colleagues we agreed that this is an accurate representation of the matters at hand.The combined years of experience represented in this rationalization span many many centuries, several different locations, and varying specific positions in the automotive technicians trade. Positions represented include Service Managers, General Technicians, Service Advisers, Foreman, Diagnostic Technicians, Service Writers, Drivers, Oil Jockeys, Warranty Clerks, Tower Operators etc. I personally journeyed my way up from apprentice, Red Seal Technician, Dealer Certified Expert Technician, Head Diagnostician, Foreman, and have experience being a Service Adviser and Shop Owner and am now a private consultant helping disgruntled customers get what they deserve.1. There are no happy technicians. If you are one, please send me a picture with your contact information because I'd love to meet you.a) Most talented technicians have the equivalent of four years university education within 10 years of being in the trade, yet they get treated like uneducated slaves who's jobs are readily filled by the next delusional applicant.b) We are given orders by ignorant service advisers and managers who in the vast majority of cases have only a grade 12 education and no automotive experience. In no other business or trade is this backward management style implemented, that I am aware of.c) We are made out to be the cause of all problems or "rip offs". Mostly due to the utter lack of automotive knowledge, communication skills, and customer schedule organization by management and advisers. In your career you will be asked to do things that will compromise your licenses, integrity, and reputation. You will be told to turn a blind eye to one thing and to do unnecessary repairs on another vehicle the very same day. Refusal usually costs you your job.People have a fairly good sense of when they are being ripped off. If they're not being ripped off then at the very least they haven't been properly educated as to what transpired. But more times than not if you feel ripped off as a customer, you were. And 99% of the time it's not because of the mechanic.d) There are so few shops where a, "how can we solve this" or a, "lets work together" attitude exists, even for a moment, that I dare say they are as real as leprechauns. You will constantly need to cover your behind and be on guard because you will soon realize that the odd human mistake you might make, however rare, will be pounced upon with great fervor as others relish in making you pay for it. Basically everyone hates their job, they can't get out themselves and getting someone else fired makes them feel more secure about their own position as well as give them a tiny bit of underlying hope that someone will return the favor one day.d) We are the highest paid employees in the dealership/shop and are the most resented for it. The Service Manager will probably make two or three dollars more than you but will most likely be on salary and his/her job is really a management position.e) This conflict of information, wide gap in education levels, and tension due to misrepresentation creates an general atmosphere of frustration and even more strife.f) All this combined is probably the reason why there is no "offered job profile description" on the Canadian Government Employment Career Classification web site when there is one for nearly every other job. They simply couldn't find someone to paint an unbiased yet experienced, pretty picture for them.g) The customer arrives angry that their car is broken, they leave angry that they had to pay to get it fixed (or not fixed). You will be extremely hard pressed to find a more thankless avenue of employment. Your interactions with almost everyone you meet at work will contain differing levels of anger, distain, distrust, disgust, disappointment, loathing, or sadness. This sounds like an exaggeration but it's not. You will very probably go your entire career without hearing anything positive about yourself, your job or how you efficiently diagnosed and repaired any of those two hundred fifty thousand cars you worked on. If you can survive in this strange environment for any length of time with no ill effect to your home life you are a much stronger beast than most of us other humans.2. Continued loss of wages due to inflation.a) In a study done by the Snap-On tool company, a simple ratchet cost the mechanic approximately one days wages in 1960. A simple ratchet now costs approximately 3 days wages and is one of the very least expensive tools needed, as apposed to back in 1960 when it was one of the more expensive tools.b) As a result the overwhelming majority of technicians coming into the trade since 2000 will never be able to purchase a house within a two hour drive of the Canadian west coast (also where you will be paid the most as wages also go down the farther away you are from a major city such as Vancouver).c) While we have seen shop rates rise from $55/hr to $120/hr, technicians have not had a significant wage increase in over 8 years. There are several excellent technicians that have not had a raise at all in over 12 years. One argument made by management for this gap is the rising cost of shop equipment. This is preposterous; while shop equipment costs have risen due to increased complexity and natural inflation, (of which the owner can write off) more and more of this burden has been and is being placed on the technician, not to mention the natural increase in their own tool cost as per the afore mentioned reasons.
3. Cost of equipment.a) Unless you are in your first few years of apprenticeship, the tools which you are required to purchase yourself cannot be written off like all other trades or arts.b) You will be expected to purchase approximately thirty thousand dollars in equipment within your fist 6 years in order to perform at a similar level with the other successful technicians and not annoy all the rest by constantly borrowing from them.4. Pay does not commensurate with knowledge or skill.a) You will work next to people well below your skill level, position, and seniority that will possibly be paid more than you for doing no recognizable work. And may even be put in charge of their training as they continue to do nothing of value.b) Contrary to expectation, no matter how many extra licenses you attain i.e. Government Vehicle Inspection, Air Care, First Aide etc, (at your own expense), you will most probably never get any remuneration for it. Very few shops offer any kind of compensation for extra tickets any longer. It is considered part of your basic training now and yet you are not required to have them to get the job.c) Wages paid at general repair shops (where you must learn the intricacies of several brands and possess superior diagnostic skills with little official technical information) are slightly less, and come with fewer benefits than at a dealership.d) If you are under the delusion that you will be paid more working at a Mercedes Benz, or BMW dealer (where you will be expected to attain a level of perfection akin to a god and deal with customers the likes described only in Steven King novels), you should probably give your head a good shake. You will in fact make more per hour and in bonus at a well managed Honda or Toyota dealer as opposed to being expected to work for the "prestige" of it at Audi or Jaguar.e) The "prestige" wears off quite quickly. It may be impressive at a party when someone finds out you work for a high end luxury auto dealer but not so much when you drive away in your 1990 VW Golf.5. Health risks.a) In this job your back will take a beating like in no other trade. No where else will you be asked to bend over at ninety degrees, knees locked for hours on end, lift weights over 400 pounds above your head, and the next minute contort yourself like Houdini under a dash, arms twisted above you, flash light in your mouth, brake pedal digging into your neck, hips dangling over the door jam for an hour as you repair some obscure wire or squeak while water drips on your forehead and freshly slushed snow soaks your back.b) Danger of eye and ear damage from sharp projectiles and toxic fluids is ever present, along with blunt trauma to head, chest and other limbs. Every year one to three technicians in Canada are killed by hoist failure (due to lack of maintenance). This lack of maintenance in shop equipment is management's responsibility and is sadly an industry standard. You may be required to do your own hoist inspections but unless you've been trained in what to look for by a professional this is not legal. Nevertheless, your requests for needed repairs may go unanswered for years.c) You will go deaf in certain tone frequencies, it's just part of the job. Whether it's alarms going off, air tools, or your neighbor dropping a brake drum, the volume will damage your hearing.d) You may not realize it at first but those fancy air tools we love so much because they make our job easier and faster may actually cause you to have to undergo an operation to relieve the painful and dangerous effects of carpel tunnel syndrome. It's quite common in the industry.e) By far the largest and most common danger to your health in this profession is the overwhelming amount of dangerous chemicals we come into contact with every day. Almost every spray-able lube, cleaner, or agent in the automotive world contains a "T" chemical. Look for it on the label or in the WHMIS, it's a "T" with a dot under it making somewhat of an exclamation point. This will never leave your body! It accumulates, eventually causing anything from neurological disorders to organ failure. Getting transmission fluid on your skin or in your lungs carries with it the side effects of major skin or lung cancer as it is the most engineered, readily accessible fluid known to man.
Similar effects can be cause by exposer to brake fluid or coolant. There are many more chemicals and the list is far too long to go into here. Ask to see a WHMIS book at your local garage for more info. (It is required by law for the shop to have such a book and all it's employees to be familiar with it's content but don't be surprised if they don't actually have one or say that they can't find it.)f)"Well, why don't you use gloves and a respirator and ear protection?" This would be good but you will not be able to attain your required efficiency level like this, and you'll be fired. Not to mention the fact that you have to take your ear protection off and strain to hear minute squeaks, rattles, and leaks, get your gloves cut open, filled with sweat, and snagged by sharp objects several times a day. Your respirator will be drenched in sweat not to mention impossible to wear during many close quarters tasks. Inadvertent spills will go right through your fancy uniform or overalls strait to your receptive skin and the whole shop will in no way, all be quite' while you search for your mystery noise. On top of this most shops will make you pay for this equipment (this is illegal as per WCB) or they will purchase the the most inadequate, cheaply priced garbage so that you will be forced to purchase working safety equipment out of pocket anyway.g) Go to any General Practitioner of Medicine and Chiropractor's office and ask him what profession he or she sees most often in their office. I have asked around and I have been told every time, without hesitation, that it is the lowly mechanic.6. Little or no chance of advancement.a) If you wanted a job with no physical, or technical diagnostic demands but all the joys of a middle management gang banging (you will be on the receiving end of said banging'), with the customer service experience of taking complaints for the IRS, an extra 2 dollars an hour and a possible irresistible $1000 off on a new vehicle: you can have the prestigious job of Service Manager! To get there you will first have to take a short night course, a hefty pay cut and become a Service Adviser then play the lottery for several years searching the classifieds for a position in line for a job you don't really want but won't realize until it's too late. Your only real hope is to become a shop foreman and this is quite difficult to get because in most cases you have to be the best, most senior, and most popular technician available that can be buddies with the Service Manager and lie to the technicians all the while somehow keeping their support.7. Difficulty jumping ship.a) For all it's downsides this trade is also very difficult to leave. Many have tried and failed. You get paid just enough to enter the very bottom of the middle working class so you end up with children, possibly a mortgage on your very own townhouse or apartment and very little savings. What you know is not transferable to anything else or any other education. Opening a shop for yourself requires close to half a million dollars if you want to be profitable but having even more money doesn't guarantee it's success. A wee bit of hope is offered in that several technicians over the past few years have been leaving the trade to enter construction and have done well.SummaryPlease consider your choice to be an automotive technician carefully. I was warned by older mechanics when I started. I thought I was smarter, quicker, and more adapted. I have watched many young men enter the trade with the same ignorance only to find out later for themselves that they were mistaken. The issue that gets to most techs isn't the physical problems such as the back aches or the chemicals (which can definitely put a very sudden stop to your career), but the way you get treated. There's an underlying attitude that what you do isn't really all that special or complicated. God forbid you ever actually verbalize that you're unhappy. Keep those feelings to yourself and your trusted brothers in arms. I've seen this happen to good techs. They will replace you.This is the 21st century and the complexity of some vehicles is daunting to say the least. Timing gear systems that resemble the multi-layered guts of a timepiece, computer controlled multi-zone climates, a hundred sixty seven computers in one vehicle alone, in line mid harness mounted one way diodes, and command priority fiber optic communications are examples that don't even scrape the surface of the complexity you will need to be intimate with day after day. Challenging yes, but even these challenges subside in their lustrous appeal and your working day will still be filled with the pains of an ever advancing industry that has sadly forgotten it's laboring masses.At the very least get your steel toed boots on, go and talk with the Service Manager, tell him you're thinking of becoming a technician and ask if you can see the shop and talk to the guys for a few minutes. If they deny you, it's not because of WCB regulations. When you get in there take in the atmosphere, observe what's going on, what kind of attitudes are people displaying, then go talk to all the techs one by one, one on one. Ask them honest and direct questions. Anyone who likes their job will brag, show you around, show you what they're doing, introduce you to people, you won't be able to shut them up. You will not find this. Just make an informed decision. You could be an electrician, plumber, engineer, carpenter, or just work on cars when you get home from your job as an accountant. Think about it.
