Choose Automotive Electronics - Try to Decide Your Automotive Speciality

When we enter a college setting as a new student we usually have to chose our major for our classes to be on track to get our degree and not have to take classes that were not needed and would not count toward our major degree.When you go to school to learn a trade is no different and will have major implications as to weather or not you will succeed in the field of study.

The subject I am going to use is automotive technician training. When you first enter school for training you may have wild dreams of becoming an engine repair or transmission mechanic or just want to do brakes or suspension systems. Well these areas of expertize are good except after you continue thru your training you will realize that it is not what you expected and there is alto of other things that come into play when learning these fields.

When you start to learn the electrical/electronics field of your automotive training your eyes will open wide and your brain will open up to all the possibilities of this area of expertize, the electronics of a car is integrated into all aspects of the cars of today and even more will be in the cars of tomorrow. The motor as we see it now runs on gasoline but has electronic fuel injection and all sorts of sensors to keep it running at peak efficiency with the least amount of bad emissions. The transmission now has electronic solenoids that control the shifting and speed sensors that go to electronic speedometers and electronic anti lock brake systems and even our cruise control and seats also the interior and exterior have electronics that control them.

I am writing about this since most students think cars are easy to work on and if this was 20 years ago then the answer would be they were and now with all the electronics like air bags and crash sensors, seats that heat up and move all directions at the touch of a switch or how about the new adjustable pedals so you will not have to be too close to the steering wheel. The systems on todays cars are like a computer network of over 20 or more computers monitoring and controlling everything on a car from your lights to the engine to the braking and the inter ion lights and radio to the air-conditioner and now we have anti roll and accident avoidance that can adjust steering and brake the car with the use of radar sensors in the front and back of the car and tires that keep monitoring air pressures to alert the driver to a low tire pressure.

When you look at a car today you do not realize from the outside the car looks almost the same as 20 years ago except the cars today have got so many electronics that the technicians that are in the field now have to either go back to school or leave the profession due to all the electronics and quite frankly some cannot understand the electronics and it is a field that is a specialty that has grown leaps and bounds and the technicians that have stayed up on it are the lucky ones and those that did not were left behind. There has a large amount of technicians leaving the field for this very reason.

When we teach our students for the automotive field we show them the importance of being strong in the electrical/electronics areas and then chose one or more of the other areas like brakes or engine repair or transmissions. If you are strong in the electrical/electronics you will be a valuable asset to your employer and if you keep up on the new technologies like the hybrid, hydrogen and electric engines and the new things that come out everyday then you will be a very much wanted technical and like a specialty doctor you will be able to make lots of money.

So when you decide to enter a school do not look only at the degree you may get look at the jobs out there and the industry will dictate what kind of technicians are needed and that should be one of your specialty areas you choose. good luck in your training and keep up with the technology and you will have a wonderful career in the automotive field. Remember that your training never stops as long as the cars keep changing and the industry keeps making new ones.