Is a Career as an Automotive Technician Right for You?

So you have come to a point in your life where you don't know what career is right for you. How do you know which route to take? Perhaps you are like me and really like working on cars and enjoy modifying them. I grew up around hot rods and with a dad that worked on old cars as a hobby. I was exposed to them all the time. I went to car shows and enjoyed viewing all the vehicles that had endless amounts of hours invested into them. I began to develop a passion for cars, and I couldn't wait until I could get my own to start working on. When that time finally came, I got a 1991 Honda CRX. The final product consisted of a new paint job, engine swap, two inch drop, alloy wheels, and more. I had to learn how to do all of this work myself because I neither could afford to pay someone else to do it nor did I want to. That is where my journey into the realm of automotive mechanics begun.

I joined the career-technical program in my junior year of high school and continued until graduation. I gained a vast amount of knowledge while doing this, and I enjoyed it along the way. Although I learned a great deal of technical automotive knowledge, there was still a lot that I didn't know. I finished the program as the top student in the class, and was given the award, "Automotive Technology Student of the Year."

Upon graduation, I was offered a job at a pretty large Chevrolet automotive dealership as a technician. It was about twenty miles from my house, but I accepted the job anyways since it was a large dealership and I thought I could make some decent money. I started at an introductory wage of $7.50 per hour. After two weeks, I made flat rate, which is basically being paid by the job. After a while, I found my average hourly wage slipping to minimum and even lower. After all that work to excel during my program and graduate as the top student, I was stuck making around minimum wage for physically demanding work. Not only that, but I also had a lot of liability to deal with as well. One wrong move could lead to injury or death of a customer. I decided about six months into this career that it was not something I wanted to make permanent.

I continued on for a little over a year for one sole reason. I needed save money for the upcoming year of college. I am now studying as undecided, but at least I know one career that is not right for me. There is money to be made in this career if you have your own business, but it is not worth it to me. I spent around four thousand dollars on automotive tools just to do the less complex work. Many coworkers of mine had tens of thousands of dollars invested just in tools. This is just my experience as an automotive technician. I hope others' are better than mine. If you wanted some insight into this career I hope I have provided some. Good luck on your future career choices.