I am thinking about a career change...

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RaniDart70 said:
wow your going in the oppostite direction ....i cant imagine getting burnt out with wreching at this point .....

i did the community college automotive thing too for a lot of "elective" credits plus i wanted to learn to build my own cars.

i have a Master's degree in Political Science ....however im feeling that i want to move into the auto industry .......i want to build transmissions, but im a female and im not sure how welcoming the auto industry is to that.

i know i can make more money using my degree but what is a degree and money if you cant do what you want.....this thread is really making me think about the advantages of a nice air conditioned office job as opposed to working in a shop with your wrenches .....smelling the sweet aroma of 90 weight all day. everytime i pass by a transmission shop i wish that it could be me in there............so one really needs to weigh it out
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You should do that if it's what you want to do, besides, no one ever said you have to stay there.

PS My Daughter was a service tech for a Advance Auto/Goodyear shop and ended up being thier service writer.

I spent a lot of my working life as a tech/builder/shop forman for Aamco transmissions, but I mostly did the standard trans and exotics. (BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Allison)
I knew how to do the usual ones also, but there were other guys for those.

I was amazed at how helpfull everyone was when my daughter started out, and how they were willing to help her with anything she needed to know or do.

I got tired of always being dirty, cold, hot, and went into computer repair and services when I was about 40.
 
Here's my 2 cents worth. I was a mechanic/ tech. whatever you want to
call it. I started back in the early 70's. Made good money at it back then.
Through the 80's the pay scale went down. As did in every decade following.
Yeah I did support my family, paid the bills and what not. The thing is. I
never made enough to really get ahead of the game. I made good money.
But in this area, the dealers that I worked for was making harder and harder
to make more money. They put on more techs. So everyone made less. They
made more. Went to work for a independant shop. Made a little more money,
but I was still working my *** off.
Then 3 years ago my back was starting to give me problems. Found out I got
degenreative disc desease. To much working on cars. Well now I'm on SSI.
I have a hard time working on my own cars.
Go ahead and get out of the business now. Your body will thank you!
I'm 58 years old now. Collecting the SSI.
I think back and wish I would of changed back in the 80's.
Good luck on whatever you chose.
 
The thing I haven't noticed in this thread is the "be careful."

I don't know what the economy is like in your area, and you may think you're not doin' well but depending on how this election goes, and EITHER party could cause an upswing or downfall, you may be wishing you even HAVE a job

(Steve, here, just got laid off)

I would think that unless you have, say, a wife who can completely support you and your family while you go to school, etc, you'd better have another job lined up before you burn that bridge.
 
64 SRT8 Dart said:
Rani, where were you 5 years ago!! LOL Been married 3years now sometimes she despises my car and my car time with my buds. LOL
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lol...i been here in cowtown, colorado ....i have kept somewhat secluded and been collecting cars. lol i learned the hard way to not get involved with other ppl's restoration projects....... a few years ago i attempted to restore a friends roadrunner ....thinking that i would make good money and still get him a significant discount.........that all failed when he expectied it all to be done like tomorrow and for about half of what it actually cost in the end.

so now i restore my own junk and dont mix anyone else in LOL

from what im seeing in this thread is that auto industry is for young whippersnappers......it seems to have great physical demand which is my problem. im 26 now but now what about the future ....what if i ever get married and start a family ....can i wrench while pregnant? would a shop give maternity leave? these are all good questions leaning for the future ........is there a physical requirement to be a transmission builder .....im 4'10" 86lbs. .......do i have enough strentgh to be a good tech/ mechanic without other ppl's help ? this thread is starting to make me think that despite my drive to be a mechanic/ tech ...it might not be a good idea for the long term future....the majority opinion in here seems to be: bail while you can and stick with your privately owned projects

there seems to be too many "what ifs" in the auto industry for everyone, not just me but everyone
 
64 SRT8 Dart said:
Kind of in the same boat as well.

Been a welder for the last 10 years and it's starting to take a toll on my body, especially on my neck. I'm only 30.

I put my app and resume in at the El Paso County Sheriff's Dept and had the testing on the 26th of Sept. I passed the test with flying colors and got scheduled for the oral boards (personal interview). It was pretty intense, 1.5 hours as a matter of fact, of 4 commanding officers staring you down and asking questions.:???:
I go to church with a detective that's been on the force for 15 years and told him how it went. He said it sounded like it went very well.

Supposed to hear this week whether or not I made the cut for the next step of the process....background investigation.
If I make it through that then it's the lie detector test.
After that I'll have two 3 hour psychological exams.
After that, comes the physical/medical exam.
Then they let you know if they want you.
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wow man , if you see a yellow duster drive by, its me, and im not speeding !!! :D good luck , i hope that works out. then you can patrol my neighborhood and keep my cars safe LOL
 
Brian bought up a good point, the wear and tear. I did the same job in the Post Office for a good ten years. On our busy nights, me and 1 other person would cut as much mail as the department next to us and they had 8 people and a conveyor belt. We did the whole thing by hand. My friend that worked with me and I are both paying for it now, both have degenerative disc disease and tore up shoulders as well as a few other problems directly related to our jobs. I am 46 and he is 54, so we have a long painful life ahead of us......
 
this is great guys! i really appreciate what everyone is telling me! i want to stay wrenching but then again i dont... i almost have no desire to go home and do side jobs or even work on my new 70' dart project that will take place of my turbo dart:-( keep the stories and advice coming!
 
RaniDart70 said:
lol...i been here in cowtown, colorado ....i have kept somewhat secluded and been collecting cars. lol i learned the hard way to not get involved with other ppl's restoration projects....... a few years ago i attempted to restore a friends roadrunner ....thinking that i would make good money and still get him a significant discount.........that all failed when he expectied it all to be done like tomorrow and for about half of what it actually cost in the end.

so now i restore my own junk and dont mix anyone else in LOL

from what im seeing in this thread is that auto industry is for young whippersnappers......it seems to have great physical demand which is my problem. im 26 now but now what about the future ....what if i ever get married and start a family ....can i wrench while pregnant? would a shop give maternity leave? these are all good questions leaning for the future ........is there a physical requirement to be a transmission builder .....im 4'10" 86lbs. .......do i have enough strentgh to be a good tech/ mechanic without other ppl's help ? this thread is starting to make me think that despite my drive to be a mechanic/ tech ...it might not be a good idea for the long term future....the majority opinion in here seems to be: bail while you can and stick with your privately owned projects

there seems to be too many "what ifs" in the auto industry for everyone, not just me but everyone
Click to expand...

rani.... i have a hard time at my job sometimes because of my height.. im 6'5'' 215#'s. the hoists dont go nearly high enough for me so that leads me to slouch or bend backwards... and i have to bend down much further to pick up heavy stuff.... so your height may help you if you do become a tech. you would be a great "trim" tech! you could almost fit in the glove box! lol! jk!
 
can i wrench while pregnant?

You're kidding, right? But just to give an accurate response - sometimes you need to reach and contort your torso in very unnatural positions. I'd like to see you change a master cylinder or an evaporator when you're pregnant. NOT HAPPENING. Or how about standing under a huge diesel truck for an hour that only can be put up in the air so far and then try lifting a 250lb PTO on your shoulder while you're kind of bent over backwards. Or how about changing a water pump while you lay your belly on the radiator support. Not sure why you would even consider that...

would a shop give maternity leave?

Though I am a dad, I got one day. And my *** hat boss was calling me when my wife was in recovery asking me about some car I didn't finish. Working at a dealer especially is essentially working retail. We don't get many holidays. They want production, they don't want to pay you for not being present.

is there a physical requirement to be a transmission builder .....im 4'10" 86lbs. .......do i have enough strentgh to be a good tech/ mechanic without other ppl's help

Could you lift a transmission from the floor to the bench by yourself? It usually takes two of us usually with some effort. Can you torque something at an awkward angle to 200 ft lbs by yourself? You need some decent upper body strength. There are so many things that require physical strength, hard to even start describing them.

Being a builder in itself probably is less strenuous than being an installer but could you step in and disassemble/build 2-3 units a day, test them and make sure they're right before someone else put them in? That's probably what a trans. shop would be looking for. You'd probably need to learn how to get them out and in effectively before they let you start doing bench work.
 
My Grandfather always told me that I should find the the two things I love most in life. Keep the first one as your hobby and make the second one your career.
(I wasn't equipped to make it as a pornstar, so I became a mechanic).

I'm comin up on the big five oh pretty quick and I have been turning a wrench most of my life. It ain't as easy as it used to be. The environment has totally changed from what it once was. When I first started, a good mech was a valuable asset. Now, we are just a tradable commodity in a market flooded with out of work mechanics. I see a lot of shops hiring based on how little they can pay and not how good the tech is. The money isn't as easy to come by anymore either. Most of my friends are wrenches and most of them are doin the burn out thing also. I don't have any real answers, if I did, I would probably be typing this from a different perspective for sure.

Rani, I can tell you one thing. What seperates a good mechanic from a great one is working smarter, not harder. You have the brains to work out the situations your size doesn't accomodate.
 
Have a friend who was a flatrate wrencher for about 30 years. He was tired of it and thought about giving it up for woodworking. Instead, he got a position with Wyotech teaching and he loves it. As for me, I thought I would be a printer til my face fell in the press rollers. I said they will burn me, mix the ashes in a pound of ink, print me on a sheet of paper and hang me on the wall. I still like printing and have been my own boss since 1984 - problem is the computer has turned everyone into graphic designers/printers. I got my "Oversize Load" escort certification last August and my Class A CDL in May. I drive overnite runs for a hydraulic company delivering and picking up cylinders they work on. A bit of a change after walking to work all these years, but I enjoy getting out of Dodge on someone elses nickel. Still print in between truckin, not quite ready to give it up totally - never thought I'd be changin vocations at 60 years old - but you do what you gotta due!!!!
 
forced 340 said:
this is great guys! i really appreciate what everyone is telling me! i want to stay wrenching but then again i dont... i almost have no desire to go home and do side jobs or even work on my new 70' dart project that will take place of my turbo dart:-( keep the stories and advice coming!
Click to expand...
everyone in my family used to tell me i should be a mechanic because i like working on cars so much.
i always pointed out that i liked working on them because i didn't have to do it for a living...

one of the best ways to hate your hobby is turn it into your job

good luck
 
emnestor said:
Get your teaching degree. Shop or Votech teacher and you can still wrench.
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This is what a former buddy did. He turned wrenches for a good 20 years or so. He ended up being a teacher where we went to school.
 
I was an ASE master certified automotive/diesel tech for 10 years and after 7 years or so I began to hate it. The long hours and exposure to crap all day long really got to me. My attitude suffered and I stayed at the first shop for 6 years then moved from shop to shop non of them lasting more than a year. I did some real soul searching and started looking at all the careers out there. So I made my decision and went to school at night and weekends while working 40 hours a week. I put myself through a fire academy and paramedic school as well as getting a degree in fire science. I volunteered at a local fire department and worked for an ambulance company for a year before I got hired with a local fire department. I started work as a firefighter/ paramedic day one. I have been doing it for 10 years now and I still love coming to work. I never imagined that I would be happy at any job. I was wrong. So think long and hard, come up with a plan of action. Then rethink it over again a few more times and then implement your plan. Best of luck to you. The decision I made changed my life forever.
 
If you hate your work; hunt like a starving man for something else. Iam in that boat. Life is to short there are 168 hours in a week 8736 in a year and we only have about 40 some years of work in us. Have some fun and make some money. School is good for old minds keeps them working better maybe not right but better haha. Then you can slowly get a feel for something else. Best of luck to us all.
 
RaniDart70 said:
lol...i been here in cowtown, colorado ....i have kept somewhat secluded and been collecting cars. lol i learned the hard way to not get involved with other ppl's restoration projects....... a few years ago i attempted to restore a friends roadrunner ....thinking that i would make good money and still get him a significant discount.........that all failed when he expectied it all to be done like tomorrow and for about half of what it actually cost in the end.

so now i restore my own junk and dont mix anyone else in LOL

from what im seeing in this thread is that auto industry is for young whippersnappers......it seems to have great physical demand which is my problem. im 26 now but now what about the future ....what if i ever get married and start a family ....can i wrench while pregnant? would a shop give maternity leave? these are all good questions leaning for the future ........is there a physical requirement to be a transmission builder .....im 4'10" 86lbs. .......do i have enough strentgh to be a good tech/ mechanic without other ppl's help ? this thread is starting to make me think that despite my drive to be a mechanic/ tech ...it might not be a good idea for the long term future....the majority opinion in here seems to be: bail while you can and stick with your privately owned projects

there seems to be too many "what ifs" in the auto industry for everyone, not just me but everyone
Click to expand...

NO!!! You do not want to be close to a shop if you ever get married and decide to start a family. You would not want to subject an unborn baby to the risk of exposure to all the chemicals we come in contact with every day. If I had a female mechanic working for me and she became an expectant mother, I'd take her off the shop floor immediately and find a desk job for her. No sense in taking a chance on having a baby with some sort of birth defect. No job is worth that.

With some exceptions, women are physically weaker than men. We have three female mechanics where I work and we do have to help them from time to time. Just goes with the territory. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

As always, I recommend going into fleet maintenance with a reputable company as opposed to working for the dealerships. Most dealerships see the service department as a necessary evil and mechanics are treated like interchangeable parts. I also recommend shooting for a job as a GSE mechanic with an airline or a company like FedEx.
 
Also, I was in the same boat at age 33. I worked in dealerships. Started out at Ford dealerships, then moved to a Dodge Chrysler Plymouth GMC dealership before going to work for an electric company in their fleet department.

In the late 80s, the economy in Texas was mired in a near decade long recession, and there were too many other mechanics applying for my job at the electric company. Worked there for two years before I got my first raise, a whopping 25 cents an hour. Other than that job, my experiences in fleet departments has been better than those in dealerships.

By 1990, I knew I had to do something different, so I quit the electric company and went to A&P school. I got hired by Delta Airlines in 1991 and worked on their aircraft until 2004 when Delta shut down the Dallas/Fort Worth hangar. I bounced around a few years and ended up at Southwest Airlines doing the same job. Been at Southwest a little over a year.

And now, I'm considering another career change as I contemplate getting my ministry degree and becoming a chaplain.
 
I started out of high school working doing autobody, paint, and custom suspension because I loved working on cars. 4 years later I absolutely hated it because it was no longer optional, I decided then I would get out of it to save my love for the hobby. A buddy asked me one day if I'd like to work as a detention officer at a county jail so I figured I'd try it.

I ended up really liking it and then got on as a part time police officer and now I've been with the county sheriff's office for 5 years in December, some days I get a little disgruntled but I love my job and don't see me doing anything else.
 
look like a lot of you are saying to get my teaching degree... i just dont know what i really want to do. wrenching is all that i have done! i am a 4th gen wrench! i should have just kept it as a hobby.
 
I have been in aircraft (helicopter) maintenance for over 20 years. It has been a great career for me with lots of opportunity. I love all aspects of it - it is mechanical, there is some neat technology thrown in, interesting troubleshooting and you have the ability to see and work all over the world. If you want more info, just ask, here, or pm me... Whatever you do, my one suggestion is - if you start something finish it, by that I mean if you pursue something different at least go far enough that you get the ticket, degree or diploma. If you quit before that you are just waiting your time. Once you have the paperwork, certification, documentation etc you always have it and can use it or build on it later.
 
hey guys!! just thought i should update this thread... about 1.5 months after i posted this thread, my boss pulls me into his office on a wednesday and says "i have some bad news for you"... i was ready for the worse. he told me "they are closing the doors to service and the used car dept". i said when and why? he said "this friday''!! i didnt know what to say. it was worse than i thought. so im at my tool box a lil bit later and the owner of the company calls me into his office. i go in there and all the "brass" is in his office. i thought now what... they sat me down and told me they were looking for a new tech for the Ferrari dealer (that the same owner owns) and we are considering you! i was floored! it was between me and another tech that has worked for the company for 30 years! i didnt think i had a chance against him. but that friday about 2 p.m. the owner (jeff) calls me into his office and tells me "you got the job"!!! i almost passed out i couldn't believe it! so the next monday i rolled my box across the parking lot and became a Ferrari tech!!! it is in the same field, but a totally different game! i am very happy and glad i didnt just give up!
 
just another day at work...
 

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