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After reading through the “this might be offensive” thread, it got me thinking about a few things. As a millennial myself everything that was said in that thread seemed to be accurate. I’m a journeyman painter, and I’ve worked in the technology industry repairing mobile devices such as tablets, and phones. I’ve been all over the place, and tried studying many different degrees in college, in fact I was only 1 year away from getting a materials engineering degree, yet I couldn’t stand it after my internship. Being stuck in a cubicle doing mind numbing work was not what I was looking for. This long odyssey has led me to the auto repair industry. Now I am a lube tech going through Toyota’s factory training program.
Auto repair is something that I have always dreamed of doing, but I have always been scared away by technicians bad mouthing their job. I decided to take it on anyways, knowing that I’m going to have to deal with BS, but I didn’t care. When I entered the shop I noticed something very interesting: There is a serious lack of young workers in the shop environment, and the my shop in particular is desperate to get some new blood in the shop to replenish their talent pool when the old workers decide to retire or leave. The problem is NOBODY wants to do it. The lube techs I work with do not want to move to repair. They are extremely hard workers, and most of them are around 35, but NONE of them want to move on from being a lube tech because it pays well, especially since we get a small spiff for every service we sale.
In the shop there are a couple of younger workers, age 18-25. The problem is two of them are about to be fired because they’re screwing around too much and failing their classes, one of them is just a lube tech so he can keep busy during college, and the other lube tech that is around my age wants to get into repair, but thinks this work is beneath him, and has messed up a few vehicles due to not listening or following shop rules. He just sits around all day playing on his phone while the rest of us at the lube rack work our butts off servicing an obscene amount of vehicles.
At my dealership there is no young talent, everyone in repair seems to be over 30. The youth that are working at my dealership seem to not have the drive to finish their schooling, or work their way up into repair. I feel like most of these young in my dealership will either quit or be fired, two of them have already been threatened with a good firing. I feel like there is nobody entering the auto repair field anymore. Heck, the school I go to couldn’t even completely fill their roster up with students for the Toyota program, I’m seeing that there is a serious lack of people who care to learn our trade.
I’m wondering, is this something you are running into in your work environments? I saw the same thing happen as a painter, nobody my age was doing it, everyone was older — there were no skilled young people in the construction industry either.
What will be the future of our industry with no new blood entering it?
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The future of the industry is going to be interesting to say the least.
Standard Repair Times or Manufacturer Book Times are more then likely going to be a huge issue in the not to distant future maybe 10-15yrs. Companies are out for the bottom line. I have the current satisfaction of being a rather new tech 1.5yrs in the field and being expected to keep up with people that have 14yrs and 35yrs experience. I have to say I am a fast gd learner but, seriously seasoned vet vs noob and you expect the noob to out perform the vet? It is like this everywhere. I am also expected to meet or beat the book times just because I have done a job a couple of times. In some cases this is true it can be done. In others there is no way to do it faster and when the man doing it is using air tools and they stop the watch any time he drops a bolt etc, and is doing it on a brand new truck with everything torqued to spec its obvious why it goes so smooth. Then add onto that he will doit 3-4 times just to get the time down as low as they can. This is a serious issue because when they are doing this they are lying. That perfect little world they do this stuff in does not exist.
There are so many problems with the current system in place it is not even funny. The problem is to change it would require a huge undertaking. More then likely the government needs to get involved without mucking it up.
So there is reason number 1 why you do not have new guys that stick it out.
Reason number 2 Tools.
I doubt I need to say more but… A basic set of of 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 is all that should be needed. Us needing to buy low profile ratchets, wobble sockets, wobble extensions, god knows how many prying, plier, wrenches, etc. It is all bs that could be engineered out. We have computers and can not even build things as simple as those guys that had to use pencil and paper. It is really really sad. If a company doesn’t want to pay for the engineering then pay for the tools.
Reason Number 3
It is hard manual labor and requires attention fore thought and common sense. There is no getting around this one. So because of that it will always stay.
You add all that up along with piss poor engineering, never having the parts you need, and people that do not know how to run this kind of business and you have successfully been dropped in shits creek with a paddle and no boat. Then to tell someone that is new let alone someone that is older and wiser to just figure it out. That will kill everything. It will also make new people never want to come back.
The harsh reality that will come to pass probably in my life time is that people need tradesman. Without us your shit ain’t going to work. You will have no utilities, no vehicles, no fuel, no complex moving parts. Everything comes to a scretching hault and until that starts to happen our respect willbein the toilet.
Now compare that to sitting at a desk doing about 2 days worth of work in a 5 day work period. Getting paid as much if not double what we make and being able to sit there and go on facebook, youtube, etc. Yet people wonder why we do not have people that stick around. Heaven forbid fastfood workers get paid 15 an hr we will have even less people.
Us seasoned guys will be working till we are 85 because there will be no Social Security and nobody to replace us. And so you think the harsh reality is that people need whats in the picture ?
I agree, I need mine with a 440
Damn Pithy, I went through the same thing with Mechanical Engineering. Got to my senior year and I was like “I’m done”
I think that slowly competent people will come into the field. Not as many as we need, but the repair field is a lot like Nursing. Everyone thinks Nursing is what they see on tv. Glitz, glamour, saving lives, marrying doctors, making tons of money.
Fact is 88% of the nursing field leaves after two years in their field. Because it’s all about whipping an old woman’s ass that just shit herself, dealing with older people that have dimensia and become violent. And some other pretty nasty things like kids drowning and dying.
They will also face a critical shortage of nurses in about 3 years. Just like the automotive field. Many people think the field is what they see on over haulin, counts customs and other shows. What they don’t realize is you have to be competent to work on cars, you don’t get paid what you should. And you spend a lot of your own money buying tools to make money.
Many of us have described what we see, which is “why move up? I make great money as a lube tech doing spiffs”. I also see anyone can be doing that job in 6 months. Not many people out there want, or can be master techs. And they are becoming more and more difficult to find.
Frankly I love the fact that we have so few people coming in, and the one’s that do are bags of crap with no motivation. That opens up doors for me to work hard, move up, and less competition. I honestly believe in 3-5 years if you are a B-tech or higher you can pretty much write your own ticket.
Even now if you can rebuild trans, or engines. You are a diamond.
I suppose if the cars were more interesting than foreign FWD jellybeans, more guys would stick with the trade. Old stuff is much funner to mess with. I wouldn’t want a be dealership line tech now to much computer stuff and gadgets. Small shops with greasy old geezers in converalls guys chewin tebaccy, carbs, 4 speeds, big inch motors, my cup of tea and always will be until I cannot move anymore…..dealing with the general public is much harder now than it used to be, and thats not getting any better. A person with a GTO is generally going to be older, and nicer than say a 16 year old girl with a Prius, or the type of reprobates that line techs have to put up with now. On the other hand, the amount of customers with new cars to fix is like 1 or 2 million to one of the others…
[quote=”Pitt” post=131195]Damn Pithy, I went through the same thing with Mechanical Engineering. Got to my senior year and I was like “I’m done”
I think that slowly competent people will come into the field. Not as many as we need, but the repair field is a lot like Nursing. Everyone thinks Nursing is what they see on tv. Glitz, glamour, saving lives, marrying doctors, making tons of money.
Fact is 88% of the nursing field leaves after two years in their field. Because it’s all about whipping an old woman’s ass that just shit herself, dealing with older people that have dimensia and become violent. And some other pretty nasty things like kids drowning and dying.
They will also face a critical shortage of nurses in about 3 years. Just like the automotive field. Many people think the field is what they see on over haulin, counts customs and other shows. What they don’t realize is you have to be competent to work on cars, you don’t get paid what you should. And you spend a lot of your own money buying tools to make money.
Many of us have described what we see, which is “why move up? I make great money as a lube tech doing spiffs”. I also see anyone can be doing that job in 6 months. Not many people out there want, or can be master techs. And they are becoming more and more difficult to find.
Frankly I love the fact that we have so few people coming in, and the one’s that do are bags of crap with no motivation. That opens up doors for me to work hard, move up, and less competition. I honestly believe in 3-5 years if you are a B-tech or higher you can pretty much write your own ticket.
Even now if you can rebuild trans, or engines. You are a diamond.[/quote]
Yeah, Engineering is very tedious work, that is very mind numbing. I can understand very well why you decided to say “nope”. Engineering pays well, but it definitely can make you feel dead as a person. It’s one of those jobs that would have led to a quiet life of longing (at least for me).I understand what you’re saying about people being attracted by those shows, the kid that I work with is one of those people and his work ethic sucks, and sense of entitlement is very high.
I think another thing is happening though, and that is a change in the automobile culture. I’m seeing less, and less 16 year olds get licenses. When I was in high school people couldn’t wait to get them, now people could care less. People also care about cars less than they used to. They see them as appliances, not as a hobby, or even as a pleasurable event. Instead of advertising driving dynamics, horsepower, and moddability they are advertising safety ratings, cheap maintenance. The car culture is dying off slowly in the younger generation, this is killing the technician talent pool.
There really is a very SMALL talent pool for the dealerships to draw from right now. Only a few guys in shop can work on electronics. One guy breaks all of the shop rules, and he’s been fired three times, but they have to keep hiring him back because he’s one of the only competent people with electronics in the shop. It seems only few people have a diverse skillset, and the rest just hang parts. My bosses, and the owners at the dealership realise this, and are seriously panicking, and I can see it. It really makes me wonder what is going to happen in the future in this industry. My dealership can hardly function right now with the technicians that we have.
when you say electronics, how much knowledge do you mean ? Are you talking about somebody that cannot find a short, or somebody than talk in depth about microfarads and transisor function ?
[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=131205]when you say electronics, how much knowledge do you mean ? Are you talking about somebody that cannot find a short, or somebody than talk in depth about microfarads and transisor function ?[/quote]
Most of the guys at my shop have a hard time diagnosing simple electronic problems. This particular guy can talk in depth about anything related to electronics, and explain how they work and WHY they work. He’s also very adept at chasing down complicated electrical problems that nobody else in the shop can figure out. He also has a lot of money invested in diagnostic equipment. He could pretty much do most of what scannerdanner does. He is generally the guy who gets automobiles when nobody can figure out what the hell is going on with them.It’s just that he doesn’t care about anything at work. If the store is slow he’ll pull in his own car and work on it, if the shop gets busy and there are waiters, he’ll ignore them and continue working on his own car. He does whatever he feels like and only takes on specific jobs, that is why he keeps getting fired. The dealership has tried to get rid of him, but they haven’t been able to replace his skillset.
Yea, most wizard type guys become really independant like that. The ones I have known usually don’t even have shop coowners, its just them in their own little shops. Surprised he does as much as he does if he is as good as you are describing. I have known some guys that were so good at certain tasks they would basically have to assault a customer to be fired. Then again, they usually didn’t like other techs, or customers, just machines. A person like this, their skillset obviously has more pros than the cons for the people writing the paycheck. The smarter and more well trained the tech is, the less they are going to deal with pinhead service writers because they know the shop needs them more than them needing the shop.
[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=131209]Yea, most wizard type guys become really independant like that. The ones I have known usually don’t even have shop coowners, its just them in their own little shops. Surprised he does as much as he does if he is as good as you are describing. I have known some guys that were so good at certain tasks they would basically have to assault a customer to be fired. Then again, they usually didn’t like other techs, or customers, just machines. A person like this, their skillset obviously has more pros than the cons for the people writing the paycheck. The smarter and more well trained the tech is, the less they are going to deal with pinhead service writers because they know the shop needs them more than them needing the shop.[/quote]
I think this guy is looking for a chance to leave. I’ve heard from several guys in the shop that he has a steady stream of side work, most of them think he’s just saving money to open up his own shop. He also owns his own house, has a very large collection of tools, and drives an expensive vehicle that he basically built himself. I’m going to be sad if he leaves because he doesn’t mind sharing his knowledge for those who seek it.[quote=”Pithy Radish” post=131206][quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=131205]when you say electronics, how much knowledge do you mean ? Are you talking about somebody that cannot find a short, or somebody than talk in depth about microfarads and transisor function ?[/quote]
Most of the guys at my shop have a hard time diagnosing simple electronic problems. This particular guy can talk in depth about anything related to electronics, and explain how they work and WHY they work. He’s also very adept at chasing down complicated electrical problems that nobody else in the shop can figure out. He also has a lot of money invested in diagnostic equipment. He could pretty much do most of what scannerdanner does. He is generally the guy who gets automobiles when nobody can figure out what the hell is going on with them.It’s just that he doesn’t care about anything at work. If the store is slow he’ll pull in his own car and work on it, if the shop gets busy and there are waiters, he’ll ignore them and continue working on his own car. He does whatever he feels like and only takes on specific jobs, that is why he keeps getting fired. The dealership has tried to get rid of him, but they haven’t been able to replace his skillset.[/quote]
Has your shop looked into hiring a “field service tech”? Basically the same thing you described but comes in when needed and go other shops that need him for their electrical issues. Kind of a electronics booty call guy.
[quote=”Pitt” post=131232][quote=”Pithy Radish” post=131206][quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=131205]when you say electronics, how much knowledge do you mean ? Are you talking about somebody that cannot find a short, or somebody than talk in depth about microfarads and transisor function ?[/quote]
Most of the guys at my shop have a hard time diagnosing simple electronic problems. This particular guy can talk in depth about anything related to electronics, and explain how they work and WHY they work. He’s also very adept at chasing down complicated electrical problems that nobody else in the shop can figure out. He also has a lot of money invested in diagnostic equipment. He could pretty much do most of what scannerdanner does. He is generally the guy who gets automobiles when nobody can figure out what the hell is going on with them.It’s just that he doesn’t care about anything at work. If the store is slow he’ll pull in his own car and work on it, if the shop gets busy and there are waiters, he’ll ignore them and continue working on his own car. He does whatever he feels like and only takes on specific jobs, that is why he keeps getting fired. The dealership has tried to get rid of him, but they haven’t been able to replace his skillset.[/quote]
Has your shop looked into hiring a “field service tech”? Basically the same thing you described but comes in when needed and go other shops that need him for their electrical issues. Kind of a electronics booty call guy.[/quote]
Never seen my shop even entertain hiring a field service tech for difficult problems. They normally just lean on this guy or the other techs that are good at diagnosing electrical problems, though this guy is easily the best in the shop. They even schedule it so at least one of these guys are in the shop each day. They understand that only a few people can do what they do, and it makes them uncomfortable. In my opinion they might have to start hiring a field tech, especially since at least one of those guys want out.On the subject of field techs, is this a growing direction of the industry? As cars become more complicated, they are covertly becoming more simple. This will allow dealers and shops to maintain for some time with parts changers. The parts will just be less water pumps and brakes and more body control modules and actuators. Another difference will be a slew of DTCs backing up which part to hang.
Some of the failures will become more advanced, such as calibration problems or failures of something that does not display the right data in the diagnostic tooling. Or simply a complex array of data and DTCs that require special analysis. In Michigan, I have never seen a mobile diagnostics guy. I have taken a few classes with them, based out of Chicago or some other big city. Will we see an increase in these businesses as top techs look for an escape route out of the industry? I would have tried it if not for the ridiculous investment in OEM scan tools, not to mention, getting burned out with difficult problems. Along with these independent guys, will there be increased work for and dependency on field service engineers working for OEMs?
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