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I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time. My dad was a painter as was I before I entered the auto repair trade. Since high school I have worked with him off and on, and over the years his body took a severe beating. At the age of 60 years old he is still at it, but I can see clearly that he should have quit long ago. His knees are almost gone, his hands have become weak and arthritic, and his back is in terrible condition — all of this I believe was due to working in painting for 40 years. In the last 5 years he has had troubles keeping his job because he’s went to being one of the fastest, most efficient painters around to being slow, and having questionable work due to his fading eyesight. It’s really a sad thing to see.
Eric had a video that talked about having an escape plan, and I thought about my dads situation; the man did not have an escape plan and now his body is paying the price. Really since he’s turned 50 he has slowed down, and become less, and less prolific as a painter. As a new technician, when I work in the shop I realize that this job will be even harder on my body than being a painter ever was. I know that chances are good that I will eventually will have to do something else or face early retirement. I worked around older tradesman as a painter that had failing bodies, I knew their time was almost up from the way their bodies moved, at least in the physical labor arena of the trade.
My experiences have left me thinking: What will be my escape plan? I’m not exactly sure what mine will be. In just one more year I could have an engineering degree if I wanted. The problem is the job was insufferable. This trade doesn’t exactly seem conducive to translating into office work.
Enough about me, what do you guys have in mind? What are your escape plans, or have you even thought about leaving the industry?
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Alot of us don’t have escape plans. In my case, no time or money for big changes. Do I Ever plan to retire… not an option. Here is my escape plan, one day I will be working, and just fall over from a heart attack. Then I will have escaped. Not as glamorous and going from a Tire buster to a travel agent, but I am talking real world here. You know, I don’t know if its just sons and daughter of CEOs living in Aspen that decide one day to quit their job and travel to Europe for a year before going home and starting some business with their extra capital or whatever, but others of us are to busy paying bills and surviving to have a plan B so we give up our health, or our Knuckles, or knees, because we have to. Not everybody has a rich uncle or super talent to move forward with. It is very, very hard for somebody who has been successful to understand that others of us don’t have the ability to do anything but we can do and we have to use our bodies up to keep our kids fed or a roof over our head.
[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=132842]Alot of us don’t have escape plans. In my case, no time or money for big changes. Do I Ever plan to retire… not an option. Here is my escape plan, one day I will be working, and just fall over from a heart attack. Then I will have escaped. Not as glamorous and going from a Tire buster to a travel agent, but I am talking real world here. You know, I don’t know if its just sons and daughter of CEOs living in Aspen that decide one day to quit their job and travel to Europe for a year before going home and starting some business with their extra capital or whatever, but others of us are to busy paying bills and surviving to have a plan B so we give up our health, or our Knuckles, or knees, because we have to. Not everybody has a rich uncle or super talent to move forward with. It is very, very hard for somebody who has been successful to understand that others of us don’t have the ability to do anything but we can do and we have to use our bodies up to keep our kids fed or a roof over our head.[/quote]
I really understand your plight, my father has worked years to support us, some years it was hard just to get by — he was the sole provider for a family of 5. I’ve spent years working for him and I understand that he, as well as you, I am sure have given everything to support himself, and provide for all of his family’s needs.When I say escape plan I’m not talking about retirement or some grandeur business plan. My thoughts are using our skills as leverage to enter a new job arena that perhaps is easier on our old aching bodies. I know, and I am sure you know that those that have mastered the art of diagnosing, and fixing modern cars are no idiots. Us technicians may be seen as unintelligent, grease monkeys, rip off artist, and other nasty things to some, but most people have no idea what we actually do, and the skill and the investment that is required to do it.
I want to say one last thing Andrew, I really respect the hell out of you.
Sometimes the escape plan comes unintentionally and leaves you with no choice. For instance, my dad was a lineman. Worked as a lineman for years. Then he got colon cancer, and ended up with a colostomy bag. Couldn’t climb anymore, as the climbing gear would be pushing right on top of it. So he was unable to do the skilled career he had. Well he ended up transitioning into supervision and later inspection. So for the rest of his life he did inspections of power lines and transformer stations. Did better financially that way than when he was climbing for a living.
For me, I ended up getting out of wrenching in a shop and went into bridge welding. Now at the moment I am laid up waiting for my knee to heal up after an accident at work. Not so sure if this is going to be a game-ender or not, as I’ve already had a few surgeries to that knee. So I’m looking into taking a test to become a certified weld inspector, which takes me out of the physical end of the job but still allows me to use my knowledge of the job to be sure it is done right.
I’m not sure what your exit will be. Engineering would be an avenue but there is no reason to go into a career you hate doing. You have plenty of time right now it seems to be thinking of it, and maybe an opportunity will come up later. If you have an aptitude for numbers and can deal well with people perhaps some classes in MS Office and business management could get you into managing a shop. It has been my experience that most techs make bad service managers, as we are impatient and can’t stand dealing with customers a lot of the time. But the right person who goes to get the extra training has a way to move out of the wrenching and still have a connection to the industry.
Just remember that sometimes your exit is not something you plan for and doesn’t give you an option. At that point you have a lot of thinking to do to get a viable plan in motion.
There is a very old saying those that can’t do teach. My escape plan though will hopefully involve investment properties and the fact that i have been saving for retirement since i started working.
My best idea is that in another 10 years or so when I’m in my mid-40’s, I’ll have learned enough to be useful doing some form of consulting/teaching in this field. At the very least there’s tech schools and manufacturer training programs that need instructors. There are also field techs for manufacturers, who go around to dealers that can’t figure out problems that need to be fixed to avoid lemon law/buyback incidents. Things like that, I’d like to think. Maybe something better will fall into place later on in life. The skills of being able to learn just about anything, to effectively get work done independently, and to talk my way into a job I’m qualified to do are always going to be useful. I just have to make myself qualified to do something that pays well and is non-abusive before I’m too far gone.
Interesting subject that I can speak to. I am an escapee. Out of high school I knew I liked cars so I started changing oil and tires at a local Goodyear shop. My interest was picqued by electronics and engine control systems. I quickly became proficient in electrical diagnostics, engine performance, HVAC and everything else. Since the beginning, I worked full time while obtaining my associate degree. I thought if I could finish that degree I would be set, and to an extent I was. When I put on my first Goodwrench uniform, it felt like a Superman cape. Through my next 4 years of work, life and school experiences, I became more aware of the stigma around automotive repair. We are high level diagnosticians and technicians but we are seen by society and even our own management as grease slinging toothless fools. This stigma is reflected in pay and benefits. Some techs are clueless asshats, but they can be found in any field.
I could go on for quite a while, but I will summarize. In the depression of 2008, it was clear that working on cars can be a great, challenging, and lucrative career but not without the risk of high tool costs, spotty business and stagnant remuneration across the trade. I made the decision to attend more school and earn my engineering degree. I have 8 years of hands on repair experience and an engineering degree. I am a rare breed, so I cannot recommend this as a career model. I also would not recommend working full time while going to school. This will break most people and you will end up with a half-hearted career and an unfinished degree. With that said, if you are also a rare breed with the capability of more, you owe it to yourself to push to the max. This was my escape plan and is panning out well so far.
I currently work in service engineering for a diesel engine manufacturer. The strange thing about this is I never worked on diesels. They saw the four year degree (still had a year until graduation), some technical expertise and assumed I could handle it. They were right.
What, then, can I recommend? I recommend specializing in what you enjoy doing and find challenging. If that happens to be brakes and mufflers, you are going to starve a slow death. Learn transmission repair or become the utmost HVAC expert. Be part of team and share expensive tools. Don’t expect to be able to fix everything. Send it to someone who can or take advantage of hotline resources if you’re in a dealer. There does not have to be an escape plan if everyone works to improve shop life and social stigma. Also, stand up for yourself. If you are being paid peanuts, make peanut butterr….wait, I mean, present your case on why you need to charge an extra hour or why you need a raise and more vacation time.
Honestly this is something I have been thinking about a lot for some time now. A number of the more seasoned techs when I was starting out warned me about all the pitfalls that came with this career. Here I am in my mid-30’s and I’m already seeing some of the effects this field has had on me physically. Do I go into production machining (small parts) ? Medical equipment maint./repair? Honestly I don’t know yet but I am looking at getting another form of income going, rental properties. About two more years and I will be ready for my first, then 5-6 years later should be ready for number 2 then so on. I am trying to plan as far ahead as I possibly can and for as many situations as I can. What happened in ’07/’08 was a huge eye opener for me. I think besides finding an alternative career I will be physically capable of doing for the long haul I’m also looking at what will still be needed and as recession-proof as I can find.
[quote=”Pithy Radish” post=132839]I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time. My dad was a painter as was I before I entered the auto repair trade. Since high school I have worked with him off and on, and over the years his body took a severe beating. At the age of 60 years old he is still at it, but I can see clearly that he should have quit long ago. His knees are almost gone, his hands have become weak and arthritic, and his back is in terrible condition — all of this I believe was due to working in painting for 40 years. In the last 5 years he has had troubles keeping his job because he’s went to being one of the fastest, most efficient painters around to being slow, and having questionable work due to his fading eyesight. It’s really a sad thing to see.
Eric had a video that talked about having an escape plan, and I thought about my dads situation; the man did not have an escape plan and now his body is paying the price. Really since he’s turned 50 he has slowed down, and become less, and less prolific as a painter. As a new technician, when I work in the shop I realize that this job will be even harder on my body than being a painter ever was. I know that chances are good that I will eventually will have to do something else or face early retirement. I worked around older tradesman as a painter that had failing bodies, I knew their time was almost up from the way their bodies moved, at least in the physical labor arena of the trade.
My experiences have left me thinking: What will be my escape plan? I’m not exactly sure what mine will be. In just one more year I could have an engineering degree if I wanted. The problem is the job was insufferable. This trade doesn’t exactly seem conducive to translating into office work.
Enough about me, what do you guys have in mind? What are your escape plans, or have you even thought about leaving the industry?[/quote]
Your father is a good man, and he raised you to be a good man. I wish more guys had father’s like yours and they raised sons like you.
My escape plan is to go to the mebtal health department of the VA wearing a dress, and when the doctor ask me what is wrong I’m going to start doing crazy stuff.
My escape plan is to return to farming. Possibly working on tractors. This will happen when I turn 45 or 50 most likely. I’ve got multiple family members who farm/own farms. As a kid I went to school on a farm as well as took care of the livestock. Farming is a nice way to wind down and smell the roses.
[quote=”Chevyman21″ post=134991]Farming is a nice way to wind down and smell the roses.[/quote]
The roses are probably not all there is to smell… LOLI’m in my escape plan right now. I have always been a hands-on person since I was a small child. I would take things apart just to reassemble them. I was fascinated by how intricate parts worked together to do some task. My grandfather (a watchmaker by trade), and my great-uncle (a mechanic by trade) owned a used car lot that also had a full-service garage and tire shop. When I was about 11 or 12 they had me come in after school and on weekends to help out. Of course, helping out meant sweeping, sorting things, etc., but my great-uncle soon began teaching me about mechanics, and I was in heaven. In high school I took auto shop, and upon graduation went to work for a local dealership, starting at the bottom, of course. Worked my way up over the next six years, then got a better pay offer at a ‘performance shop’ owned by the dad of one of my former high school classmates. Did that for a few years, until that same high school friend and I took over the shop when his dad decided to retire. We worked there together until it was our turn to retire due to the bad backs, bad knees, bad ankles, etc., etc., so we sold the shop in 2011. I spent a couple years doing things I never had time for while working, but then ran out of them and got bored being at home all day. Not being content to just wait the rest of my life out, I had to find something else to do, but since my body is not up the physical demands of my former career, I decided I needed to something that used my brain more than my body, so I have gone back to college to get an engineering degree. Can a 50-something-year-old person fresh out of college get an engineering job? I sure hope so, but if not, maybe I will just become a professional student and keep learning stuff.
[quote=”cap269″ post=139279][quote=”Chevyman21″ post=134991]Farming is a nice way to wind down and smell the roses.[/quote]
The roses are probably not all there is to smell… LOLI’m in my escape plan right now. I have always been a hands-on person since I was a small child. I would take things apart just to reassemble them. I was fascinated by how intricate parts worked together to do some task. My grandfather (a watchmaker by trade), and my great-uncle (a mechanic by trade) owned a used car lot that also had a full-service garage and tire shop. When I was about 11 or 12 they had me come in after school and on weekends to help out. Of course, helping out meant sweeping, sorting things, etc., but my great-uncle soon began teaching me about mechanics, and I was in heaven. In high school I took auto shop, and upon graduation went to work for a local dealership, starting at the bottom, of course. Worked my way up over the next six years, then got a better pay offer at a ‘performance shop’ owned by the dad of one of my former high school classmates. Did that for a few years, until that same high school friend and I took over the shop when his dad decided to retire. We worked there together until it was our turn to retire due to the bad backs, bad knees, bad ankles, etc., etc., so we sold the shop in 2011. I spent a couple years doing things I never had time for while working, but then ran out of them and got bored being at home all day. Not being content to just wait the rest of my life out, I had to find something else to do, but since my body is not up the physical demands of my former career, I decided I needed to something that used my brain more than my body, so I have gone back to college to get an engineering degree. Can a 50-something-year-old person fresh out of college get an engineering job? I sure hope so, but if not, maybe I will just become a professional student and keep learning stuff.[/quote] Haha, you get used to the other smells.
In any case I see no reason why someone wouldn’t want someone with many years of experience in the same field they are looking to engineer for. If you want to be an engineer at 50, I see nothing wrong with it and if it holds you till retirement, all the better.
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