Hey Scotty love the vids you really inspired me and I learned so much about cars by watching your videos. I live in Toronto and I’m currently in my final year of college. I never really knew what I wanted to do after high school and felt rushed to get into a field I didn’t know much about. Now sitting here broke with student loans and no job I realized my true passion all my life was cars and decided I want to be working on them for the rest of my life. I’m going to start my pre apprenticeship right after I graduate from college next year any tips? I’m not in this for the money but obviously I want to making enough to live comfortably off of and one day follow in your footsteps and become my own boss.
You can make good money doing it, but there are three absolute MUSTS if you want to be successful:
1. You have to have an extreme passion for the industry. Mechanics are not exactly viewed as the smartest people by the general public. In fact, most people see them to be as shady, or shadier, than car salesmen. So don't expect a lot of people to appreciate your work.
2. You have to be extremely honest.
3. You have to realize that, no matter how experienced you become, you do not know everything.
If you don't love the job, you will not be successful. If you break rule #2, you will not be successful. If you don't have a willingness to learn and admit when you are wrong, you will not be successful.
I've worked in the industry for over half my life now. I will happily tell you up front that I do not know everything. I learn things every day, and every build is different. You could give me two of the exact same car to build, side by side, and I bet you that when I'm building the second car I do different techniques than I did the first time. You learn what works and what doesn't. Every car is different and has lived a different life, so just because you swapped out a steering rack in one car to fix an issue doesn't mean that's going to work on the next one. Could be tie rods, hub bearings, any number of things.
I have worked very hard and that work is now paying dividends for me. I live very comfortably and keep my family in good financial health. However, even though I own my own dealership and performance shop, I do not sleep in every day and play Xbox sun up to sun down. I work harder now than I ever have, despite having an excellent crew of employees. The reason is the stakes are higher. When I was engineering engines for GM (helping to engineer as part of the team), the stakes were high for the company. But now my business name is involved in every transaction we do and word of mouth can help you or absolutely kill you. This is why I follow my rules with NO exceptions.
Bottom line, if you are honestly passionate about the job and are honest with your customers, you can make a very good living being an independent mechanic. Just make sure you don't start down the slippery slope of dishonesty or cutting corners. Otherwise you'll be helping the negative stereotype continue to be passed on.
Good luck to you.
@mod_man I was gonna ask the question, but thanks for answering based on your experience.
Of course you are welcome. 🙂
Learn the trade, do a good job, and be an honest mechanic. If you do that, people will find out and you will not have a lack of work.
Mechanics can make good money.
