I have little to no relevant experience in working with vehicles, I watch your videos and many others all the time and I love learning more about vehicles. How would I go about gaining experience and knowledge, and what would I need to have to become a certified mechanic?
How to gain knowledge: Find somebody to teach you
How to get certified: Go to a school that will certify you.
How to gain experience: Roll up your sleeves and dig in.
you could try buying broken cars on craigslist, fixing them up and selling them. Make money and learn at the same time.
Buy any Chrysler product, you will gain a lot of experience in auto repair and using public transportation
ROFLMAO... can't disagree!
Watch the entire fast and the furious franchise, boom you mechanic, who needs certs. LOLOL for real though, I learned just cause I wanted to tinker. First thing I ever took apart was my dad's $2000 PC in 2000, I broke it... Then I started getting into cars cause I was fascinated by how it worked.
If you are looking into it seriously, find an area or general topic you wish to get started with, easiest being (in my opinion) getting comfortable with a basic oil change. After air filters, and then just keep hacking away until you know everything about your current car. That's what I did with my old 2001 Corolla and maybe you will find a couple cool little niches along the way that will keep you interested. For me it was that toyota engines were a primary in some Lotus's. And I kept going down the path from there. Just as long as you are willing to get your hands dirty, picking up your first real set of tools and while there maybe frustrations along the way, I feel that the satisfaction of The completion of a job is well worth the effort. Have fun! And I'm sure people on this form or otherwise gotchu if you need help along the way!
If you looking for certs, to officially become a mechanic, it's a lot of hands on, kinda hard to do in the current pandemic but I wish you luck! Someone mentioned ASE testing, those are tests that anyone can take for certs in specific areas, every test is around $60 I think. It's kinda like a badge though to be ASE certified. Lots of shops don't really care just as long as you have the general know how and can independently diagnose and research a problem, as you are by all means not required to know everything about every car haha. There is a basic "general tech" certificate that you need though if not that and "basic engine repair" I believe that most shops want you to have. Technically you are suppose to recertify every year but again most shops I know of don't really care.
2 years experience is also general but if you are literally getting started, I would get some sort of apprenticeship going and NOT at like a Pep boys or jiffy lube or anything like that. It will put a dent in your future career if you do. XP
This is a really good question. I know nothing about the profession itself. I know some mechanics claim SAE Certification, but I don’t know if that really means anything.
I think you mean ASE
Ahh. Typo.
Forget about schools and certifications. Endless money pits. 😎 If you get to the point you want to do it for a living there are businesses that will pay for training and certifications.
State issued licenses/certifications are nice to have...state inspection, emissions inspection, CDL Class A with air brakes, motorcycle, bus endorsement, etc.
Find someone local to you that will mentor you. Someone that works on their own vehicles or a small independent garage or shop.
Don't expect to be paid. If you aren't afraid to get your hands dirty, are willing to learn, it's the best way to get started.
No matter what you learn, you build on that in time. As with in everything in life, you will be constantly learn something new.
Stay calm and don't get frustrated. You will be dealing with inanimate objects. They only seem to be giving you a hard time because you are lacking some knowledge about them.
You need to gain a good general knowledge of how systems work...air, fuel, spark, hydraulics, electricity, electronics...and how they interact with one another.
Hot job prospects are always electrical and electronic related.
