I've been at Chrysler for a year now, as an apprentice at first since my college tech school is CAP...(It's sponsored by Chrysler therefore I had to intern at a Chrysler dealership while I attended school.) I've been there a year now and I'm about to go flat rate, but I also landed a job at Nissan, which I didn't go to school for and would also be going flat rate after 2 months of hourly pay...

My dilemma is: the Chrylser dealership is a good 35 minute drive away but I'm really familiar with their product and can probably flag at least 30-40 hours a week.

Nissan is 15 minutes closer and paying the same rate at Chrysler, and there a better product line IMO, but I'd have to acclimate to the line and go flat rate after two months of getting used to it.

Which would you choose, or what advice could you guys who are techs give me?

-Also, I'm about to go back to school in a week for Mechanical Engineering but need a job while I'm in school

 

Two months will pass in no time. To me a car is a car and they perform similar functions but have different ways of doing so. Getting used to the change shouldnt be a issue. If you like the Nissan brand more and the 20 min difference in travel time I would say go for the change. I say that because I spent 5 years as a heavy equipment mechanic in the Navy. I worked on dump trucks, cranes, forklifts, hummers, tractor trailers, dozers etc. Now for the last year I have been working as a BMW tech. A night and day change for sure but im happy and I dont have to go to Iraq to maintain equipment.

 

Figure out if the boss at Nissan is cool with you missing hours due to school.
You need money for books n' beer n' gas, which isn't crazy money. What you need more is flexibility.

All things being equal, it seems that Nissan is looking better.

 

I'd say it would depend on if you liked the people you'd be working with at the Nissan dealership. If you did then I'd transfer. Chrysler & Nissan are buddying up anyways as far as I can tell from Winding Road. Ehh ... go Nissan. Haha.

 

Yea, I'm going to call Nissan again tomorrow because he offered me the job already and I talked to a tech while I was there today...he was saying that they get 35 hour guarantees no matter how many hours you flag, and at my current job theres no guarantee so if I only made 10 hours in a week, that's all i'd get payed for. I'm going to call the manager tomorrow and see if he'd offer me that deal as well.

The Nissan manager's advice was if I was just about to go flat rate at Chrysler, I should stay there and get used to the way flat rate is, which I agreed would be the best thing to do. But the thing is, I've been flagging good hours already and I multi-task/hustle really well so it wouldn't really make a difference to me now that I think about it...

Also, chrysler is 8am to 5pm closing...Nissan is 8am to 9pm closing so that might be better for me while being in school for flexibility with classes.

 

The techs seemed cool...I talked to 2 of them working on a 330ci used car trade-in and how his buddy money shifted an e46 m3 haha...that's another thing though- at the chrysler job right now, theres 3 techs that have been there a long time and when I get a good job they all talk shit and whine a lot, makes it a long day a lot of the times...

But ya, I think I'm just finding more and more justifications to leave Chrysler, but im apprehensive about the change...Tomorrow I shall go ask if he'll give me the hourly guarantee and if so, I'll probably go and work on GT-R's all day hehehe psych!

 

Personally I would go for the Nissan job. 35 hours guarantee is good for the industry. In my area you are lucky to get passed 30 hours. If you are already familiar with flat rate you'll be fine at Nissan.

 

No guarantee! Thats crazy! I would go to Nissan with that said. Dont sell yourself and your time for free. My dealer gives us 40 hour guarantee and there have been times where that has come in handy.

 

If you want any kind of job security, you'll go with Nissan. Investment bankers aren't known for sinking millions into troubled companies, and from what I've seen so far from Chrysler's new management, I'm not impressed with its long term chances.

 

milkbubble- what company do you work for that gives 40hr guarantee if you don't mind me asking, and how long have you been there? Honda?