I have been an auto tech at an independent shop for 8 years. I am cutting back my hours and recently started to finish my degree in elect. engineering. Why? Because I like what I do, but the hours are killing my wife (get home at least 1-2 hours later than scheduled every day) and I really don't want to be turning wrenches when I am 70 years old. (I'm 26 now BTW) Would I reccommend going into this business? Sure, if you are POSITIVE that you want to work on other people's problems and not just your own vehicles. Plus, now I have a good set of tools when I need them later.
What do I think the future looks like for a new auto tech? Learn everything you can about electronics, and driveability problems. Vehicles are only getting more complicated, and being able to "see" the electricity in your head and being comfortable with a scope will help get you the good jobs.

 

Yeah, my advice don't do it. I'm ina auto program right now but when i entered i knew it was just a hobby and not a job. I have a lot of friends that are mechanics and they are regretting their jobs as well.
If you have made up your mind to be a mechanic however, I would recommend not doing honda, try for Audi or some european cars as you get paid better.
But don't do it!!!

 

I just want to Thank You Everyone for their input. That's really help me a lot and understand more about it. I think for me it's more like a hobby. The reason why I want to go to school it's because I don't know much about cars and therefore I couldn't really do anything. All I know is couple of basic stuff like oil change, transmission and differential. When it comes to parts, I'm totally loss and sometimes I don't know what is it for. That's really suck!

 

i was in the same boat as you, im currently a civil engineering tech, and like most s2k owners, love to wrench...but for me, its only as a hobby and only on my own cars or my friends cars. Every once in a while i start to think about going to back to school to become a mechanic, but its thoughts of "will i really enjoy this working on other peoples crap?" and thats what keeps me away. Sometimes general maintenance on my own cars turns out to be a PIA, so how much more would i hate it if it was someone elses crap that had to be done at a deadline!

I think itll stay as a hobby for me, maybe take some classes on weekends or something if they offer something like that, just for hobbyists or home mechanics, i think the tech school here offers a weekend program to learn some mechanic basics.

 

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