Career advice - motor mechanic

RobSheffield · 25 Mar 2011 at 13:36

Some background - im 30, never worked in the motor mechanic industry, no qualifications. Worked in car sales and on a dealership service desk.

I always carry out my own servicing on my own cars, and friends cars. Have a 'decent' home tool kit. I used to work on my own Japanese imports. Engine and turbo system upgrades and braking and suspension upgrades. Also had a few close mates i would help out on a regular basis by fitting parts for them at home.

To clarify, i know one end of a spanner from the other. I went to uni and did a HND in Applied Biology so im also not an idiot when it comes to learning etc.

Now at 30 im too old (i think) for an apprenticeship. Im not sure if i need City and Guilds or NVQ qualifications. Local college does the C&G but nowhere i can find within 100 miles does NVQ. I have a friend who works as a technician for BMW who has given me some advice, but i wondered if anyone else might have any.

Regards
Rob

SeatIbiza · 25 Mar 2011 at 14:41

What do you earn?

If you did take an apprenticeship prepare to laugh at the wages!

Any chance you could start out on your own as a mobile mechanic maybe? I think that will become more and more popular - you work on cars whilst people are at work so they don't have to take time off or take to a dealer...?

atpbx · 25 Mar 2011 at 14:53

Are you out of work or something?

Wouldnt it be easier to just go and work selling something else (making a shed load more money in the process)?

Matt82 · 25 Mar 2011 at 14:54

you can get pretty far doing mobile stuff. i used to do it, i didnt even have to look for the work, just did it for friends of friends and recommendations. i made sure the level of work stayed curbed so it didnt actually ruin the "fun" of it.

do you have a basis of friends etc to start out with?

if i was going to start takign it seriously id pair up with someone else and start renting a unit somewhere

danza · 25 Mar 2011 at 17:01

Ignore.

denon · 25 Mar 2011 at 18:11

starting out on your own for someone with your experince is the worst advice ive heard in my life,

in all seriousness forget about, get a decent job and contuine doing your own car and family/friends

Joshy · 25 Mar 2011 at 18:11

I am just about to finish off my apprenticeship and I can tell you one thing - Have a very long and hard thing about weather or not you want to do this, especially at your age . It is a physically demanding, relatively stressful job (if you're in a bonus driven workshop) which can sometimes be dull and repetitive to the point where you'll want to hang yourself from the nearest engine crane.

Too many people enjoy spannering on their own cars and think "Oh, this is great fun. I'm going to make it my career". Sooner or later the novelty tends to wear off and it becomes just a job. The diagnosis part of the job is mostly non existent due to the invention of diagnostic equipment meaning a 'technician' now days is little more than a glorified fitter as that's all that we do. Unbolt old part, bolt in new one. Rinse and repeat for the next couple of decades

.

Now I've got the depressing **** out of the way. Experience talks loudly, perhaps even louder than a few qualifications (although you're going to need them too if you want to end up in a main dealer). If you've got spare time on your hands try and volunteer at a back street/independent place. Make it clear that you don't want any money/sexual favours in payment and I'm sure they'd be happy to have a spare pair of hands. Use it as a bit of a trial period to see if you really do want to go into the trade.

Qualification wise I understand that NVQ and C&G are pretty much interchangeable with no preference given to one or the other. Saying that, 99% of dealer apprenticeships use NVQ, so that's something to bear in mind.

BigglesPiP · 25 Mar 2011 at 18:21

C&G is fairly well accepted, although nowhere near as respected as it is in other fields.

ATA is worth going for once you've been trained. That really does make you stand out to a serious establishment.

Joshy said:
The diagnosis part of the job is mostly non existent due to the invention of diagnostic equipment meaning a 'technician' now days is little more than a glorified fitter as that's all that we do. Unbolt old part, bolt in new one. Rinse and repeat for the next couple of decades .

Sure, if you're not actually interested in fixing the problem.

Diagnosis, particularly where fibbing diagnostic computers are involved, is basically a field of its own now. My father has become a specialist in electronics diagnosis since becoming a mechanic in the 80s when carbs were the norm.

He gets cars in from other garages regular as clockwork where they replaced what the computer told them to and it didn't fix the problem. Usually where a simple test given an understanding of the system could have revealed the real root cause, rather than forking out >£1000 for an ECU which didn't fix the problem. Which makes the customer go: :mad:

There are schools of thought which say this will become ever more prevalent as cars get more and more electronics and the requirement for mechanics who know which end of a data frame is which will increase. More demand meaning more pay. There will always be plenty of grease-monkeys though.

Fuzz · 25 Mar 2011 at 22:31

BigglesPiP said:
C&G is fairly well accepted, although nowhere near as respected as it is in other fields.

ATA is worth going for once you've been trained. That really does make you stand out to a serious establishment.

Oooh, Took the online tests and I can be a Master tech LOL. What a load of tripe those questions were haha.

BigglesPiP said:
Diagnosis, particularly where fibbing diagnostic computers are involved, is basically a field of its own now. My father has become a specialist in electronics diagnosis since becoming a mechanic in the 80s when carbs were the norm.

He gets cars in from other garages regular as clockwork where they replaced what the computer told them to and it didn't fix the problem. Usually where a simple test given an understanding of the system could have revealed the real root cause, rather than forking out >£1000 for an ECU which didn't fix the problem. Which makes the customer go:

Never a truer word spoken there.

BigglesPiP said:
There are schools of thought which say this will become ever more prevalent as cars get more and more electronics and the requirement for mechanics who know which end of a data frame is which will increase. More demand meaning more pay. There will always be plenty of grease-monkeys though.

CAN systems mess with my grey matter

[TW]Fox · 25 Mar 2011 at 22:40

Joshy said:
The diagnosis part of the job is mostly non existent due to the invention of diagnostic equipment meaning a 'technician' now days is little more than a glorified fitter as that's all that we do. Unbolt old part, bolt in new one. Rinse and repeat for the next couple of decades .

You forgot the 'bill customer anyway when it doesnt fix the problem' or 'deny there is a fault when the computer wont find one'.

BigglesPiP · 26 Mar 2011 at 01:31

Scubascorpion said:
CAN systems mess with my grey matter

I like the way the device ID's are designed to collide and form priority via the dominant/recessive bit thing, it's poetry.

Joshy · 26 Mar 2011 at 07:20

[TW]Fox;18756455 said:
You forgot the 'bill customer anyway when it doesnt fix the problem' or 'deny there is a fault when the computer wont find one'.

I didn't know that you were one of our customers!

998cc · 26 Mar 2011 at 13:40

Coventry does NVQ as well as C&G.

pespro · 26 Mar 2011 at 13:48

was a starter course at a Rotherham college which i pressume is near where you live OP.
Wish i got for it now, know nothing about my car.

RobSheffield · 27 Mar 2011 at 00:54

SeatIbiza said:
Any chance you could start out on your own as a mobile mechanic maybe? I think that will become more and more popular - you work on cars whilst people are at work so they don't have to take time off or take to a dealer...?

Its something i had thought about. Thanks for the suggestion.

atpbx said:
Are you out of work or something?

Wouldnt it be easier to just go and work selling something else (making a shed load more money in the process)?

I am out of work, having just left a call centre type job in disgust! I have worked in sales for years, and the market is pretty much saturated. Its full of conmen and liars and i have no wish to partake. I have had a fair few jobs, mainly during my education, and never really found anything i enjoy.

danza said:
Ignore.

Thanks. Very useful advice, i shall ignore you

RobSheffield · 27 Mar 2011 at 00:57

Joshy said:
I am just about to finish off my apprenticeship and I can tell you one thing - Have a very long and hard thing about weather or not you want to do this, especially at your age . It is a physically demanding, relatively stressful job (if you're in a bonus driven workshop) which can sometimes be dull and repetitive to the point where you'll want to hang yourself from the nearest engine crane.

Too many people enjoy spannering on their own cars and think "Oh, this is great fun. I'm going to make it my career". Sooner or later the novelty tends to wear off and it becomes just a job. The diagnosis part of the job is mostly non existent due to the invention of diagnostic equipment meaning a 'technician' now days is little more than a glorified fitter as that's all that we do. Unbolt old part, bolt in new one. Rinse and repeat for the next couple of decades .

Now I've got the depressing **** out of the way. Experience talks loudly, perhaps even louder than a few qualifications (although you're going to need them too if you want to end up in a main dealer). If you've got spare time on your hands try and volunteer at a back street/independent place. Make it clear that you don't want any money/sexual favours in payment and I'm sure they'd be happy to have a spare pair of hands. Use it as a bit of a trial period to see if you really do want to go into the trade.

Qualification wise I understand that NVQ and C&G are pretty much interchangeable with no preference given to one or the other. Saying that, 99% of dealer apprenticeships use NVQ, so that's something to bear in mind.

Thankyou for the advice, i really appreciate you taking the time to type all that out

BigglesPiP said:
C&G is fairly well accepted, although nowhere near as respected as it is in other fields.

Thanks for the info.

pespro said:
was a starter course at a Rotherham college which i pressume is near where you live OP.

Yeah i used to work at RCAT couple of years ago and i remember the courses they run. Thats going to be my first port of call, as well as seeing if i can get a few days a week in a dealership to see if its something that will be for me.

pespro · 27 Mar 2011 at 13:26

RobSheffield said:
Yeah i used to work at RCAT couple of years ago and i remember the courses they run. Thats going to be my first port of call, as well as seeing if i can get a few days a week in a dealership to see if its something that will be for me.

Cool, what were the courses like?
I work 6 days a week and then Saturday would have been taken up by that so i put it off.

Joshy · 27 Mar 2011 at 15:55

BigglesPiP said:
ATA is worth going for once you've been trained. That really does make you stand out to a serious establishment.

Is the ATA really that vaulable? I'm doing it this coming week and thought it was going to be a little bit worthless. Going by what I've been told to brush up on the assessment tasks seem like they are going to be ridiculously easy. You apparently don't even need to rectify or even find the faults within the allotted time, just show a process proving that you would have gotten there eventually!

BigglesPiP · 27 Mar 2011 at 21:00

Dad was one of the first Master Techs, and the first in Cumbria, he seemed quite impressed by the test and thought the cowboys wouldn't stand a chance at it. He was also impressed that there was a code of ethics, a site to check if a garage has ATA people and a separate qualification for service receptionists, the last being a huge problem where he works as the receptionists will book something in under "making a noise".