What would you guys do?, Working Professionally On Cars Options

[Eric Taylor]

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while and Britt’s thread about IT got me going again.

Right now I’m at a point in my life where I feel like I’ve got to make a few decisions. I’m about half way through school and finding myself really unsure of what I want to do. I’m currently a journalism major and am finding that I am not as interested in doing what I thought I wanted to do. The jobs I had always dreamed of in TV are starting to disappear and the ones I’m left with are not ones that interest me. So I got thinking about what really does get me going.

The part of my life that interests me the most is cars. In working with my little 914 I’ve learned a lot. It really keeps me on my toes, and while I defiantly don’t know everything I have a passion to learn and that’s a lot of why I like it. Right now I’m getting a great experience with a board member in building a 3.0 SC motor. While it’s mostly me watching and holding things, I really love the detail and the intricacy of everything and figuring out how it all works I really enjoy the puzzle of it and piecing it all together.

So I turn to my favorite group of car people for advice. What would your guys’ advice be for turning this passion into a profession? I know it would be really hard to walk into a Porsche shop and ask for a job with no actual on the job experience or training. How would you guys go about getting into this world if you were in my situation?

Eric

[byndbad914]

QUOTE (warrenporsche @ Mar 29 2006, 03:20 PM)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif) I am a UTI graduate, a factory trained Porsche mechanic, and now work at a VW dealership full time. Let me assure you that it is VERY tough to  make a living working on cars. Dealerships make money by keeping thier warrany cost down ( that is where your money usually comes from) and most all mechanics are straight commision. doing work on the side is all you can do to offset the financial beating a dealer mechanic gets.

I worked the commission thing like so many others out there. Say it was 60/40 - YOU don't get the 60, the shop does. You get 40%. Oh yeah, and you have to buy all of your own tools with that 40% while you're at it. Then, you get paid by the job, so if you are good and fast like I was, you "bill" 60-80hrs per week but only work 40-50hrs. BUT, there are those days that you get a 1 hr job and a rusted bolt breaks off and you spend 3 hours digging that POS out. I had a 2 hr job one morning turn into a 10 hr day - that one still haunts my dreams to this day (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/mad.gif) I also stayed away from dealerships - some horror stories to follow - but that came with some weeks that I did a lot of standing and didn't bill 40hrs because the work just wasn't there to be done.

I had a car project collecting dust because it was unfeasable to spend the money. Got a BSME, decent job, and finally building my race car.

Warren - I feel for you man! Dealership work is cut-throat, but unfortunately, somewhat stable compared to working for a smaller shop. Had one of these days yet - the transmission guy is dying because he doesn't have any drivetrain work coming in, but you have a good job going and a 2nd one waiting. FINALLY going to have a productive day and then as you finish the job, you realize the trans guy is under your 2nd car because "I gotta family to feed man". THEN, next time a trans oil change comes through he is busy, your slow, so you take the simple oil change and he comes after you with a wrench? Then you get fired for rearranging his dental work - with him still holding the wrench. Gotta friend with that story.

Another incident another friend from school had - he was the "brakes" guy and there was a factory recall on a switch IIRC - took 5-10 minutes to replace, but if you were doing the job for a customer it paid an hour minimum. Well, not for the mfr it doesn't. They literally wanted to pay him a negotiated rate of 10 minutes per and then he had to do all of them that came in. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/bs.gif) So he was losing his ass everytime he did one of those.