5 Reasons NOT To Become A Mechanic in 2023

what's up guys you thinking about becoming a mechanic here's five things that you should consider before jumping ship at your current job or starting to get yourself into this [Music] trade so I did a video pretty much similar to this about 3 years ago but I figured I'd do a revamped version of it since this was about when I had like a th000 subscribers or something like that it was a long time ago I got a whole lot of new viewers now we're about to hit 50k so I figured I'd do another video on it uh I've been a mechanic for 12 years now professionally and I feel like I got a good understanding of this industry how it works the ups and downs of this industry and just wanted to throw out these five useful things that I picked up along the way to help you guys consider if this is something that you want to do because I get a lot of people asking me like hey I'm doing this I'm in the nursing field or I'm in it right now and I want to become a mechanic and I just want to prevent anyone from getting into this industry for the wrong reasons like any other career path it has its ups and downs but this is what I've learned so far in my experience in case you missed my last video I'm giving away this $550 bidirectional scan tool that does a whole lot of cool stuff uh go watch my last video if you want to enter last day to enter to win this thing is November 4th you guys got about a week so first thing I want to point out is it takes time to make good money in this career um like anything if you have no experience doing this job being a mechanic you're going to have to start at the bottom it doesn't matter even if you went to school I went to a community college had ASC certifications started out a dealership they're not going to hire you as a line flat rate technician off the bat at the dealership at least doesn't matter what what schooling you have certifications you're starting on the changing oil you're probably going to make minimum wage or a couple dollars above minimum wage wage and it could take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years sometimes depending where you're working to move up onto the line and make that double minimum wage and be a flat rate Tech so that's one big thing to consider especially a lot of people if they're changing career paths you're already making this certain amount of money $60,000 a year $80,000 a year and jump into being a mechanic you're going to have to take a pay cut and start out making like $30 to $40,000 a year on minimum wage and there's no guarantee on when you're going to move up to actually make those big bucks so that's just one thing to consider and it does suck because it's like when I went to school I was like oh man I know all this stuff like I took apart an engine I took apart a transmission like I know how to wrench and then in reality if you just went to school and that's the only experience you have you really don't know how to wrench yet you learn how to wrench in the real world and that's why dealerships will start you at the bottom because they know that so it's just one thing to keep in mind uh just because you want to school doesn't mean that you're going to come out making big bucks so you got to be willing to invest that time to okay I'm going to make a little bit of money but in the end you got to look at it like it's going to pay off like I'm going to make decent or good money as long as I just put in my time in the beginning just want to give a huge thank you to today's sponsor status audio what is status audio status audio sent me their 3 a NC Bluetooth wireless earbuds what makes these so special apart from other Bluetooth headphones they got a great active noise cancelling feature when you want to get in the zone with your music or if you still want to hear your surroundings you could turn noise cancelling off and still actually hear what's going on around you with the tap of a button they got up to 12 hours of battery life with noise cancelling off 36 hours of charge in the portable case giving you up to 48 hours of playback on the go they got a nice triple driver system one for the base one for the mids and one for the highs not only do they sound good but you also get this cool little free app where you can go in there and set your settings customize your equalizer just uh fine-tune the sounds that you want to hear as well as see stuff like the battery life check the status of your headphones which is really cool if you're someone like me who takes their audio quality seriously I'd highly recommend checking them out I'll leave a link in the description down below as well as a 10% off coupon if you guys feel like checking them out so without further Ado let's get back to today's video next thing to consider is you have to buy all your own tools and toolbox pretty much like I'd say like 90% of places you're going to work at do not supply uh tools for their technicians um so that's another big thing to think about because I myself talking about maybe like my toolbox my tool cart all the tools I have have in it and I guess I'd probably include the tools I have at home in my boxes at home I'm probably I I can't say like cuz I haven't kept track of course but I want to say like I'm around like $25 to $30,000 deep into how much money I spent on Tools in my lifetime and that's kind of like a crappy thing I feel like about this industry is because there's not that many other Industries where you have to buy all this stuff and have all this stuff and be expected to have all this stuff versus like your work supplying this stuff for you to do the job so that's one thing you have to think about is you have to invest in these tools yourself nobody's going to buy buy them for you tools are expensive and it never ends I feel like there's always something else I need um or want to buy and it ends up kind of sometimes turning into an addiction but yeah guys tools is a big thing you got to buy your own tools and tools aren't cheap and that leads back to the next point when you're not making that much money it's hard to invest in tools also but you need to have a nice set of or a decent set of tools and a toolbox if you want to move up and be on the line because if you go flat rate or you go to any shop or you're working on your own you need to already have your own toolbox and you need to have your own tools um you shouldn't be going into a place expecting like your work to supply you with tools to complete the job with being a mechanic you need to have your own tools although I do have a lot of tools now I have built them up over the years though so I guess one thing to think about too is it's not like you have to buy every single tool right off the bat and go into huge debt it's like you kind of start you start off small you buy a little box you buy the basic stuff you need sockets screwdrivers ratchets um maybe the next year you upgrade got some power tools and you just kind of slowly build up your tool collection I don't think anyone's really just spending like 20 grand On Tools right off off the bat if you are that's crazy but just something to think about guys is you got to buy your own tools tools can get very expensive and sometimes it just never ends there's always another tool you're going to end up buying next thing I got is it's pretty physically demanding I mean obviously it's a blue collar job being a mechanic uh it's labor intensive you're on your feet pretty much all day you're not sitting down too often hardly are you sitting in uh climate control area so if it's hot outside it's hotter in the garage typically if it's cold outside it's usually freezing in the garage um you're bent over the hood uh very often working on a vehicle so you're going to start getting some lower back pain um you're kind of under some awkward angles sometimes if you're tall like me usually the lifts don't lift the vehicle high enough so I'm kind of always like just at like a weird angle and it kind of sucks a lot of the times or say you're doing some interior work say you're like underneath a dashboard you'll sometimes literally be like God damn sorry I'm still sick but you'll literally be at some weird angles sometimes you'll have to have like your hand bent five different directions trying to screw a nut on or loosen a bolt by hand because you can't get a socket in there and you're trying to get like the wrench on it you'll be in some tricky situations and just want to remind you that it's very physically demanding because this is a job that requires you to be on your feet and be doing such and such lifting heavy objects and not only that you're exposed to a lot of toxic chemicals I mean break dust it's horrible for your health uh brake cleaner horrible for your health all these Vapors you're breathing in and chemicals all day um I mean we're all going to die eventually but I don't think all this stuff we're inhaling as mechanics on a day-to-day is helping us just something to think about uh I've had days sometimes where I go home and I don't even feel like I work my body feels fine but I've had days where work has just kicked my ass and like I get off work my back hurts like my feet hurt I got like a weird pain in my wrist or my elbow or like I move my shoulder the wrong way so sometimes this job can really beat you up uh working on light duty vehicles at least I feel like it's a little bit easier on your body now I'm working on a lot more heavy equipment and diesels and I've realized that this stuff is super heavy and I feel like heavy equipment diesel definitely tears your body up faster than Automotive light duty vehicles but just something to think about is this job is physically demanding the next tip I got is I feel like mechanics are gen generally underappreciated and kind of treated like I like to say the redheaded stepchild of whatever business you're in when I was I was working at the dealership it's like you have your service Riders those guys are getting all the praise and all the customers are giving them like cookies and alcohol during Christmas like oh thank you so much and then the mechanic's just back there the guy who's actually doing the work and doesn't really get any uh gratitude or appreciation like that typically and it's kind of messed up because it's like the mechanic's the one doing the work busting his ass he's the one who's invested all this money into all these tools but still in the general eye it's like the the mechanics just like that dirty guy in the back who's fixing my car uh usually there's not much love for the mechanics and it's kind of messed up and another thing that goes with that it's like anything that goes wrong it's like it's always your fault it's like say you put in a part and maybe the part was defective uh customer brings back their car they're all pissed off service manager mad at you the service Rider mad at you like why'd you mess this car up this customer's piss and it's like dude it's not even like your fault and then not to mention that it's like you could do a very complex job that requires a lot of knowledge a lot of skill it's like you just did this crazy ass job or and then you forgot one little thing maybe you got like dirt on inside the vehicle somewhere or like you got the door handle a little grease on it like something that small like that and it's like automatically it's like dude you up like what the and it's like really dude like it's just messed up cuz it's like wow dude I just did all this work for this customer I probably did it way faster than I had to do it and it's like you're going to at me for like this little grease stain that maybe I didn't even do maybe I did do but it's like dude yeah I just feel like that comes with being a mechanic it's always your fault and it's pretty messed up very underappreciated uh career for sure and the last thing I got is working say you have a passion for cars a passion for wrenching working uh your passion for a career really kind of turns or kills your passion and turns your passion into a chore I could say this from firsthand experience when I first started like I was like 19 20 years old and I was just in love with cars like I started working at the dealership I would work at the dealership all day after work I would get off work go home and i' go home and work on my own cars I try and do side jobs I just always wanted a wrench and I noticed slowly over the years I wanted to wrench less at home uh the older I got and the more time I've done in this industry and now being about like 12 years in uh when I get off work and I'm at home or like before work I really don't want to wrench like people hit me up sometimes I want to help them work on their car and now I'm kind of like nah because it's more like a chore to me since I do it all day but yeah I know everyone's different I know some people still they still love wrenching they'll go home and and wrench do slid jobs they'll do this stuff on the weekends like 24/7 Around the Clock just always wrenching I mean those people I would say they just really do have that passion for wrenching or making money on the side stuff like that but I feel like for a majority most mechanics that I've met at the dealership it's like when they get off work they're not trying to wrench cuz it's like dude I've been working on cars all day when I go home the last thing I want to do is work on a car so just something to consider anytime you turn your passion into a career or work um it starts killing that passion slowly at least in my opinion but that's all I got for you guys for this episode hope you guys enjoyed it don't forget to enter that scan tool giveaway if you made it this far of the video but if not you're good have a nice weekend guys and I'll catch you guys later [Music] peace

Channel: Lets Drift Media

Views: 175,828

Keywords: bmw technician, bmw mechanic, how to, mechanic 2020, auto mechanic, a day in the life as a, toyota tech, toyota mechanic, toyota technician, nicknakai, m3, s13, s14, 240sx, drifting, street drifting, grassroot drifting, how much money, mechanic income, drift build, how to repair, how to diagnose, how to become a mechanic, flatrate mechanic, auto technician, snap on vs, japan drift, adamlz, illiminate, diesel mechanic, fleet mechanic

Id: Sxzgbi1dieA

Length: 13min 51sec (831 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023