the dealerships can't find enough diesel techs. Why in the #@!%&*#%^& would anybody want to work on these things all the time? (I changed my oil cooler today!)

I pull wrenches for a living, but I hate working on anything with a license plate.

 

Working on aircraft is so much better.
Still work is work if the pay is right.

Sean

 

you think its bad now, just wait and see. very few are comming in the industry. less then one in ten are worth keeping. the kids think they should get top pay and dont want to work.the older guys my age are finding ways out of the industry aswell.
This pattern will continue for the next 4-5 years till the industry crashes for lack of ablebody support wich will also kill customer retension.
one last thought this will also help desolve many of the indy shops too.
The dealers should have started to reform years ago like the rest of the counrty but failed. I wish you all the best of luck getting any shop to fix your stuff correctly in the comming years.

 

this is not limited to the auto industry. a friend of mine just
got a job... as a zero experience trainee, in a CNC machine
shop, at $20 per hour.... to start.

they can't find machinists. all the guys there are gray haired
and getting ready to retire, and all our machinists disappeared
along with manufacturing, years ago.

now, you can get a parts chucker, who doesn't speak much english,
but an honest to god machinist or toolmaker? a good one? not
so easy.

the guys who taught me how to do what i do for a living did a
fair job of it. looking at the current crop of twentysomethings
following behind me in my field is not heartening.

and that isn't the sound of an old fart grousing. for two
generations, the goal has been to get enough training that you
can get a "good" job.... white collar. this attitude i don't believe
has served us well.

i have a stepson who has an MBA. he can't do anything if you
can't do it with a keyboard and a mouse. if he had to change
a flat tire, i KNOW he would be unable to operate the jack.

a product of a culture that doesn't value skills beyond administration.

 

I learned a lesson long ago about white collar, it was there is a bunch of compition to get jobs.
As a person that has spent the bulk of my life working in skilled trades I have never wanted for work. I have been watching two things happen. first is the unemployeed numbers seem to go up every year. the second is the number of job offers I turn down every year go up.
If I was a youth today in my 20's I would be looking in to skilled trades to make my furture. It maybe ugly and hard work but it will be work with out a competitive market lending greater ability to name your price in a market of supply and demand.

 

Some of the students in school to get there
A&P (aircraft mechanic) are dumber than a box of rocks.
They weed some out but some still limp through.
They all think that they will be making top $$ first
year out,

It's happening all over the place. Even at McD's

Sean

 

The problem is, so many of today's youths don't know how to work hard, and even more are completely unqualified if any thought is required...

 

I worked in the pipeline industry (water, sewer, gas) for years as a mechanic and welder.

All the older guys gave up and quit when it came to mechanics and welding, not only in the company I worked for, but also with the dealers I dealt with on a daily basis.

The "replacement" mechanics out of tech school were, for the most part, a complete joke. Especially the welders. They must not teach much hands on in the dirt, rusty metal education in the tech schools.

I eventually was head mechanic and also equipment manager. I had my greasy dirty days and my clean shirt office days. My interviews didn't consist of where they may have gone to school, but what was their background.

Grew up on a farm? Hired.

Spent 20 years at so-n-so construction company? Hired.

Just graduated from WyoTech and has never built anything? Pass.

Now working in a fabrication shop, out of school welders want top dollar. Guess what, it isn't going to happen when 20 others would actually work for less than what we are offering.

And the same principle applies... the out of school students just do not have the right mindset when it comes to the daily grind.

Josh

 

The skilled trade that's not treated like a skilled trade that's why I left 40yrs ago. Not by the dealer Not by the factory best wishes to all mechanics.

 

Let me be the first to say, thank you for being concerned. When we entered into this profession, it was with the understanding that we would be dealing with quite literally another member of the family, so to speak. This job actually requires you to extend yourself beyond what is normally expected of most occupations. The late night calls from the neighbor because his daughter is stranded, The wife or kids that dont have enough money for repairs. There is a lot more "hazards" for us than meets the eye. Most techs are more than happy to stand up and proudly proclaim " Im a mechanic, bring it to me, I can fix it!" When you love what you do, there is no deterrent that can make you back down. We will endure working on hot engines, poor pay, less than appreciative customers, and rediculous costs of tools( I just paid off my $11,000 toolbox), and come back the next day for more. Again, thank you, and just bring it on! <!-- / message -->
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That's no joke...everything you guys have said hits it all square on the head. As the Service Manager/Head Mechanic at our shop, I've had to go through my share of the hiring processes. Anyone coming out of a technical school or a university all of the sudden thinks they have the right to a $30 an hour job with a 30 hour work week....sorry guys....even with experience, that's still a rare occurance. I've been turning a wrench since I was 3 (dad is a long haul owner operator), and even still, I know I don't know everything, and don't expect anyone to treat me as such. I went and did my time, went to college, but I don't expect to be put ahead of someone who has ten years of acutal hard time work experience.

Plus, with the way schools are set up now, its a system that sets these kids up to fail. The schools get paid on a basis of how many of their students pass (plus it ups their reputation that they have such high passing percentage and they get more GOV'T funds)....BUT....this allows the kids to just screw off and not pay attention, limp through with Cs and Ds, and barely have to pay attention in classes. They go through school, don't learn crap, still pass, don't want to pay their dues and put in the work, then think they're endeared the world. Oh well, what can we do?

Thanks for letting me put in my $0.02

 

Kind of off topic here but still relative...... We recently had a teacher in one of the local schools who gave a student a "0" for not handing in an assignment (0 as in 0% for not even trying). The parents and the school board told him to re-grade the kids work..... The teacher refused, he said that if the kid would have put forth the effort to complete the assignment he would not have given him a "0".

The school board suspended the teacher and said it gives a complex to children that can harm the way they function in adulthood. They told the teacher to re-grade and he could come back to work but he refused.

Lol..... I too have had to hire some of these new-method kids and they tend to last less than a week on the job or they are the first to get hurt on the job and milk compensation. Just think....... these are our up and coming Presidents and Prime Ministers!

 

Exactly! Is such a bunch of BS that the teacher got in trouble for trying to make the kid do what he was supposed to, which in turn, teaches the kid "Hey, I don't have to do anything, and I still get the reward".....I'm Sorry but THIS IS THE COMPLEX WE SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT. This harms kids and the rest of the world 10x more than actually making them realize that working for the reward is the way the world is supposed to work. Whole damn system is broken, all the way from the parents to the schools, makes me so glad I was raised the way I was.

 

Too bad the school administrators, ivory tower university theorists will never read anything like this. Our society is going the way of the Roman empire, they couldn't get romans to stand in their army (which really was their industry in many ways), so they got foreign troops. Once they learned how to fight as an organized army these "barbarians" sacked Rome. I think we are repeating history.

By the way I am a mining engineer and have worked the mines for 40 years. In our ranks there are just old men and kids. But some of the kids are good and are worth the time and effort. The universities haven't screwed up engineering yet, that is why so few go into that profession, because it is very hard work. (I worked as an old school type miner so I know a little about hard work).

 

Oh remember the scary part is that when we are old and helpless, they get to be in charge!!