GJM
Posted a lot
Alloy engines; like communism- great in theory.
Posts: 1,393
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Apr 20, 2006 10:19:54 GMT
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Anyone ever been a mechanic, thourght about being one, know anyone that is a mechanic? Pros/Cons of being one, whats pay like, etc
At that crossroads in life where its either university for Business Studies or go out there and make some money.
Its been in the back of my mind for about 6 months now, never done any courses remotly mechanicing based but it interests me and i learn quickly, think id quite enjoy it if i found the right workplace.
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Apr 20, 2006 10:27:05 GMT
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Well, a few people have made their millions out of being a mechanic, and some have failed, its all upto choosing your market right. A while ago being a Mercedes specialist mechanic would have been extremely profitable due to high dealer prices, but now there are loads of mercedes specialists around.
I'm not sure if thats the kind of info you wanted but I hope it helps.
Adam
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1997 TVR Chimaera 2009 Westfield Megabusa
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Mechanicing arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Apr 20, 2006 10:36:41 GMT
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Depends what you want out of life.
If perma-grubby fingernails and a lifetime in a drafty workshop is your thing then fine. But if you want a world of office politics & 'meetings' then maybe not.
Think about what is good now & what will be good later.
Salaries in mechanicking are not great, are they? If you're a workshop manager or MoT tester then what's the top whack? £25k?
And while the lure of what seems like good money now, e.g. £250 a week in your pocket as opposed to student debt, you may quickly realise that this is not great if you want to do things like escape the parents etc!
That said, if you keep on top of the technology (like how to plug cars into clever electronicky bits to mend them, rather than old fashioned spanner-wielding, then you'll be pretty much guaranteed work.
As opposed to the 'what do you say to someone wth a degree in -business studies-? Big mac & large fries please...'
The governments desire to make sure 99.99% of folk have a university degree have largely devalued their merit in my opinion. When it comes to gettting a job with your degree you will be in an increasingly congested marketplace...
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Apr 20, 2006 10:46:30 GMT
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Hmmm... 25K is rather GOOD! Most jobs round my part of the world pay about HALF THAT!
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Mechanicing arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Apr 20, 2006 10:50:38 GMT
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Hmmm... 25K is rather GOOD! Most jobs round my part of the world pay about HALF THAT! It's all relative, of course. I work in central london, where £25K is not very much at all.
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Apr 20, 2006 10:50:46 GMT
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why not take a 'year out' and go work as a mechanic somewhere. If you don't like it you can always go to uni the year after. Its possible to earn good money doing pretty much anything if you are prepared to work at it.
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Mechanicing arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Apr 20, 2006 10:53:27 GMT
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why not take a 'year out' and go work as a mechanic somewhere. If you don't like it you can always go to uni the year after. Its possible to earn good money doing pretty much anything if you are prepared to work at it. It's not always that simple for some people. Kinda the 'safety net' principle.. Not everyone has parents who are willing to support them beyond 'school leaver' age, and thus 'trying things out' (as well as bumming about / 'travelling') are not always an option. If you don't have the 'safety net', it's sink or swim.
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Apr 20, 2006 10:59:38 GMT
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Ahh !!! Point taken You have my full understanding. I moved (and worked) to London in the late 80's (and totally enjoyed it) but by the early 90's I could no longer afford to live there on what I was paid so it was time to return to shropshire again ;D
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Apr 20, 2006 10:59:50 GMT
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why not take a 'year out' and go work as a mechanic somewhere. If you don't like it you can always go to uni the year after. Its possible to earn good money doing pretty much anything if you are prepared to work at it. It's not always that simple for some people. Kinda the 'safety net' principle.. Not everyone has parents who are willing to support them beyond 'school leaver' age, and thus 'trying things out' (as well as bumming about / 'travelling') are not always an option. If you don't have the 'safety net', it's sink or swim. i do think its that simple. You don't need to live at home, you could rent somewhere (just a room in a house) while you try things out. I think too many people are fcuking bone idle and want everything on a plate these days. Sure, you would need to make sacrifices, but isnt that what everyone has to do when they start out? anything is an option if you are willing to make it happen.
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Nick
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,483
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Mechanicing Nick
@rearwheelnick
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Apr 20, 2006 11:07:48 GMT
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university these days means dealing with huge fees and debt does it not, i didnt go the uni route, so far i have done sod all , was a builder for a bit, then spent the last year basically being a bit of a useless tard, and havin enough money to vaguely get by on by living off savings and selling things here and there...
i considered going to be a mechanic, but unless it was somewhere interesting i doubt the appeal would last long, i mean how fun would it be to work on dull cars doing very boring jobs for the layman, and at end of day not getting that great money. all my friends who are mechanics i envy cos of their ability to work on anycar without batting an eye lid but they always talk me out of it if i re-consider it.
maybe some sort of business skills and mechanic skills would go hand in hand. and you could earn your money that way, why consign yourself to only being good at one and not the other.
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idea stolen from rattely eddie.
this weeks car count "5"
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Mechanicing arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Apr 20, 2006 11:17:02 GMT
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i do think its that simple. You don't need to live at home, you could rent somewhere (just a room in a house) while you try things out. I think too many people are fcuking bone idle and want everything on a plate these days. Sure, you would need to make sacrifices, but isnt that what everyone has to do when they start out? Not these days, no. I was once told by my bank manager that I should go home & live my folks Knob. Maybe I'm just bitter and twisted about the years I spent living in scummy accommodation with £0.00 in my pocket to call my own whilst my contemporaries whooped it up wihilst their olds supported them... ;D
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Apr 20, 2006 11:28:43 GMT
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and thats my problem with todays society. People seem to want everything on a plate, and think a degree should guarantee them a £30k pay packet for doing fcuk all each day. Too many take the short term easy option, and hate the thought of sacrificing anything even if they might prefer the longer term results. Anyway, I'm in danger of taking this off topic and away from what the thread is supposed to be about. GJM, i say if you wanna do it then give it a go. At least then you will know either way and wont forever think 'what if'. My only reservation with being a mechanic (and i had considered it to) was that i would then hate the thought of working on my own cars at the weekend
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Mechanicing BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Apr 20, 2006 11:40:59 GMT
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I've been down both roads, and there are pros and cons to each. I was an apprentice mechanic when I left school, then did a BTEC in Motor Engineering. It was fun, but in the end I decided I wanted to go to Uni and keep my spannering to the weekends. More often than not your first year will be spent following a qualified mechanic around, watching him, fetching tools, doing all the simpler jobs he doesn't particularly like doing, and getting sent to the parts dept for a "long stand", that sort of thing. Which is the way everyone starts out. If I had stayed on the mechanic route, I'm not sure whether spannering away at other peoples motors for 40-odd hours a week would take the shine off doing my own cars in my spare time. You're young enough to invest a year or two trying it out - if it doesn't suit you, the University route is always open to you.
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Apr 20, 2006 11:46:21 GMT
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You're young enough to invest a year or two trying it out - if it doesn't suit you, the University route is always open to you. Wise words. Don't be afraid to "take a risk", you've got plenty of time. Look at it this way: You've got over forty years until reaching retirement age. Imagine doing something you don't like, for forty hours a week, for forty years. Yeah, that really would suck. So give it a try. Nothing ventured etc etc.
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My fleet: Suzuki GSX-R600Y SRAD with bald, melted tyres A borrowed Mondeo
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Mechanicing arthurbrown
@GUEST
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Apr 20, 2006 11:49:01 GMT
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Look at it this way: You've got over forty years until reaching retirement age. But only 6 or 7 years to get all your finances sorted and get a decent pension scheme in place for when you retire..... or so I read last week
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Last Edit: Apr 20, 2006 11:49:43 GMT by arthurbrown
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GJM
Posted a lot
Alloy engines; like communism- great in theory.
Posts: 1,393
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Apr 20, 2006 11:52:06 GMT
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I suppose I'm quite lucky in the fact that my parents are happy to have me at home for a few more years. We have a farm and both my brothers have left home (each having lived at home till around 23) so they would be happy of the continued help. Your also all very right when it come to the 'wanting things on a plate' ideology in my generation of 'yooves'. I've never had any idea of what i want to do in the future, its just i did well as GCSE and am doing well at A-level in Business Studies and have been told it might suit me, however its only in the past 12 months or so that i've realised i might actualy like to work in a perticular area- cars. don't know if i can justify £9,000+ worth of debt on an assumption that it might just suit me. Business Studies would however go quite well with mechanics of some sort as Rearwheelnick said, its been my 'taking dog for a walk day dream' lately of a classic/retro orientated garage, MOTs, services aimed at classic cars and the buying, doing up and selling of old motors. Try to create that village mechanic feel and specialise in Rootes cars or something... Its another plus point that around here in the Cheshire countryside there is still an abundance of such small village mechanics owned by some 65 year old who inherited the business off of his father kind of thing that means these small garages get passed on to local folk.
Suppose first off i need to see how you become one, it seems its all certificates and levels and diplomas now.
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Apr 20, 2006 12:44:54 GMT
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know anyone that is a mechanic? A very close friend of mine went from College with the aim to become an architect. He worked on a YTS scheme with a firm in a local city and studied part time. The firm eventually took him on full time on a reasonable wage for the area. He loved working on cars and would often say in the pub how it wound him up taking his cars to garages and watching them do a job he knew he could do better. After getting his architecture qualification he packed in his full time job and signed up as a van mechanic down the local industrial estate. It was a completely different walk of life for him, relaxed, interesting, lots of variety, lots of getting out and doing things. But there were downsides too, managment were dodgy, unrewarding and sadly in his case his boss walked out the office one day and told him he was sacked. He did not go back to architecture though. Instead he rents a unit and runs his own business from it. Does not make a lot of money but likes the life. If you can afford to do it without moving backwards then try it and see.
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Apr 20, 2006 12:52:17 GMT
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Do it while you can.
I didn't go to uni...I went straight into IT.
Three and a bit years later, I'm in a situation already where, if I didn't like my job or if I wanted a change, it would be rather difficult to chop it in and start afresh.
I don't know if that's a result of rising too fast or of being overambitious though.
I say do it...
*n
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Top grammar tips! Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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Apr 20, 2006 13:35:06 GMT
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Thankfully a nice outcome then! A good leason for us all
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Apr 20, 2006 13:35:15 GMT
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working on cars is one of those things,its ok when you want to do it,but when you HAVE to do it ,it becomes a whole new ball game,if your working on your own motor you can stop and start anytime you want,but if its a paying punter you have deadlines to work too,and its pretty soul destroying working under a car,its raining and sub zero, your up to you elbows in slime,looking for a rattle which may or may not actually exist.a mechanics apprencticeship runs to about 2/3 years now, and its hard graft and you WILL get all the curse word jobs ,like washing floors and sweeping the yard. i like the idea of a village rootes specialist garage thingy,maybe you could continue your studies,and then start off buying and selling cars expanding to do mechanical and bodyworks at a later date.word of warning however,health and safety are very strict nowadays and the start up capital for even a small body shop or workshop can be huge,due to emmisions regualtions,health and safety equipment,lighting,etc etc.
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