Is being a mechanic a good job? How much do make a year?

You're going to earn more than minimum wage, for sure, probably looking at around $15 - $25 on average for mom and pop garages, and main stream car services centers.

You really do have to get certified and go to school if you ever want to make the $25, or more.

It's not much, but it's an honest job, and people will always need you because people are stupid. You will also be the go-to mechanic for your friends.

Eventually if you do end up delving into this field, your goal should be to save as much money as possible when you're young so that you can open up your own garage and hire a few mechanics you deem fit. Then you can live a "pretty comfortable" life.

It's just all about the hard work at the beginning and saving as much as possible, keeping costs down, getting well known, etc. After maybe 5-7 years you can open your own place. Right around the late 20s or early 30s is ideal, so you don't deal with the health complications and can raise a family.

>>16304907
>Eventually if you do end up delving into this field, your goal should be to save as much money as possible when you're young so that you can open up your own garage and hire a few mechanics you deem fit. Then you can live a "pretty comfortable" life.
That seems to be about right for the shops I've worked with, including one in the family.

>>16304907
>health complications

?

>>16304858
It depends how you define "good". In the traditional sense, mechanics are one of the few traditional/labor professions still left outside of construction so you can expect to work with a lot of degenerates or interesting characters. The work probably isn't fulfilling but the pay will be enough to support yourself. You'll never become rich doing it unless you branch off and open your own shop or use what you learned for another business venture.

>>16304941

Your back. There isn't an honest mechanic without a fucked back.

Depends

Depends

I went to Universal Technical Institute for my technical training. Became ASE, Nissan, and Toyota certified. Went to work for a Toyota dealership.

Your pay depends entirely on your service writer, seasons, and if the owner of the vehicle is a cheap-skate (they usually are).

Oil changes and tire rotations are your bread and butter. Alignments, brakes, recalls, and tires break up the monotony.

The big jobs are rare, and when they do roll in the door, they usually give it to one dude that they've always given it to because he knows how to do it quickly, so you rarely learn anything new unless you specifically ask for it.

So, all the fun stuff like Engine, transmission, suspension, and other big ticket jobs like this rarely get to you.

I remember this one dude was the timing belt guru. That's all he ever did. Sure, other teams did one or two, but they almost always scheduled them through this guy.

Oh yeah, you'll be on a team. Your team captain will hand out work to keep things fair and focusing on your strong points. Get a shit Captain tho, and your life will suck.

There's usually 5-10 captains depending on your dealership size, and 1-4 master techs.

The master tech is the go to guy usually for specific jobs like diagnostics, special vehicles repair, and lemons (if they can't fix a problem on their third/fourth attempt, by law they have to refund the customer for their car under warranty)

So... yeah... its an okay job, but I got out because I wanted more stability. I became an engineer. Still miss wrenching some days.

>>16304970
Every dealership is different, a lot of Japanese dealerships work like you described, but not many of the other brands

>>16304907
in electronics you dont really need college education if you have in feild experience and you almost always make over $20/hr here in ohio that is

>>16304941

Back problems, most likely going to be very skinny, brittle bones, constantly dirty skin, going to be around oil, chemicals all the time, not going to care for proper gloves, eye protection, could maybe cut a finger off, or get scars with sparks, other things could happen and are probably going to happen.

It's why you need to do it to learn the business, then get out as fast as you can once you know you're able to do it better.

Once you open one shop, you will be able to open up many after that. It just takes dedication and putting off other things like buying an expensive car out of school, and getting a girlfriend, having kids, etc.

If you're disciplined and have a clear goal, you will be more than able to make something much better out of it than just earning the $20 an hour, which is most likely going to be $17.50 for most of your career.

>>16304858
do you like wrenching on your own cars as a hobby? If so, stay away from automotive, youll likely start to hate it and not want to even look at your own vehicles at the end of the day.

If you wanna turn wrenches for a living, go straight to truck/trailer or heavy equipment. I took a one year course at my provincial (canadafag here) community college for truck and trailer repair. Got a job at a dealership right out of school at 18. Get gud at electrical/diagnosis and engine work and you'll do good and always have a job.

I'm 22 now, working at a Western Star/Freightliner dealer. Fully licenced, Expert certified on DD, S60, DT12 trans, ISX, multiple star and frieghtliner platforms. Making $26.50/hr with as much OT as I can handle. Life is breddy gud.