So, you are ready to start your career as an automotive technician: you have completed your apprenticeship, and you have a certain amount of practical experience under your belt. You are also in possession of all the required certifications and licences where these are required, you have secured a position in a mid-sized independent workshop that accepts anything that can be driven, pushed, or dragged through the doors, and you cannot wait to get started. Good for you, but at this point in your career you should perhaps take a step back and consider some of the major challenges you will be facing as a new technician- none of which are insurmountable, but note that some can seriously dampen your enthusiasm if you do not approach them in a sensible manner. Let us start with this-
There was a time when simply completing an apprenticeship was enough to equip you with the required skills to be a competent mechanic, but this is no longer the case. In fact, unless you keep up with new developments and technologies from day one, you might find yourself being overwhelmed by advances in electronics, diagnostic procedures, and control systems sooner than you would have thought possible.
There are many examples of technologies that are advancing at a very rapid pace- autonomous cars not being the least of them. On a more practical level though, advances in HCCI technology, FlexRay™ communication systems, electric or hybrid propulsion systems, and driver assist/safety systems are already presenting most old-school technicians with severe challenges in terms of diagnostics and repair procedures.
As a new technician, you need to face these advances/challenges head-on, and the only way to do that is to have a complete understanding of the technologies that underpin each advance, but herein lays a major problem. Technicians at dealerships used to have it easy, since their employers were often compelled by car manufacturers to have technicians undergo factory-mandated training courses on new technologies. However, since the car manufacturing industry in Australia is effectively dead, this source of training is no longer available. Worse, though, many owners of independent workshops are frequently reluctant (or flat-out refuse) to pay for training courses on technological advances that some major parts suppliers offer.
This leaves you, a newly qualified technician, between a rock and a very hard place in terms of being able to keep up with technological advances that require you to be part mechanical engineer, structural engineer, electronics engineer, mathematician, computer programmer, and systems analyst, amongst other things. Thus, as a practical matter, you are largely on your own when it comes to accessing the skills and knowledge you were either not taught as an apprentice, or that you will need to be able to diagnose say, faults in the next generation of high-speed serial bus communication systems.
Fortunately, though, there is a way around this. There are several online, but mainly subscription based resources that regularly publish up-to-date scholarly (read, PhD level) research articles on major new advances in automotive technologies. However, the downsides to this approach are that these articles a), generally do not extend to diagnostics, and b), that you need to spend a great deal of time finding, reading, and digesting the information.
Of course, none of the above means that you should not pursue a career as an automotive technician. In fact, much of the attraction of the profession involves the satisfaction that comes with having figured out a solution to a complex problem, but it is as well to be aware of the fact that finding an appropriate solution under severe time constraints and other pressures can sometimes raise your stress to unhealthy levels.
Now that you are aware of what to expect in terms of staying ahead of the pack, so to speak, you also need to consider that if you want to be happy in your job, you must be able to-
Your life as a technician will be vastly different from your previous life as an apprentice or trainee, and for some people it is incredibly difficult to transition from one life to the next. For instance, when you were an apprentice, you did not bear the final responsibility for the outcome of work or repairs that was safety critical: however, as a technician, you bear the sole responsibility to ensure that safety critical work, and indeed, all the work you do conforms to industry standards.
This is not the problem in itself; problems and issues arise when you interpret advice and assistance as an attack on your professional skills and abilities, which never goes down well with any experienced technician. Moreover, as a new technician, you will often doubt yourself and your ability to arrive at a diagnosis, then to formulate an appropriate repair strategy, and then to stick to that strategy until the fault is corrected, or your diagnosis and/or repair strategy is shown to be wrong.
Thus, the challenge is twofold. On the one hand, you need to manage your attitude towards criticism and/or an attempt by more experienced technicians to teach you something, and to accept honest feedback on your work processes, on the other. Balancing these two aspects of working relationships with colleagues and management is sometimes very difficult for many newly qualified technicians, but then again, you need to understand that nobody is out to “get” you.
All the other technicians in the workshop have problems and pressures of their own, and therefore, they have no interest in sticking it to you. Thus, your attitude towards criticism of your work is the deciding factor that will ultimately determine whether or not you are good fit for that particular workshop. In fact, if you have a bad or inappropriate attitude, or refuse to accept responsibility for your mistakes/actions, you might find that nobody is prepared to help you in any way, which is not a good place to be in when you are in a professional environment.
The best way to approach this particular challenge is always to remember why you are doing this. You are doing this because you like working on cars, you like the intellectual stimulation you get from solving complex problems, but more than anything else, you take pride in your work and derive a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that you did the job right, the first time. If you apply these guiding principles consistently to every job you do, you will earn the respect and acceptance of the other technicians and management a whole lot sooner than you would have done otherwise, if you ever earn it at all, which brings us to a particularly sticky problem, which is the fact that-
You will no doubt have accumulated some tools during your training, but if for some reason you did not take up a Trade Support Loan that would have given you $20 808 with which to buy tools over the life of your apprenticeship, you should know that you now need to go into serious debt to buy tools and equipment.
The tools you have accumulated up to this point will almost certainly not even begin to cover our needs. While your employer will supply major, specialized items like code scanners and other diagnostic equipment, you need to have a spanner, socket, or bit to fit every possible fastener in use on all vehicles, since it is rare to find a professional technician that does not take a very dim view of a colleague who “quickly wants to borrow something.”
You might think that simply buying a mechanic’s tool kit will solve the problem, but the fact is that it will not. While a comprehensive mechanic’s tool kit that comes in a cabinet on wheels can contain upwards of 500 pieces, these sets can cost anything up to $8000 and more, and still not include everything you need. In fact, almost all mechanics’ tool sets contain a large number of items you will either never need, or only need in rare cases- imperial-sized spanners and sockets being a good example.
So how much money do you need? This depends in large measure on the brand of tools you buy, but as a rule of thumb, you should be prepared to spend at least $12 000 - $15 000 just to get you going. However, since you will probably spend the next few years repaying this amount, you need to spend it wisely, so consider the following-
Buy smaller socket sets
Shop around for high quality ratchets, and then buy a full set of sockets for each drive size; these sets to include deep sockets. Also buy separate sets of Allen Key bits, and spline and Torx inserts- this way, one socket can do double duty while saving you the expense of buying sockets with fixed inserts. Moreover, most tool manufacturers supply kits that contain extensions in various lengths and drive sizes, as well as universal/swivel joints and adapters.
The same is true for spanners: boxed mechanic’s tool sets rarely contain everything you need, ratchet and stubby spanners for use in confined spaces being good examples. At this stage in your career, you have a very good idea of how confined modern engine compartments can be so use your best judgement when you buy spanner sets, but resist the temptation to buy something just because you “might” need it, because you probably will not.
Buying the other stuff
The items described above will account for a large part of your available budget, but sadly, you need a great many other items if you are to avoid friction in the workplace. Therefore, it would be good idea to talk to the other technicians in the workshop about the minimum tool requirements, or, go online to find a comprehensive list of recommended tools every technician must have to be productive, but-
Avoid buying from tool trucks
From a practical perspective, going into debt to set yourself up with the tools and equipment you need to do your job effectively is arguably the most difficult challenge many, if not most new technicians have to overcome. In addition, considering that repayments on this debt will make serious inroads into your take home pay, you can avoid falling into a second debt trap simply by not buying tools on credit at vastly inflated prices from travelling tool trucks.
Being an automotive technician is not for everyone, and while there are many more challenges new technicians face everyday than the three mentioned here, these are arguably the most difficult of all to overcome successfully. Nonetheless, none of these challenges is insurmountable, but if you think they are, they will be, which means that you almost certainly made the wrong career choice.
