Career Help
 

I got a problem, so I'm coming to revscene for help like all smart men do. So I got two choices right now. I can either become a heavy duty mechanic, or an automotive mechanic. I enjoy fixing stuff, and working on cars. I already had two job offers as a heavy duty mechanic, but my hobbies is cars and I love working on my own car. I'm not sure if I should follow the money or my passion. I could easily get an apprenticeship and red seal for either one, I have family and friends who own both type of shops. I just need help deciding on what I should do. Heavy duty mechanics are in high demand and make crazy money, but I love cars not heavy duty equipment. I need help deciding. What are some pros and cons on both. Also if I do become a mechanic, I want to get into building, and tuning cars not just repairing them. I need some help deciding.

if you love cars dont be a automotive mechanic.. youll get sick of them, or at least thats what ive been told by all the people i know who have worked on cars for their entire career have told me (used to be car guys like us when they first started).

Go heavy duty mechanic, make the good money and enjoy cars on the side as your hobby!

Heavy duty mechanics make quite a bit of money. I know a few who has been able to work their way up the ladder as well. The money is even better up north, but it's up north.

I would go the heavy duty mechanic way. You'll be working on trucks where your hands won't be working in small cramped compartments

Auto mechanic is a dying trade. You're replacing parts more so than repairing. The pay is low, the apprenticeship is grueling and you'll need years of experience before you make 'average' pay.

It's best to specialize in something.

Don't follow your passion if you want to be an employee. Follow your passion if you want to be an employer.

I also say go with the heavy mechanic but do cars on the side as a hobby = win win best of both worlds.

Go with being a heavy duty mechanic like everybody said. Don't turn your passion for cars into something you'll eventually hate.

go with heavy duty and keep cars as your passion. theres no more money in fixing cars. everyone in automotive is broke and miserable and its been that way for quite a while..

once again, there is very good money in heavy duty. get'r done.

I'm currently a Heavy Duty apprentice, we've got all three kinds of mechanics in our shop (HD,CT, and automotive), and the guys who aren't Heavy Duty wish they were. There's more money to be made but also more opportunity. This is because HD is at the top of the pyramid in terms of what you learn and what you do. Automotive mechanics don't deal with hydraulic and pneumatic systems, among other things. The guys in the shop joke that CT guys have only half a ticket, the automotive guys a quarter, haha.

Fuck eh, looks like I'm going to be a heavy duty mechanic. Now union or no union? I got offered a union job, and a non union job. Both pay about the safe, and both give me apprenticeships at any school of my choosing.

union for sure

union.

know a guy who is a heavy duty mechanic and he didn't like the work, environment, and feeling of being stuck so now he's pursuing an accounting designation (might be on RS, I dunno never asked him, quite possible!)

what I'm saying is there are a lot of options out there for you, even fields that may seem out of reach or totally unrelated, don't close yourself off to just 2 choices...having passions and hobbies are great but if you're grinding in it all day you may grow to hate it especially as you age and things begin to creek (you could always change careers at that point but people can become afraid to by then)

You can make boat loads of money but hate your job your whole life. Money doesnt bring happiness. Do what you love!

heavy duty
make money
spend it on working on your own car
pick up hunnies
take care of business with best hunnie
retire from heavy duty and open your own car shop

right.. but it's a means to attaining happiness and in his case.. his car hobby requires it

i agree with the above suggestion

aye! fock yo mudder mate.


lol. CT isn't half the ticket, only thing different is the hydraulics portion. rest of it is the same. that being said i wish i had done HD instead of CT. and no, i dont work as a CT tech.

Thanks for all the help. I need a lot of money, one day I want to own four cars. A ls swapped nsx a 2jz vettr a rb26 supra and a k20 gtr r34 in midnight purple 3

302 + T5 is a great place to start :)

Now I'm just getting crazy ideas for what I could build with that. If i ever won the lottery it would go all on cars. What about a awd mustang, with 4 b18 engines. 1 for each tire. Make it a foxbody so it's light as fuck

Definitely go heavy duty mechanic. If you ever get sick of it, I'm sure moving over to auto mechanic wouldn't really be that hard as you'll grasp more of an understanding of the mechanics anyway. :P

:suspicious:

Dude have you seen a foxbody? They have sooo much room in the front and back. With some work you could do it. And the b18 are tanks. I would love having something more powerful, but its 4 engines I would take a tank over power any day. It would be such a unique car. No one had ever done something like this before. I want to something insane, something that's no one has done before. I want to make a name for myself. I want kids to tell stories of the maniac car builder who put 4 Honda engines into a mustang.