Who Has Done A Mechanic Apprenticeship?

[rjenman]

I have heard mechanics are the lowest paid trade, but I have also heard all tradies get good money.

 

Any comments on that?

[rjenman]

it's not about having a trade anymore, it's more about finding good skilled people who do a good job and don't cost you money.

i know so many trade mechanics who just don't give a f**k about quality and "she''ll be right mate" attitude.

Tell me about it...

 

Thats most of the guys at work... i try my hardest to treat every car i work on as if it was my own... but when you get supervisors saying NO THAT TAKES TOO LONG JUST DO THIS (dodgie way)... pisses me off..

What I've come to realise is there's dickheads like that no matter what industry you're in.

 

I handle the fruit&veg at my work and my boss often says "no" when I go to throw out fruit or veg that is just old and gross that I wouldn't want to eat myself. His mind is on the money, my mind is on customer satisfaction.

 

That said, he is a neatness freak and I am not.

 

Either way, no matter where you go there are going to be annoying people, dickheads and idiots. In no particular order. I guess there is more chance to find alcaholic bogans in the automotive industry?

 

The other say I was seasoning chickens and not serving the counter and these two bogans came to the counter and one said "nah mate he can't serve he's fingering chickens... fingerin em... fingering the chickens..." he went on like that for a bit and it was really disturbing. I don't want to work with people like that.

[Super Jamie]

teachers all end up angry people anyway. no amount of money is worth that

 

i still could go to uni, as mature age now! wow, that makes me feel old. nick, you're in a better position to do it as well, you live at home, i have rent and stuff to pay

[ancullen]

I'm applying for a job with Coles again currently. I can make $15/hour. Currently I make $6.20/hour as an apprentice, meaning an average of about $230/week after tax. If I go to uni and work at Coles, I have to pay $2,000/semester in HECS. A semester is about 15 weeks long, so that's about $135/week in HECS. So if I work 25-27hours per week at Coles (at regular rate, doesn't include time-and-a-half Sunday rate) I can pay my HECS off as I go and still make more than I'd make as an apprentice. So it makes it REALLY hard to see why I should remain an apprentice.

 

Oh, and redwarf, of course you make more than all of us, you're an aircraft maintainance engineer, you guys make a fortune. I turned down an offer to apply for an aircraft maintainance engineer apprenticeship and boy do I regret that now! Oh well, if I get this job with Coles it'll be $750/week minimum (I'll be working as a night supervisor on checkouts).

[TRD ke70]

it's not about having a trade anymore, it's more about finding good skilled people who do a good job and don't cost you money.

i know so many trade mechanics who just don't give a f**k about quality and "she''ll be right mate" attitude.

Tell me about it...

 

Thats most of the guys at work... i try my hardest to treat every car i work on as if it was my own... but when you get supervisors saying NO THAT TAKES TOO LONG JUST DO THIS (dodgie way)... pisses me off..

What I've come to realise is there's dickheads like that no matter what industry you're in.

 

I handle the fruit&veg at my work and my boss often says "no" when I go to throw out fruit or veg that is just old and gross that I wouldn't want to eat myself. His mind is on the money, my mind is on customer satisfaction.

 

That said, he is a neatness freak and I am not.

 

Either way, no matter where you go there are going to be annoying people, dickheads and idiots. In no particular order. I guess there is more chance to find alcaholic bogans in the automotive industry?

 

The other say I was seasoning chickens and not serving the counter and these two bogans came to the counter and one said "nah mate he can't serve he's fingering chickens... fingerin em... fingering the chickens..." he went on like that for a bit and it was really disturbing. I don't want to work with people like that.

i know that seams a bit of a generalization, but i've been in this industry a long time and Unfortunately i've only met a few good mechanics.

 

i agree that you get the good and the bad in any trade, but most of the mechanics i've met don't seam to care about the quality of work they produce, and these guys are training the next lot of Apprentice's.

[John Deere]

i am six months into an auto electrical appretnicship. i am lucky because i love my job which is a supprise. i got into it because i didnt know a lot about it but when i started to mess around with my cars and mates cars i realised that this is an interesting thing to do i might do it as a job.

 

at the end of collage i wone the fine furnature state award for tasmania. every one wanted me to go on and do it as a job but i didnt want to do it all day every day i just wanted it as a hobby. not to sound arigent but i figgered that i was best in the state at the time and i didnt realy want to keep going on.

 

once you reach the top you can try to hold it or just go back down.

 

the point mentioned at the start of this post was pretty true about running a hobby if you do it as a job as well. it makes sence and is a proven fact in most examples. its like if some one is a pro painter there house will be the worse painted house on the block.

 

i have decided already that i will only stay in this industry untill i get qualified then I'm off. don't know where or what but I'm gone.

 

most of the people at my work hate cars and hate there job. there is one guy that races his own rally car and he loves cars but that because he does everything but electrical on it. i don't want to lose my passion for cars but it is still only fresh so it shouldnt go in a hurry.

 

not to put down mechanics again but most of the ones that bring stuff into work are the dummest people i have ever met. no ofence but they just are.

 

just my 2cents

[Sam_Red_Rolla]

I'm a 3rd year apprentice for one of the Porsche dealers in Sydney. yes the hours are long the pay is ordinary, but if u love it why not. one thing i can say. working 7:30am-5:30pm on other ppls cars , last thing u want to do on weekends is go anywhere near your car. thats my opinion anyway. as for the tools anyone heard of hazet? quality is 10 times better than Snap On, roughly the same price. real german quality!

[99]

Sorry, a bit behind this thread again.

 

Semi related, but can't ignore opportunity to soap box:

I think it is ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT when people at uni, or others percieve those that have uni quals, as "intelligent people". Seriously, IT ISN'T THAT HARD in most cases. It requires discipline more than anything else.

 

The most intelligent people I know haven't spent a day at uni in their life. And some of the stupidest people I have ever met are the most academic. It's like God gave them academic smarts and there was no room left in their brains for common sense.

 

Re: job vocation - for me it comes down to whether you enjoy what you're doing or not. Confucius said something like: Do a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.

 

Formula:

( :D Well paid + good conditions + interesting work + nice people)

MINUS

( :) Cost of 3 years of uni + 10 months unemployed +3 years in unrelated field earning shit money)

=

:D ?????

 

I guess you can only tell at the end of your working life

Edited June 27, 2005 by datgirl

[ancullen]

Semi related, but can't ignore opportunity to soap box:

I think it is ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT when people at uni, or others percieve those that have uni quals, as "intelligent people". Seriously, IT ISN'T THAT HARD in most cases. It requires discipline more than anything else.

Couldn't agree more with that. What really shits me is the uni types that are all high and mighty about how good they are and sneer down their nose at tradespeople. One of the things I'll miss about doing this apprenticeship is a). seeing people's faces when I tell them I'm an apprentice (everyone assumes I'm in I.T. because I'm fairly nerdy looking), and b). telling people who have sneered at me doing an apprenticeship that I'm also doing a bachelor degree and that if I stick with it I could easily later become a fleet manager with appropriate pay (if I could stick with the apprenticeship that is).

[rjenman]

how about f*ck anyone who judges people based on their career and i'm glad none of my friends are like that. Its downright ignorant. Nuff said.

 

-Still pending on whether I do go for Apprenticeship

[ancullen]

None of my friends are like that, just wankers I encounter in day to day life.

[rjenman]

Ah, wankers. Where do they all come from? Oh thats right, wankers multiply. You think they would stick to wanking...

[Redwarf]

Oh, and redwarf, of course you make more than all of us, you're an aircraft maintainance engineer, you guys make a fortune.

And in the firtst year of my apprenticeship (1990) I made $9180. That was about $149 per week after tax. You have to start somewhere. By the way, ordinary AME's make about $50K (with overtime) in the airlines, less if you're in general aviation. Licensed AME's make maybe $50K in General aviation (which for the responcibility is buggr all), and airline LAME's make between $50K and $120K depending upon licenses, shifts, overtime, etc. I make good money, but I don't see the average Joe out there doing a fan lube at 0300 on Melbourne tarmac on a winters night, or crawling around inside a wing, covered in jet fuel changing a valve or finding a fuel leak. Perspective is what is required.

[5k_ke20]

Apprenticeships are for some people and not for others. I am in the cheffing industry and am about 2 1/2 years away from getting ym papers. I am a dish pig and earn more money just working weekends than my mate the apprentice.

 

Few chefs that i ahve met even cook their own meals. One of the best chefs i know eats foodland pie and packet pasta's. Its my beliefe that you will end up hating what you do for a job and therefore will not want any thing to do with it on the outside.

 

After i get my papers i will try to get out of the industry and get a boring 9 -5er earing about 50k a year. thats enought to pay for my corollas.

 

On the other hand my cousin finished school (i left after grade 10)

went to uni worked his ass off whilst flipping burgers at macca's. After a short period of un degree related work he now has a very well paying job and is paying off dis debt.

 

my sister stayed at school, finished yr 12 and is now 21 and is still doing other course's and working at sanity.

 

A job is a job and i personly wanted to be a mechanic but i like working on my own car too much.

i hope that all made scence.

cheers harley

[rjenman]

3/4 of people have said that professional mechanics will NOT want to work on thier own car... but it seems most if not all mechanics have decent cars?

 

I dunno I'm pretty obsessed with cars maybe being a mechanic would help get it out of my system so I can move on to other things more willingly at the end of the day :)

 

It sounds like there are a lot of wankers in the industry