choosing a trade

Many young rodders come out of high school with a love for the car hobby so they decide to go to trade school to be a mechanic. In Canada, to become a journeyman AST (auto service tech) you need to apprentice for four years. During each year you go to school for 2 months then at the end of the 4 years you write the journeyman exam and if you score above 70% you get the red seal ticket and are considered a professional AST. I went through this whole process. Being a mechanic has its pros and cons that I'd like to share here. In other trades and professions you are selling something that people want to buy. For example a carpenter is selling a new house or kitchen or reno or whatever that a happy family really has been looking forward to owning. A car salesman is selling a product that people really want to enjoy and be seen in. A mechanic on the other hand is selling something people don't want. Much like a dentist, people only come to you when there is a problem and usually its at a bad time. Its money they hadn't planned on spending. When its minus 30 outside and my starter konks out i'm allready in a bad mood now i have to spend $250 that i don't want to spend, you see what i mean? Another problem is that mechanic's have a bad rep. People don't know or understand the part you are telling them they need for their car so they must totally trust you. Enough shady mechanics have ripped off people to give all mechanics a bad name.  Also many folks have the misunderstanding that you automatically should know whats wrong with their car and therefore they don't want to pay for the time it takes for you to correctly diagnose the problem. As vehicles get more sophisticated every year it takes more and more training to stay on top of all the information an AST needs to know. On top of all these things the average shop is charging $100 plus per hour and they are only paying their mechanics $18 - $25. These are some of the bad things about being a mechanic, now for the good. You will most likely be able to make money buying, fixing and selling used cars quite easily. This will come naturally when you end up owning a few cars that people walk away from that aren't worth fixing unless you can fix them yourself. You should be able to get a discount on auto parts at local parts stores. (don't blow this by buying parts for other people). You are in a trade where the work comes to you, you don't need to go to it (like an electrician, plumber, carpenter). You will know where to find used parts and how to remove them the quickest at any autowrecker. (I should write a whole article about autowreckers).  And eventually you should go on your own and run your own shop. If you do good work and are honest, you will have no problem getting lots of dedicated customers. One other thing i should mention is that at the end of the day of doing tedious repair jobs on tightly packed engine bays you may or may not feel like working on your own hotrod.  Or.... a simple V8, carbeurated engine may seem like fun to work on, its different for everyone. I love working on my malibu or my mustang if i'm installing parts or doing modifications that make it look better or go faster. I hate trying to fix my 04 daily driver impala because the EVAP filter is plugged again or when the intake gasket leaks. Its money i hadn't planned on spending!!!!  So think carefully about what you want to do with your life. You could be a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian chief but whatever you do,  do it the best that you can....