Mechanic profession, your opinion needed.

[litemup]

BTW, much love to the mechanics. Not proud at all.

For the good ones, it must be an awful struggle between making book-time and doing it right.

[00NissanNinja]

A long time ago I thought about being one myself, but as I worked on cars more and more I realized its a painful job. In some ways its fun but in a lot of ways its hard labor (and can be really crappy when people don't take care of their cars).

At the end of the day I am a Mechanical Engineer and its pretty much been always what I aimed for. I mostly sit at a computer all day and do my job, and make conceptual designs for aircraft. I do mechanic work on a part time basis, for a few people I know and that's all (and it is often a reminder of how it would suck to do that for a living). I have a lot of respect for good mechanics who really do like the job and really care about making peoples cars run great. I wish I could get a career working for an automotive company and make the cars easier to work on haha.

I would also like to mention that a lot of people think mechanical engineering is about making cars or something like that, when you'll actually find a crap ton of mechies don't know anything about cars (and its also why sometimes you'll be working on a car going wtf why did they put this part here dammit) . This is mainly because mechanical engineering is more so a study of material interactions (stress, strain, vibrations, failure, structural design, thermodynamics, etc). But mechanical engineering is one of the best gateways to auto design, airplane design, etc if you take the right electives.

[litemup]

don't listen to him. it's about making cars.

[00NissanNinja]

Originally Posted by litemup

don't listen to him. it's about making cars.

For me it was others not so much haha

[litemup]

Originally Posted by 00NissanNinja

For me it was others not so much haha

word

[litemup]

...to yo bridgeport

[cdrazic93]

whats great about my engineering program (at Western Wasington Univeristy in the Vehicle Research Institute), is that we actually get hands on experience with vehicles. But its not oil changes and the shitty work, theres SAE baja trucks with aluminum tube space frames that we build from the ground up. Along with the Formula SAE competition that we compete in as well!

Not only do we get classroom education, but hands on experience. A few years back the entire graduating class was hired by Tesla. Its becoming a very reputable engineering program.

[f0rge]

All my friends who became auto mechanics either quit or hate their lives. My best friend started as a Jaguar mechanic and quit after 5 years because he hated it. My other friend was a GM mechanic and quit within 2 years.

My one friend stuck it out, now he's a Range Rover mechanic and while he's senior enough to no longer hate his life, he still doesn't love his job. It also ruined his passion for cars, like completely.

Taking a job doing something you enjoy as a hobby can ruin the hobby for you. It's no longer fun when it's work.

[00NissanNinja]

Originally Posted by cdrazic93

Not only do we get classroom education, but hands on experience. A few years back the entire graduating class was hired by Tesla. Its becoming a very reputable engineering program.

That is pretty sweet, I'd love to work for Tesla. No wonder they aren't hiring lol.

[N1rve]

I went the other way, I WAS a former Mechanic, making decent money, and now I'm working in IT. I can say I enjoy the office more than the garage. No more getting dirty hard work. Now it's all brain power. I get paid waayyyyy more money and I barely have to lift a finger. hahahaha