Well, I've come to the point where I hate what I am doing. I am in my 4th year at Michigan Tech to be a Mecanical Engineer, and I hate it. I have another year after this one before I get out with a Degree, although with every passing day that looks harder and harder to accomplish. I've talked with companies about coops and internships and none of it really intrests me (plus no one likes my 2.5 gpa here). I'm sick of this and don't want to be stuck in something I hate anymore.

I've been trying to find information about good schools to goto for auto mechanics. For 2 years I've worked summers and while at school at motorcycle/sled/quad dealerships and I am never happier than when elbow deep into something wrenching. But now I want to do it on cars. I know about UTI and WyoTech, but I was wondering what else is there, specifically around Michigan? I was told there was a good one near Traverse City, but I cannot find any info on the web about it.

I haven't fully made the decision to quit college here, I am just trying to do some researching in the possibilities. Winning the lotto would make life a lot easier....

:0: i suggest ferris st its in big rapids they a good ford tech school ask them about aset program you work for a dealer then back to school.but i would never get in this bussines stay in school and get your degree yuo will find smoething :withstupid: :thumbsup: :hallo1: :hallo09:

Stay in school.Seems like 80% of the guys who enter the trade get out of it.I did after 10 years.To much crap and not enough pay ??? Just my .02

they have some good tech colleges in mn, but i do not know if you want to travel that far. if so let me know. detroit lakes teck, has an excellent auto,and boat school, and so does moorhead tech.

Get your degree, save the wrench twisting for a hobbie, you'll be glad you did, I started out in the auto mechanic field and hate it, no money, crappy working conditions, aches and pains, the list goes on, it took me a while to smarten up and go back to school, and I'm still going at 38, I wish I had done it out of high school.

Ditto,

Finish your degree, and save it as a hobby. As Bartman and z800rtx said lots of headaches for little pay. I still wrench for a living, as I have for 14 yrs but I now work at a golf course and my duties are equipment maint and repair as well as course work, for similar pay as an auto tech, but few headaches. I am now trying to find in myself what i would really like to do for a living, but it is not very easy to figure out.

I`m a fairly well paid tech and still I would tell you dont doo it, its not worth it. Your body will hurt, your head will hurt, becuase of the nature of your proffesion it seems like you have to deal with everybody on a different level, every other person thinks theres a quick fix for everything (and your just not tellin them) etc etc. I do sorta like what I do on some days but all and all.............dont do it.

Don't get me wrong there can be some good money in it.I was making good money but the aches and pains and having to work like a man possesed just aren't worth it.If you are interested in a trade i would suggest a electrician
or possibly a maintenance mechanic(millright).Christ become a plumber they make more $$ than techs and how hard is it.$hit flows downhill ;) And ya don't need near as many tools.

M.A.T.C is a good school i plan to attend there for auto after HS.. (Madison Area Tech Collage)

Imo don't waste your money going to an auto tech school.

If you have good mechanical skills just go out and get yourself a good box full of tools and go find a job in a smaller dealership to start out. As you learn more you will make more money and get a good rep than go get a job at a larger dealer. Being an Auto mech is more of a hands on type of learning. If you need more computer skills for drivability etc, go take a couple night classes at you local tech school. Also some tool companies put on some good training classes for fuel injection, computer controls etc. I know Snap-On put on a few good ones around here.

I turned wrenches for 15 years and never went to school and spent the big money for a degree and I made the same as the ones that went to school.

As far as using it as a trade to make a living, There are much better things to do that will not tear up your back etc.
Yes being a mechanic is real hard on your back and your hands. Plus when it is cold you will spend many hours out in the cold trying to get cars/truck running.

Did I mention that the customer to tech relationship is not real good. You can fix one thing on their vehicle and the next day something else will go wrong and it will be your fault or they will call you at midnight wondering why they are stuck on the highway with a dead vehicle. This sucks bigtime.

Now I am working in a production plant building windows For Marvin Windows and Doors out of Grafton and I am much happier. I make about a buck less an hour than I did as a mechanic but I have only been at marvins for 2 years and I was a mechanic for 15.

I know that going to school to be an engineer may bite and all but all I can say is to buckle down and study and pick up your gpa as you will be much happier with that field than being a mech. Heck if you become and engineer and you are good at it you could get a job with a sled manufacturer working on a puter and making bigbucks.

What do you think Greg Spaulding at Arctic Cat is.

Answer= Engineer

Adam I would finish school(if you can). When you are done you could try being a mechanic and if you dont like it youll have something to fall back on. Yes its hard work and as some of the guys made mention of the customer relations can sometimes be a bit of a pain but hey what job doesnt have arses?? I have been a mechanic in Ontario for about 20 years and now own my own shop,we employ 5 to 6 people and it is getting hard to find techs(esspecially ones that are not criminally insane)To all you guys telling him to get out of the trade I sure hope you can fix your own car when your 70 and there are no more mechanics.

I've been at it for 15 years now. Pay is great,hours are good. My service writer is the one that has to deal with the headaches. :D The good outway the bad,we do have bad days tho.

I suggest get the degree,(more pay in enginerring?) wrench on stuff as a hobby.

Originally posted by SNORAT@Oct 31 2002, 01:31 AM
Heck if you become and engineer and you are good at it you could get a job with a sled manufacturer working on a puter and making bigbucks.

What do you think Greg Spaulding at Arctic Cat is.

Answer= Engineer
That's just the thing, I hate working on the computers. I MUCH prefer going out and getting dirty to sitting around and crunching numbers, solid modeling, and all that good stuff. I've had a pretty severe lack of intrest since I've been here, but I was always just "well, I'm here I might as well finish it".

Lots of stuff has been leading me up to this thinking as well. I want to do something that makes me happy, and working on things does just that. I can't remember when I started wrenching on the sleds, or my motorcycles. Since then I have spent all my spare time working on my toys and friend's cars and such. In highschool I often found myself hanging out at the local shop just watching how the mechanic there would do things. I haven't liked school since day one, but I was always of the suck it up and take it attitude, just like my dad. Well that sure causes a lot of unneeded stress to yourself, as he proved when he had a heart attack at the age of 48 about a month ago. He's ok, but it was all basically due to overstressing at a job he didn't like for years. He is the model of health too, cholesteral of 161, had been known to get bored and go jog 3-5 miles for no reason. I don't want to be doing something I hate for my whole life.

Alright, now I am just rambling and #####ing. I remembered Northern has a program cause my friend started there this year. I am going to go see him this weekend and see how he likes it. Also know a few local kids that are interviewing for WyoTech on the 9th, so I am going to talk to the rep. Right now I have not made any decisions, just weighing my options.

My advice as a life long wrench,
Stay in school and find an easier way to make a living, in your younger years its not so bad (except for living in debt paying for your tools) but as the years pass you will long for a job thats easier on the body. Do yourself a favor and stay where you are.
Sled aka Rick.
:)

Dude, if you're 80% done, just finish it up. Don't make the last 4 years a waste. I got my BSME from U of MN last spring. (I almost went to MichTech. Chose MN.) It took me 5 years. Graduated with a 2.4. Big deal. I'm glad I have the paper. School sucks big time, but getting done and not having that crap hanging over your head 24-7 sure is a better way to live.
If nothing else, slow down a bit. Just take 2 classes at a time and get a job in a shop so you can enjoy yourself a little bit. If it turns out to be 7 years, so what? It's not worth the stress to rush.

Ive been a wrench for over eighteen years. The pay is o.k. I can't afford one of these 500.000-700,000 $$ house around here but I have a decent house here. I am only 38 and am sore when I gt up in the mornings now a lot. I don't know if I would have it any other way though. I do know I have always wanted to be a wrench from as far back asI can remember. Stay in school get your degree and then if you still want you can wrench. I was only three classes away from a degree, but couldn't stand the teacher I got stuck with for one class so I quit. Now the whole program has been dropped, if I would have stayed at least I would have my papers. Kevin

Hey Adam728,

I think everyone here has been pointing you in the right direction.

Like you, I am never happier than when I am elbow deep in a bike/sled/car etc.

I started my apprenticeship to become a mechanic at age 16, when I was still in High School. At the time, in Canada you only required a grade 10 education to be accepted into the program. I had a job a local bike shop and was on my way.

I when to high school during the day, trade school 2 nights a week and I worked the other nights and Saturdays in the shop. Then, like you now, l started looking at my daily routine as a job, instead of fun like it started out as and I decided to change directions and go to university.

I went to university in the US for 4 years and finished with a degree in Mathematics. this got me a job in the computer field as a software designer, then I returned to school part time and 2 years ago finished with a degree in computer science.

At first I absolutely loved software design but the started to look at it like a job too!

I don't want to sound like I am trying to preach to you, or sound like a parent etc. I am only 27 and have gone through all of these things very recently.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that 99% of the people in the world do not like their job every day, some days you will hate it, but you need that job to survive and enjoy life and pleasures like snowmobiles etc. Many people are not lucky enough to have a degree to fall back on and they have to make due with what they have. It all depends on what you want out of life.

Believe me, the working world is nothing like school, all the academic stuff is boring as hell. At least finish and give the engineering world a try, then look into becoming a mechanic if you still don't like it.

Mechanics can and do make very good money, but engineers are paid much higher. If you have more money coming in, you will have more to spend doing the things you love, like working on cars etc.

You may want to consider looking to Canada for and engineering job, we have an enormous shortage of skilled engineers etc, and our companies are hiring people from all over the world because no one locally has the skills for the job.

There are several engineering firms in my area that I know are looking for interns and entry level staff right now and they cannot fill the positions.

You have to make the decision that is right for you, all we can do is guide you.

Good Luck.

DP

I would have to say that i agree with everyone on here that is telling you to finish school. I am a junior in civil enginering. I should have graduated last year if I was on the normal 4 years of college. It is going to end up taking me 6 years but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. When I trasfered I was like you and was feeling that is this what i want to do. I got an internship with Penn DOT and got to see how it is in the real world. I love it know. Cant wait to finish school now. One nice benefit with civil enginering is that we do get to go out in the field. Check out Polaris's website. They hire mecahnical engineers. You could get to work on designing a new sled and testing it. They list the jobs and give descriptions. Pitt has a Co-op and I had gone down to talk to the lady about doing it and when I went down, I was wearing a Ski-Doo shirt with Bombadier on it and she said that they have a CO-OP with them for mechanical engineers. If I hadnt been so far into the Civil program i would have thought about switching to mechanical. Stick with school!! Get a job with it and try it out. You could always do the mechanic thing later. My friend is a mechanic and 22. He owes about 12,000 on tools and his tool box. Plus his school loans. You quit know, you will owe on all them loans for engineering. You can always work on your sled and bike and truck on the weekends. With the extra money from being an engineer you could be adding on accessories instead of making it run. Sorry for the long post!! :thumbsup: SWRules

Originally posted by XCR583@Nov 1 2002, 03:46 AM
Check out Polaris's website. They hire mecahnical engineers. You could get to work on designing a new sled and testing it. They list the jobs and give descriptions.
Funny you say that, Monday I got my 3rd rejection letter from them in the 2 years I have been trying to get in.

I guess I am just frustrated with it all. I have been trying for 3 years to get a coop or an internship, and it seems with a 2.5 overall GPA and a 2.1ish departmental no one gives a flying rats arse about ya. GM, Ford, Chrysler, Oshkosh trucks, Eaton, Polaris, Bombardier, ITT, Mercury, and probably more I can't think of right now have said no. GM and Ford wouldn't even take my resume when I talked to them at the career thing because pretty much the first thing they asked is GPA. The Polaris rep said my GPA wouldn't matter because I am working all the time, and I work at a Polaris dealer. In the letter they said they were very impressed with my background, but I didn't stand up academically.

I'm sticking with it at least through next term, since it is all about paid for. I'm also gonna fight like hell for an internship this summer, so hopefully real experience will turn me around on all this. If I again fail to get accepted anywhere I'll be wrenching at Steven's Sports Center again and studying my arse off to take all the mechanics tests and see what I can get qualified in. Over X-mas I plan on getting my ignition systems down and trying for my motorcycle mechanics license. Keeping my fingers crossed, cause that would be a nice thing to have.

Thanks for all your advice guys.

Oh yea, btw. Today at work I was stuck outside almost all day cause the shop was packed with sleds and quads. I spent the day with no gloves, in the snow, changing and alternator, rear shocks, a tire, plugging another tire, and redoing and exhaust system, all outdoors. I think I liked the 7 hours I spent there better than the 4 I spent in lab tonight. Is something wrong with me??!!!!?!

Originally posted by adam728@Oct 31 2002, 10:05 PM

Funny you say that, Monday I got my 3rd rejection letter from them in the 2 years I have been trying to get in.


Yeah, Polaris' development program has some pretty tough requirements. I never tried for an internship or coop there, but I applied when I graduated (also Cat and Fast; Fast is the only one that offered me a position, but they couldn't afford to pay me what I need to support my family). Polaris won't take anyone with no experience. I'm going to apply again this weekend, though. I see they have a lower-level opening. Maybe they'll consider me now since I've been working for a year and a half.