Automotive Technician Salary

Many people enjoy working on manual objects. They have a high dexterity, and prefer to touch machines instead of working with a pen and paper, or a computer at a desk. There’s those who have always been fascinated by engines, cars, and vehicles. Those are the ideal candidates to become an automotive technician.

But what exactly do they do while on the job, and what kind of salary can you expect if that’s your chosen career? The first thing to realize is that an activity is very different when practiced as a hobby, versus when it becomes a job. When it’s your professional work, you’re no longer working for yourself, you’re working for your boss or your client.

Even if you’re a freelancer, and you don’t have any actual boss, the work you do on cars is for the benefit of those clients who pay your salary. So while it may have been enjoyable to spend all summer building up your favorite race car, you need to realize that an automotive technician spends most of his time repairing every day vehicles, doing routine maintenance, changing the oil and tires, along with a lot of other small tasks. If that’s the kind of job that appeals to you, then at least you know full well what you’re going into, and you can start thinking about the work conditions.

The kind of environment you will work in depends on who you work for. There’s all kind of places where automotive technicians work. The most well known is of course an independent garage, either as part of a gas station or towing company. There you will likely work with a few other people, and have an endless stream of customers. But there’s also people who work for corporations, taking care of fleets of vehicles, like buses or shipping trucks. Finally there’s also government or army jobs, where you repair official vehicles.

Where you work will of course affect your salary as well as the training you require. If you start by yourself, with your own garage, you don’t need any official training, but otherwise you will likely need certification. There’s a lot of mechanic courses given by various schools which will give you the certification you need. Then, when you start up, you can expect a salary of around $28,000. If you work for large corporations, or once you’ve gathered work experience, you can see that go up to around $47,000.

Going into the automotive technician field can be very interesting for those who don’t fear getting their hands dirty, and working on cars all day long. It’s a very competitive market however, and there isn’t a lot of room for new arrivals, so your skills as a mechanic will be very important to determine what kind of salary you get, if you manage to get a job at all. It’s up to you to prove yourself to your boss or to your clients.