Do you want to have a career in the car industry

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Do you want to have a career in the car industry?


I was posting a reply to this article and as I often do, I took a portion of what I wrote and turned it into it's own article with the goal of hoping to help and encourage others, and maybe even inspire others.

I have a dream job in that I'm always amazed and thankful to have because often it can be so difficult to find work that is also related to your passion or hobby. Over the years I've often had fellow car enthusiasts say something like,

"I wish I had your job"


And I relate to these sentiments because I've had a lot of jobs in my life and I haven't always loved or even liked some of these other jobs. So here's some friendly advice for anyone that would like to work in the car industry in any of it's segments, and for that matter, any industry...

Follow your passion...
For anyone reading this that would like to work in the car industry, there's nothing stopping you... find a niche area that excites you and you feel passionate about and start working at it.


Study and become an expert at one thing
Become and expert on the subject by studying it and doing it. Just like the Nike slogan... Just do it! Start writing articles and publishing them and posting them to the Internet. Start a blog or your own website where you can post and control your content.


Keep it professional
Remember that your posting history will always reflect on your professionalism, so make sure you present yourself in your writing, (which is your online personality), in a professional manner, it's really pretty easy to do, find a way to help others, stay positive, never go negative, and then the basics, good grammar, spelling, formatting, etc.


Learn how to work with pictures
Learn how to take good pictures and then learn how to crop out the fluff, resize to 800 pixels wide and upload to a "permanent" address on the Internet and then insert them in a way that your audience can easily see them.


Never give up...
If you want something bad enough, you can find a way to make it your reality but you have to work at it and that usually means you have to pay your dues...

It's all to easy to see a brand new band come out with a hit song and think they're an overnight success and while they might be an overnight success what you don't see is the years of practicing in a garage and playing at diver bars and venues that no one outside of small, sleepy town knows about.

So never give up and don't become discouraged if you makes mistakes. We all make mistakes, the goal is to learn from your mistakes and then do your best to avoid repeating a mistake. Also, try to learn from from other's mistakes. There's an old saying that I'm very fond of and it's also very true, it's a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt,

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself"


I know what's its like to have a job you don't like and I know what it's like to have a job you love and it's a lot more fun to get out of bed each morning when you love your work.

[rakkvet]

Thanks for the post. Motivational speaker Brian Tracey has said pretty much the same thing.

"If you won the lottery or an incredible amount of money and could do whatever work you wanted to do for the indefinite future, what would it be? "

If you are passionate about something you'd be amazed at how motivated you are to do it day in and day out.

Tim

[Impressions]

mike...your so right!
If I had started this 20 years ago, I'd be sitting in my detail chair watching my employee do the work....haha

[C. Charles Hahn]

Originally Posted by Impressions

mike...your so right!
If I had started this 20 years ago, I'd be sitting in my detail chair watching my employee do the work....haha

Doubtful.... if you're anything like most of us, you wouldn't be able to keep your hands off of doing at least some of the work yourself. Just make your employee do the stuff you don't like doing!

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Originally Posted by Impressions

Mike...your so right!

If I had started this 20 years ago, I'd be sitting in my detail chair watching my employee do the work....haha

Now that would be the dream... you have an awesome set-up at your detailing shop to tackle anything that comes your way and the black Camaro that was there on Monday came out looking show car ready!

Originally Posted by Shiny Lil Detlr

Doubtful.... if you're anything like most of us, you wouldn't be able to keep your hands off of doing at least some of the work yourself. Just make your employee do the stuff you don't like doing! I'm the MAN

I agree, that describes most pro detailers I've met...

Turning a diamond in the rough into a glistening gemstone is a passion and a calling and once it's in your blood you can't get it out...

[rakkvet]

Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek

Turning a diamond in the rough into a glistening gemstone is a passion and a calling and once it's in your blood you can't get it out...

Can you make a good living doing it? I was thinking of trying to learn bodywork and paint. Right now, alll I know how to do is detail, which I'm very good at.

Like I said before. I'm just trying to figure things out.

Tim

[jayhkr]

Mike, you remind me of Zig Ziggler with his motivational "speaches". I listened to his tapes in my car all the time when I was an outside sales rep! The biggest thing is finding your niche in your area. Every area is different and one must adapt to that.

[Impressions]

thanks for the "vote of confidence" mike, you know that means alot coming from the K.O.P. (king of polishing) hehe!

charlie........I'm sure after 20 years I will still be in the drivers seat...thanks

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Originally Posted by rakkvet

Can you make a good living doing it? I was thinking of trying to learn bodywork and paint. Right now, all I know how to do is detail, which I'm very good at.

I have a good friend that is the head painter for a small town body shop, his nickname in the car club world is Trophy #####, and that's because his personal cars and the cars he paints win so many prizes for best paint.

He was lucky that the owner of the body shop recognized the value of having a top notch painter doing all the spraying for both collision work and custom work in their shop. I don't know what he makes and I'm not going to ask but do know that Mark loves his job and work 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Thursday and gets Friday, Saturday and Sunday's off and all he does is spray the paint, none of the prep work.

Now at his own shop he does all the custom bodywork, metal bending, shaping, etc. He has a stellar reputation and people bring him their projects from all over the state and as far as I know he's booked solid till he dies.

So I know he's paid well, has a "relatively" easy job in that all he has to do is spray the paint, has great hours, and probably good benefits. He has his own shop and his employer is happy to have him and his reputation as the flagship of his business.

I know about 20 years ago Mark paid off his property, house and shop... everyone has to decide what a "good living" is to them but I think Mark makes a "good living", he has a custom "Car Guy" bar build right next to his shop for taking breaks and off to the side an enclosed hot tub... plus a couple acres out in the country...

He started working on cars when he was a kid and just steered into bodywork.

Some guys do this and own the body shop, this can be successful too but instead of working on cars, you run the business side. I personally think Mark chose wisely considering in order to run a body shop you have to deal with the city, EPA, OSHA, taxes, Workman's Comp, Insurance, Insurance, etc. that doesn't sound like fun...

Getting to 9 to 5, no headaches and a short work week is pretty cool when you think about all the other options...

Here's Mark Privratsky - Pro Car Builder, Painter and Metal Bender


Here's his daily driver that usually gets first place awards for Best Paint, Best Interior, Best Engine

1930 Ford Model-A with a Blown,Big Block Chevy Engine

Originally Posted by jayhkr

Mike, you remind me of Zig Ziglar with his motivational "speeches". I listened to his tapes in my car all the time when I was an outside sales rep! The biggest thing is finding your niche in your area. Every area is different and one must adapt to that.

When I first started out as a Sales Rep and Trainer my first employer at Meguiar's gave me a set of Zig Ziglar tapes and I listened to them all the time. I still have them back in California.

[rakkvet]

Thanks Mike. I'm all for doing what you love. I'm going to save this thread.