Finally found a job! Been out of work since February when I quit my job at Pizza Hut when I realized I was $.75 an hour away from being maxed out on pay and was making $9.25 as a shift manager and doing the general manager's job (who makes roughly $700 a week after taxes) while he sat on his arse and did nothing but make the schedule, VERY ineffectively at that. Wife has been the only one working and we have just barely been sing by.
Thursday I was doing my normal Craigslist browse and found an ad for a mechanic job. I replied without really thinking I would get it, but he called me Friday morning and wanted me to come talk to him. Went yesterday and we discussed everything and it looks promising. Starting tomorrow morning I will be making $12/hour, isn't great pay, but he will be paying me $12 /hr for ever how many hours AllData calls for. So if it calls for 4 hours and I do it in one, I make $48 instead of $12. Or motor swaps that call for 20 hours that get knocked out in 5, $240 instead of $60...
I'm pretty excited, I used to have my own shop until business slowed down and I had to take the job at Pizza Hut to pay the bills, now I will be back doing what I know and love.
congrats friend.
That's great news :D Congrats!!
Sweet !!
congrats!
I wish I could say it will speed up the process of getting the Bird on the road, buuuttttt.....
We have more important priorities like buying our first home, renting is killing us.
Congrats Dougy on the new gig...
I'm glad someone is able to find employment out there! I've been looking since 2003 without much luck. A month ago, I had my first interview in like 3 years and that led nowhere.
Congrats! That's great news!!
Buying a house is nice but a big process I just bought my house 3 bed 2 bath 2 car garage with a big yard $660 a month you can't beat it ....... But it's like a car you seem to be working and dumping money into it on a regular basis lol
thing is, out here, I an buy a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage, 2 car carport house with 3-5 acres for $75,000 tops. with $10,000 down, our mortgage payment would only be around $450 which is what we are paying in rent for a 2 bed, 1 bath, shiznitty 1 car carport house with a D-Bag landlord.
The house we are looking at is $30000. Needs floor work (my dad and I can do the work) and a couple windows (again, dad and I). Has a fairly new 25x40ish garage, about 1.5 acres, 3 bed, 1 bath, 2 good size storage buildings, and a fenced in back yard for the dog/kids.
Yea it's the way to go
Congrats on the new job, but as a mechanic with over 20 years experience, I've gotta offer up some advice, whether it's appreciated or not.
First off, I don't know what the average rate of pay for mechanics is in Kentucky, but around here I wouldn't even open my tool box for $12/hour. That's first year apprentice pay, which means first-year-apprentice type work (oil changes, tire swaps, etc). If you're being paid $12/hour to do full mechanic work you are being taken advantage of. Badly. The average mechanic in this area takes in double that, and I can't imagine Kentucky being that much lower.
Second, and directly related to the first: The term for how your employer wants to pay you is "flat rate". Flat rate times are established based on what would be a reasonable time for an experienced mechanic with the proper factory-specified tools and training to do a job, and immediate access to parts (ie, a dealership stockroom) to complete a job. While it is true that you get paid 4 hours for a four hour "flat rate" job even if you complete it in one hour, the opposite holds true as well: If it takes you eight hours you still only get paid four. It doesn't take much for a job to go sideways - a broken bolt, a hold-up waiting for parts, or even something stupid like forgetting to do something and having to take it all apart and do it again - any and all of these can make a four hour job take 8 hours. These screw-ups are far more likely with an inexperienced mechanic, so keep that in mind. I'm sure your employer will. Also, flat rate does not allow for diagnostic time. If it takes you three hours to trace a broken wire flat rate allows 0.2 hours to repair that wire. Many manufacturers are starting to not pay diagnostic time (Chrysler for one), which leads to guessing. A fly-by-night shop offering $12/hour isn't likely to pay diagnostic time either.
Third, most independent shops do not use the flat rate system - if they did, they'd never get mechanics to work for them. This is because flat rate simply does not work for independents. No parts on hand, no dealer training, and no special tools on hand (and most automakers have a whole slew of model specific special tools required to do any given job) all add up to mechanics losing time at flat rate, and that leads to mechanics leaving.
I don't want to piss on your parade, but I also don't want to see someone taken advantage of. And from here it certainly looks like you're being taken advantage of...
while $12 an hour is fairly low (and I agree that it is, I won't argue there), it's a job. Doing what I love to do none the less. I have been looking for work and beggers can't be choosers. He seems to be a pretty fair guy. If he turns out to be, I will walk, plain and simple. I'm already looking for my own shop. I used to have my own shop and was making killer money, but the landlord decided to kick me out for no reason, so I lost it.
As for going over labor times, in the 10 years that I have been turning wrenches for money, I have never taken longer then the dealer labor hours. Even with hand tools and jack/jack stands, I usually end up 4-5 hours under dealer time. Sure, it sucks only making $150 to do a motor swap when I know I could get double or even triple that somewhere else. He will not even let me start on anything unless every part is sitting in the shop ready to go in. Also, if I were to do a transmission swap for instance and the transmission we got was bad, I would get paid for doing the second swap as well. Some of the other shops around here don't do that.
I just did a engine swap in a 5.3 2006 Silverado in 8 hours, sure it could be done faster with a lift and air tools, but 12 hours pay for 8 hours work is good in my opinion
Congrats on your new job.
Good luck with the new job...
Travis
As long as you are happy with the deal, that's what matters. Good luck with your new job.
Well, that didn't last long. When I started, I let him know right off the bat that for three weeks, I would have to work around my wife's schedule, which meant some short days and some days that I wouldn't be able to come in at all and he said he was fine with that, that I could work whenever I wanted, as in set my own hours. Today and tomorrow are literally the last two days I was going to have to work around her schedule because she had changed her availability at work so that I could work 9-4:30 Monday-Friday. Well this morning I get a text from him saying that since I can't come in today that he no longer needs me. Oh well, his loss. He doesn't even know how to do mechanic work and the other guy that started the same day I did is even worse than him and I was training him as well as doing my own thing. Guess now it will be the blind leading the blind and nothing will get done. I was turning out 2-3 engine swaps a week, even with my short days and days I couldn't go in. He will never replace me at the pay rate he is offering, that's for sure.
Sorry to hear it, but you're better off out of there. Really, you could probably get a job at a tire & lube place that pays better and is easier work (and is probably a little more "above the board", too, meaning you might even be able to make an apprenticeship out of it). Don't know what KY's climate is like, but around here winter tire season is about to ramp up, and all the shops are looking for tire/lube guys...
So, I woke up to a text from him this morning saying that the other guy had quit and he reealllyyy needs help and said I could come back if I wanted to. I need the money, so I am considering it, but if I do, I'm going to ask for a little more an hour, just to help compensate me for gas since I drive 30 miles there and 30 miles back in a Jeep Cherokee on 33's that barely squeaks by 12mpg
Haha! You are in the catbird seat. Hopefully he appreciates a good mechanic since he knows you can't be replaced in the fly. If he can't wrench he should now know you are the one putting food on his table so he better treat you right.
Good luck and hope it goes well for you.
Just be mindful that when things slow down, you can really lose your ass on flat-rate. It's a feast or famine proposition. On average I kick flat-rate time in the balls, but for every candy job (such as a Fusion evaporator temp sensor which pays 6.1 and takes me 1.1) there's that shiznit job that sucks the life out of you and replaces it with despair inducing nothingness, there's the kids-work like oil changes and tires and maintenance, there's the shiznit that puts you in over your head like a rough night involving Italians and concrete, if you're lucky it washes out and you break even on the week. Then there's wear and tear. I'm 33 and I have arthritis in my knees, ankles and a few of my knuckles, and now I hear bout carpal tunnel in my right hand. Mileage is a bitch, and the rate they're paying isn't going to come close to making up for it. God, there's got to be a better way to make a living.
I talked to him, the pay will stay the same unfortunately, but for now all I'm looking to do is pay off my debt so that we can buy a house. I'm hoping to buy a house with a 2-3 car garage so that I can go back to working for myself. THAT is where the money is.
well, worked 9-5 Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and made $450... Averaged out to $18.75 an hour. Not to bad IMO
Since it sounds like you have a decent mechanical skill set why not look into industrial maintenance? It pays well and there is always overtime. Plus if you get in at a decent company chances are they will send you to school to update and improve your skills. Think welding and Plc training