Quote:
Originally Posted by jhiggi83
A little background about me, I am getting honorably discharged this year after 8 years of service in the Marine Corps. My background has been 4 years Contract Management and 4 years accounting. I also got a Bachelors of Business Admin while in.
I was considering going to UTI and then follow up with the Porsche program because I was getting bored of sitting in an office all day and I really like working on my own vehicles. My test scores in the military are very high in mechanical and the Veterans Admin. Aptitude test showed very high aptitude for mechanical. However when I went to talk to the Veterans Admin. Career counselor to interpret that test she said that I am best suited to a technical trade like auto mechanics but with my current qualifications I would be stupid not to stay in contract management. That I am looking at 80k a year in contract management vs 30k being a mechanic. While money isnt everything to me I do like to have enough to support my family, save for retirement and work on side projects. I have read that good master mechanics can make 70k-100K a year but I also read that those earnings figures are not realistic. I am very interested in being able to do everything on a car. I'm just looking to see if I can get different perspectives. My career counselor told me to keep mechanics as a hobby and go where the money is but I think with the proper training and years on the job I could become an expert in the field.
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First, thank you for your service in the Marines.
Your career counselor has a point. While a "class A" Porsche mechanic can easily pull $75-95K down a year, they don't do that right out of a training school. I employ several highly experienced Class A techs in my shop, but they all spent years at Porsche dealerships and in other Porsche specialty shops before we hired them. They each also own probably $20-30K+ (or more) in tools and tool storage equipment, which is another prerequisite to getting hired in any shop environment. While my people can do very well financially, the earn it by getting a working base salary plus a percentage of the labor rate charged to the customer. And if they have a "come back", that is repaired the second time on their own time.
If you are going to make it in the Porsche service industry, you are going to have to "pay your dues", both acquiring knowledge and a substantial set of tools before anyone will hire you, and then your will start as a "D" or entry level tech, probably doing normal oil services and new car prep at a dealership. Once you have gotten ASE and some OEM tech certifications, you would have a chance to move up to a "C" level, assisting a more experienced tech on more complicated repairs. Eventually, once you have demonstrated both to the management and your more senior peers that you have what it takes, you would move up to a "B" or even "A" rating, where you would be working on your own and earning top level income. But that process takes both financial investment and years to accomplish, so you need to be committed to the career path.