Ran the family Auto Collision Business with my pop up until 3 yrs ago, we are going on year 23 with it. Now I teach Auto Collision at the Vocational school serving 2600 students from 15 to 21yrs old. Thinking I may take a local course to get my masters and would like to be Nationally Board Certified for the small bump in pay. I find myself out of practice here lately as I simply don't "do" the trade no where near as much, but I do enjoy working with my students some are real turds and I do what I can to make an impact on them, the others are a sponge and very excited to do and learn. I'm still very green in my new field but hope to have an effective repeatable curriculum next year.
Bingo, those were the words I was looking for to describe these replies A HUGE group of honest, hardworking, compassionate Buick fanatics I love it!!
Your family still have the business? How are the younger people reacting to a "hands on" career? We have 2 young girls working in our shop, one is a prepper, other is a body tech. They BOTH work, they whine less than most of the guys The body girl was on the frame rack her second day, bing bam boom, she gets it done, the prepper girl don't take any **** from the whiners, lol! A lot of the "in betweens" say 30 to 50 yrs old don't "get it" they don't have the passion, understanding, or work ethic, of the collision industry, they just "do" with no understanding of the whys and hows
Very true, my girls do very well and generally understand the concept behind the procedures, lot of the guys, can do but refuse to try and understand why, which we both know makes it ultimately impossible to truly know your trade. Work ethic is almost non existent with 80% of them tho And yes we still have the shop, my pop may retire in a couple more years
Went to Vocational school in high school for engineering design with a side of machining. Went to college for mechanical engineering and spent almost 10 years at a decent sized tool and die shop doing everything from cad design, cad/cam programming, welding, jig grinding, running mill, lathes, you name it. There wasn't much under that roof I didn't have my hands on. It was when the foreman told me I had been groomed to take over but they felt I was too young for the job, that I decided I wanted out. Luckily the former vp had taken a job at Procter and Gamble, and called me up with an offer. Spent 7 years there as a design engineer for high speed paper line equipment in the baby care division (Pampers lines). A few years ago I got tired of the big corpo thing, and now work at a small but growing custom industrial automation company designing and building equipment to replace humans in the workplace....
Yep! The body girl will actually work late, or weekends to catch up, so yeah shes the 20% A few guys try hitting on her, yeah shes got a nice ass for sure, but that's not what shes there for
My job today is A waste water treatment plant operator. Most people say same crap different day but we have different crap every day! Right around 1.5 million gallons a day from a community of about 7'000 people. A surprisingly rewarding and interesting job but no one sets the goal of being A "turd herder" at the junior high job fair. so how did I get here? Grew up as a 5th generation farm boy on a small dairy farm where I learned work habits that have been the cornerstone of my life. My first off the farm job was an apple orchard caring for trees picking fruit and all you can eat! great job low pay. Moved on to gas station work in the days of full service." Filler up? Check the oil sir? Let me clean that windshield. That will be$5.75 and thank you for choosing Sohio." Mounting tiers and oil changes led to a job at the local Pontiac dealership. Then I stepped up to the Buick dealership where my job description was simple. " Show up on time and do what you're told," That service manger was one of my heroes. When the dealership changed hands I went looking for job security. Took my mechanical skill set and my farm boy attitude to run the city garage. A one man show maintaining everything from 80' later trucks to weed eaters. HARD work beat my body up. A few years ago an opening at the sewer plant. Back to school to learn all about poop and here I am. l have 27 years in with the city and am getting ready to retire. More time on that family farm (Where I still live and work) and have been talking to the management at the Erie Co. 4-H camp about the camp maintenance job. Hopping to spend my summers unplugging toilets, playing with kids and watching lake Erie sunsets.
Wish my CV was more blue collar oriented, actually wanted to "volunteer" at a friends machine shop to learn how to make things, but the 100 mile commute was just too much. But after the military ( two trips to Vietnam) I got a sales job with BASF corp, got a free company car, what a deal! Then to Keebler corp as an industrial foods rep, then to AMP as an electrical sales rep. Who knew, cookies to connectors? Rose to divisional sales manager. Then recruited by a company called Gillig selling urban buses, liked driving my demonstrator around the country. Retired for a year until my wife made me go back to work. Became national sales manager for a French Canadian company selling light rail systems. That was the worst, most political job I ever had. Never work for French Canadians again. Got a job as a sales manger for accompany selling marine transmissions, great job, worked with people building some of the most magnificent yachts you can imagine. The job I retired from came up and I switched to director of sales for a small family owned company selling the biggest commercial marine transmissions to the inland waterways, tugs and oilfield boats, with the odd yacht thrown in. This was the best job, with good people and great pay. Still regret not learning how to read a mic or run a lathe though.
Growing up in the land of Chihuly, I've always been fascinated by glass blowing. Do you blow any glass for the sake of making art, or just specifically for making scientific glassware?
I'm a regulatory compliance engineer for electronic products. Got my BS in Physics from RPI in the early 90s, then moved out to California since IBM had put NY state last place in the country for job creation. I worked at a Bay Area lab for a few years, then got a job working for a large networking company, which lasted almost 20 years. I now work at another Bay Area lab doing electromagnetic testing and approvals for a lot of different systems, mostly networking switches but some industrial/scientific/medical products as well. I'm filing for my security clearance so that I can work on classified products, just like some of my colleagues at the local defense contractors are doing. We've got some clients coming in with products that run off 380VDC, which is a very hazardous voltage that can cause lots of fireworks.
Many times,this is how my old girl looks like at the end of an ice/snow storm Lots of accumulation on her too..
Had to laugh at this because my daughter , who's 22, works part time at Tractor Supply while going to school. She'll stay past midnight or get there at 5 am to unload the semi. Guys hit on her but she tells them they have to outpull her lifted F250, 7.3, 4x4 so let's go outside and hook em up in the dirt. She's got them monster deep lug mud tires on it and short gears so their little Tacoma's, Rangers and 1/2 tons don't stand a chance. She drug some guy around with a new 2500 Duramax who had his "Pavement Princess" tires on and could not buy traction in the sand. Here's a pic of my daughter and it scares the doo, doo out of me even though she's tough as nails and more stubborn than a mule. Not sure how her job world will work out with her "ATTITUDE"! Mikey
Spent time at the local Pontiac, Buick, GMC as a tech in the early 2000's. Got out due to politics. Job to job for a while then spent 11 years as a luggage jockey for USAirways/American, left there due to the physical abuse on the body & in 2016 started as an elevator apprentice. 4 more semesters, take my mechanics test & become a full fledged elevator mechanic. Kyle
Good job but it really has its ups and downs So its Sunday night...Ive been working so much around the house this weekend, Im actually looking forward to going back to work. I could use the rest!
Started work for the local government at 18 ( 1961 ) in civil engineering and retired at age 49 ( 1992 ) , sold new Buicks 1992 until 2002 and hung it up for good. DON"T MISS WORK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bill
