[an opinion]

I am an ASE certified Master Auto Technician. And for the record, I HATE the term ‘mechanic’–especially when it is being used to describe me or my job. I take pride in myself, my profession, my accomplishments, and my abilities. I strive every day to improve them and the opinions of my customers. It is my job to save my customers money, time, and mental stress by correctly diagnosing and repairing their problems quickly, correctly the first time (and in the unlikely event that I am unable to do so, take the appropriate measures to rectify the mistake–yes, believe it or not, I am suffering from the terminal disease of being human for which there is no cure but it is treatable). Well, public opinion for the auto repair field is, as you know, not good and it hasn’t been helped by the fact that there are some crooked people in this world who aren’t educated and have, in the past, been drawn into the profession because ‘in the good ole days’ automobiles weren’t very complicated and they could support themselves fixing cars. This combined with investigative journalism who ‘uncovered’/bashed using mass media those ‘mechanics’ who used questionable methods to generate revenue for the shops that employed them. Technology has advanced far beyond that of those times. On any given day I wear any number of hats while carrying out my duties: technician, electrician, service writer, diplomat, salesman, educator, psychologist, P.R. officer, chemist, etc. Education is a requirement for sucess now; it is just like most other service jobs which now account for over half of the income generated in the U.S. The average customer has no idea just how complex their vehicle really is. The ‘tuners’ portrayed in the recent films based on street racing has shed some positive light on the industry spawning thousands of ‘custom’ and ‘speed’ shops and about a hundred times as many lowered imports sporting canister mufflers. Anyway, I think that the best way to overcome the negative opinion and animosity of the public at large is to present them with ovewhelming evidence that you are an educated, competent, honest, caring professional that is willing to stand behind your work and let everything take care of itself. We Technicians have a special gift–an aptitude for solving difficulttechnical problems in complicated machines that are controled by more computing power that the fastest desktop on the market. Take pride in that.

User Detail :  

Name : an opinion, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 20, City : columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Occupation : auto repair technician, Education level : Technical School, 

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