Getting to know the talent...

[Fit4aking]

The automotive market is getting more and more competative.  Most of the smaller family owned dealers have long since been bought out by corporate companies and turned into large dealer chains.  Now instead of a dealer that nurtures its employees I work in a corporate environment.  Bottom line is the main focus not quality of work, years of dedicated employment, or qualifications.  Now a days they can hire 2 UTI graduates for the hourly rate of a Team Leader.  The mentality is that 2 mid level techs can produce more than one fully qualified master tech.

Current Dilema:  Stay where I am, accept demotion, lose team leader bonus (up to $1400/month), maintain the status quo but work a little harder.  My next option is to try and find my current salary at another dealer (Highest average pay is $3-5 less than I make now).  Lastly is to try and better myself, education wise, build another skill and attempt the mid life career change.  I have to get the metal shop 100% functional at least as an outlet and a supplememtal income.  That should come from the IRS this year.  (I love my government gift each year).

I think that I've hit my glass cieling.  I can't provide any more value to the dealer.  I have all my certifications, I am at the highest tech level in the shop, and that has made me one of the higher paid technicians at the delaer.  2 positives and a negative.  Unfortunately the entire dealer dynamic revolves around the bottom line so having me and 2 other long term emloyees taking up a large chunk of it makes us more of a liability than an asset (Management is paid bonus's based on dealer profit).  It will all work out in the end and I'm adaptable.  I'm not scared for myself because I can do what I do in a bunch of places.  It just sucks to know my career path isn't under my control.

Okay, rant over.  I thought about deleting it but it was theraputic seeing my issues in text not just in thought.

[fndrbndr]

I'll keep my extreme political views out of this, but it's sad when quantity surpasses quality as a priority.  Seems like there should be a place for experts, not just people who can do easy jobs quickly.

[TheJohnNewton]

Well the reality is that corporations exist to earn money for their owners.  It's up to managment to figure out if the best way to do that is by providing quality or quantitiy but don't fool yourself into thinking that the end goal is anything other than return on the dollar.  If quantity surpases quality as a priority and if that truely does provide the best return to the business then it's really the customers that are setting that priority.  Of course it could also just be management being short sighted and messing up   

@Fit, goverment gift?  How do I sign up? 

[landstuhltaylor]

Real Name : Devin
Age : 19
Location: MA

BIO:

Let's see, born in Landstuhl, Germany and lived in Schwedelbach. Been in custody of Department of Social Services since I was 11. I can count 20 times that I have moved (10 since I started and finished high school), and I think I am missing 1 or 2. I went to 7 different high schools. Played hockey almost my entire life, although sporadically since D.S.S. I still had lots of fun playing every day for my high school my senior year. Could have gone to any school in the country for free if I had stayed in one school; there was no point bothering to try with all of the BS. I am beginning college in January, when I will be attending UMASS Dartmouth for mechanical engineering.

Other: I managed to hold a job or two long enough to make some money, and used that to buy my '96 Trans Am in March of last year. I had to replace the brakes and springs/shocks immediately, and it now has a set of longtubes and a cat-back. All of the emissions equipment has been yanked which has opened up all kinds of room in the engine bay. Other than that it is still stock.

[Silent Flower]

Name: Tommy

Location: Haugesund, Norway

Daily Grind: Working at a Paint Shop, as an "apprentice", learning the job, so far it's sanding... more sanding, then some sanding again, and finishing off with some sanding :p

Background: Pretty boring... i grew up watching my dad compete in Rally Cross, wich he also did on the road :p  thus a love for speed, growing up with a complete nut of a parent driving like he stole the car, the wheels, the fuel, and kidnapped me, i kinda got affected, so i drive slightly.... motivated :p
My dad is a gearhead, he's been fixing car since he was 16, so i got some of the interest from him, although, not the technical insight... i can't dix a car worth #$%#
My interest for cars is a bit... odd, i enjoy the different, and love sleepers, something unusual is the way to go, so as a kid, reading car magazines, i fell in love with the Superbird, it opened my eyes to muscle cars and the american cars.

Car stuff: My dad being a Volvo man, and ex Volvo Mechanic, my first car was something he picked... a 1985 Volvo 244DL, i liked the car though, no power steering, and it only had 101hp... but it was indestructable, the car survived so much insanity and... inspired... driving.
I ended up crashing it into a tree one winter, darn snow being all slippery! it diden't get that damaged, but i felt i needed a change.
My second car, was a 1978 Ford Mustang II, with a 90hp V6... not exactly muscle... but i loved the car! i even kept up with a Skyline in it, the dudes in the Skyline seemed surprised :p
But after a while, it turned out the engine was crap, and i sold it, last i know of it, is that the guy that bought it, sold it again with cracked heads, and the guy who bought it of that guy is selling it again now, along with a new 302 V8.
Third car, is my current car, 1980 Buick Century Estate Wagon, 4.9 301 V8, although, i've tossed that V8 away, it's undergoing a swap at the moment, Camaro 350, will be loads of fun!
Fourth car, is my project, a 1979 Ford Mustang Ghia, currently not drivable, and it's got a V6, although, as a long term project, it'll eventually get a V8, and a manual transmission, hopefully a Tremec T56, 6 gears baby :p

and that's the Tommy :p

[Drift2XL]

Name: John

Location: Bassett, Virginia USA

Daily Grind: Fabricator/Machinist  Building big filtering machinery for waste treatment plants and irrigation routes. Can weld, grind, machine, assemble anything. Just make sure you have instructions or I'll do it my way.     =D     BFH  he,he

Background:  At one time I was a pre-med student at VPI&SU, known today as Virginia Tech. I gave up due to lack of funds and an unwillingness to go deeeep into debt. So off to the job market. And do the worst jobs in the plants. A certified engine builder and chassis fabricator, I didn't have enough connections to get into that. But I'm glad, because it gave me the strength to try to start my own shop. My single focus is to get to the point where I am doing for myself, my way. Always looking for a mental challenge, I thrive on custom work and R&D.

Car Stuff:  During the first year back home I found my one true love, the 5.0 Fox Mustang. Within a year I put 40K miles on the car, all on the mountain backroads. I still have it and its waiting for it resurrection into a snarling road and track beast. It started me down the path I walk today. I am a total technology whore. Any trick that can be done to a internal combustion engine to up its efficency for power and mileage, I am all over it. Variable valve timing, direct injection, forced induction, hybrids, I love it.

My current projects are a Sentra SE-R for the daily commute. And the 240SX waiting for a fresh SR20 swap. Armed with some wild ideas, once able to afford it, the custom parts and machining techniques wil start to fly. Once it gets going, your going to have to check in with the project thread on here. Some of these ideas are out there, waayy out there.

Fit, I'm with you. I feel the same way. I have some, well I think they are, good ideas. There is no way that I'm going to make some rich man richer off my ideas and skill just because he has money and I don't. I'm sick of the huge corporate mentallity thats out there. Everyone has become a statistic, a focus group, an uninformed consumer. We aren't people anymore, we're just sheep that some ad can bilk money out of. I have those kind of CED's where I work. Its just charts and graphs to these clowns. No people, just profit.

[Blooze]

Interesting Thread here...

Speaking to Mid Life Career changes.  I started out as a hard rock miner, 14 years of it, enough so that I now draw a pension from it.  Then it was 6 years of logging, then painting cars, Stairmasters, and eventually Inventory Manager for Stairmaster.  That was because some time in there I managed to teach myself C and x86 Assembler programming.  I was 40 when Stairmaster was sold to Brunswick and I was laid off.  That produced my first programming job.  In ,98 I was hired and worked as a Senior Application Architect - a job that usually requires a MA in computer science and a slew of years experience.

It is possible to swap horses in the middle of the race.

$

[Gazelli]

Name:  Rich

Area:  Grand Rapids, Michigan

Basic Info:  50 yo. Computer/Business consultant, Married (finally found the 'right' one), 2 kids: 23 yo son, 20 yo daughter.

Gazelli has been my gamer name since I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in the 70s. I play games to meet people I'd have a beer with in RL, which means people who like to have fun and who respect one another enough to understand that we all have our good days and our bad days.  've played and still play some online MMORPG games (Eve online is the one that I've been with for the last couple years).

I've played drums since I was 13, mostly blues, jazz and a bit of rock.  I used to teach Karate until my shoulders and knees told me that it was time to give up the abuse.  I picked up my first motorcycle last year and am anxiously waiting spring to arrive so I can get back out and do some riding.  I'm considering getting involved in some SCCA solo racing (the bug has been there for years, the finances always seem dedicated elsewhere).   

[Detrick]

Welcome Rich,

Spent the first 35 years of my life living in MI.  Moved to Pittsburgh from Lansing.  You buried in snow?  LOL 

[Gazelli]

Thanks for the welcome. 

We're not buried but tired of shoveling it.

[fndrbndr]

Nice to meet you.  I've played D&D for a while as well.  Any thoughts on 4e?

[Gazelli]

I think 4e is just Hasbro's attempt to milk the last $ out of the gaming community before they either sell D&D off or just kill it.  From what I've seen it's basically World of Warcraft based, which is really missing the point of a PnP RPG.

[sjicedog]

Real name: Randy

Age: 43

Location: San Jose, CA

Bio:  I was born and raised in Nebraska.  I passed on college, followed my older brother's footsteps and enlisted in the Navy at the end of my junior year in the delayed entry program so that I could get the school that I wanted and spent the next 6 years stationed in California and Hawaii and got to see alot of the world and was onboard the lead ship that retaliated against Iran in October of '87, for their involvement in a missile attack against a US flagged tanker in the Straits of Hormuz.  I got out in '89, moved to California and have been here, working in IT ever since.  I'm an IT architect for a major networking company here in the Bay Area, and my wonderful wife and I have 2 beautiful daughters (15 and 2... yes, you read that right ).  
Interestingly enough, sports have been the major focus of my life (I've had to give up some, but still actively play hockey and golf) and not cars, but Forza 2 appeals to me on several levels.  The racing part fuels my competitive spirt, the painting part feeds my creative side, and the tuning part appeals my desire to learn and I've spent alot of time reading what alot of you guys have provided and am thankful to you for helping me better understand what has become a new interest for me.

[TheJohnNewton]

SJ, I take it you're a Sharks fan   I'm not too far away in Martinez and my gf owns a house in SJ where here parents and a couple sisters live.

[sjicedog]

Ya, definitely a Shark's fan.  Much like your gf, my wife grew up here in San Jose as well so we have lot's of family around.