Everyone Starts Somewhere?
Hello, and welcome to my blog about, well, being a mechanics apprentice.
I am writing from my personal point of view, to help and assist fellow apprentices, and anyone who maybe wants to take this path in the future.
Right, where to start. I have been an apprentice 'Technician' now for about nine months, I work in a quiet little town/village in Shropshire, with many many many Land Rover Farmer types about. That is coincidentally our main customer base too. I will share my knowledge, common mishaps and all the fun you get when you're working in a place which smells like horse fecal matter ninety-nine percent of the time.
A little bit about myself. I found myself first being interesting in motor vehicle mechanics about 5 years ago, when I bought my first car. A 1977 Triumph Spitfire 1500 (We won't go there). But yeah, most of the time a young chap like myself who wants to go in to the trade has a family background, but not me, I come from a sporty family, my dad won Olympic medals and my brother play's football. Expectations, tell me about it. So when I cut all my ties from academic study, A-levels and all that, to focus on mechanics, I got "Now are you really sure you want to do this?" from the parents, and the "Dads an Olympic Athlete, brothers a footballer, and you are?" from just about everybody else. But, above all, its what I really wanted to do. I found myself going to college in 2013 with guys who'd been working on cars since they could master the use of a potty, then there was me, I barely knew what 'Straight 4' meant, or how to turn fog lights on for that matter. So I studied for two years, came out with a level 3 qualification, and still didn't really feel as though I knew what I was doing. So in May of 2015 when I finished college, I had a pretty large break from all that, got a job in retail to fill the time whilst applying to multiple mechanics jobs. '3 or more years experience', 'MOT Testing qualification'. That's all there were but I was applying. Eventually I found something, I applied to one, and they offered me the chance to become and apprentice. So I took it.
I started in the depths of winter, and you don't know cold until you've help a frozen spanner and had steam coming from places you didn't think steam could come from. I was there from December to May of 2016. I wouldn't really call it an apprenticeship, as I wasn't attending college weekly as recommended, I wasn't really learning either. I shadowed an MOT tester, which you can imagine was a lot of pumping, shouting, and shaking stuff. After 5 months of doing the same thing, they got rid of me, putting it lightly, for doing something which was impossible to do because it was completely made up. So yeah, as I was saying, it was repetitive. I was thinking of leaving the place, but they kind of beat me too it and sacked me. It took me a week to find something else. I drove in to this little town, quaint and lazy, and stinking of 'Orse crap. I went in, met management and agreed to start the next day. I had an interview that same day, but politely didn't turn up to it.
I've now been at this place for 10 months, Jesus Christ 10 months. Yeah, it's going well, cock-ups a plenty but well. I will intend to keep you up to date with everything I do, mistakes are apart of it. You're and apprentice for god's sake's you're still learning, so don't beat yourself up. I did that too often and it just ends up in getting you down, and allowing for more mistakes to slide in. People with 10, 20, even 40 years experience still make mistakes, big and small. But Everyone Starts Somewhere right? This is how I started, and I hope to help you a little along the way.
I am writing from my personal point of view, to help and assist fellow apprentices, and anyone who maybe wants to take this path in the future.
Right, where to start. I have been an apprentice 'Technician' now for about nine months, I work in a quiet little town/village in Shropshire, with many many many Land Rover Farmer types about. That is coincidentally our main customer base too. I will share my knowledge, common mishaps and all the fun you get when you're working in a place which smells like horse fecal matter ninety-nine percent of the time.A little bit about myself. I found myself first being interesting in motor vehicle mechanics about 5 years ago, when I bought my first car. A 1977 Triumph Spitfire 1500 (We won't go there). But yeah, most of the time a young chap like myself who wants to go in to the trade has a family background, but not me, I come from a sporty family, my dad won Olympic medals and my brother play's football. Expectations, tell me about it. So when I cut all my ties from academic study, A-levels and all that, to focus on mechanics, I got "Now are you really sure you want to do this?" from the parents, and the "Dads an Olympic Athlete, brothers a footballer, and you are?" from just about everybody else. But, above all, its what I really wanted to do. I found myself going to college in 2013 with guys who'd been working on cars since they could master the use of a potty, then there was me, I barely knew what 'Straight 4' meant, or how to turn fog lights on for that matter. So I studied for two years, came out with a level 3 qualification, and still didn't really feel as though I knew what I was doing. So in May of 2015 when I finished college, I had a pretty large break from all that, got a job in retail to fill the time whilst applying to multiple mechanics jobs. '3 or more years experience', 'MOT Testing qualification'. That's all there were but I was applying. Eventually I found something, I applied to one, and they offered me the chance to become and apprentice. So I took it.
I've now been at this place for 10 months, Jesus Christ 10 months. Yeah, it's going well, cock-ups a plenty but well. I will intend to keep you up to date with everything I do, mistakes are apart of it. You're and apprentice for god's sake's you're still learning, so don't beat yourself up. I did that too often and it just ends up in getting you down, and allowing for more mistakes to slide in. People with 10, 20, even 40 years experience still make mistakes, big and small. But Everyone Starts Somewhere right? This is how I started, and I hope to help you a little along the way.
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