Blog: Joseph Mendola

Some of the auto repair shop owners, I talk with on a daily basis report that work is increasing. That is a good sign for technicians looking for work. I do read the comments you send in. I am sorry I can not help all of you. I am thinking and trying all the time. Sometimes your resume can be overwhelming. I have to skip over some of it, you can do it right into the jobing website. Some of us need to do more reading to find the things we need. Read Angela Rosario's blogs she is a wealth of information in the field of getting a job. Please try to read all of her blogs even if it takes a few weeks. I mean all of her past ones, click on one of them and look for the history of them. Great reading in ways you can understand. Just a wonderful young lady, and very intelligent also. Right now reading can help spark ideas in the job hunting market. Below is a picture of the famous Kelsey Lay's New gone in 60 Seconds Dragster. She will be flying in it soon.

Good luck Kelsey.

I hear it more than once a day. Everyone says to me, I have lost my job from cut backs, and I am out of work. My reply is "did you look on JOBING.COM". Most answers are, I have looked everywhere on the Internet. Then I question them about the JOBING web site, and they never even looked at it. Then I write it down for them, or if I am near a computer I pull up the site. Then they are always impressed. Then I question are they really looking for a job or just talking about it (the easy part talking about it). I am also very excited about the new JOBING website update. I have to commend JOBING for helping people with a life changing web site. It is not just about money to them. They care about people, that is why their employees are so happy all the time. That is what the future is all about. Company's that care about employees doing good, and commending it. Great team work and a great company JOBING.

The past of having it your way is gone. Everyone is used to things in the automotive industry going their way. It used to be an industry that was almost begging good technicians to work. The top techs were in hi demanded, because their was so much work out there. Some of us were just plain spoiled. Now that business is so slow, everyone has to drop the expectations of the past coming back. In order to keep working everyone has to think of doing more work for less money, even doing things for free to help your company or dealership stay open. Everyone has to learn team work, like going above and beyond what they would have done in the past. When it comes to getting rid of employees, the one that is dedicated always stays working. I don't mean following the boss around telling him how good you are, or showing him the slackers. Just work extra hard, show up early and stay till everything is done. Everyone will notice, and it might raise the bar for your fellow employees. Then that means you are a leader. Keep customers happy, they are the people that are hard to find in this day and age. Like technicians used to be. Now we are many and they are few. Good luck landing that new job. The beautiful Corvette cars pictured, belong to my friend Rune Gjerdrum of Norway. Thank you Rune very nice.

Rat Rods may be a new way of making a living, if you like building cars. Some of the rat rod builders harvest all of the parts they use from salvage yards. Most of them collect and save all kinds of used engines and drive train stuff. The finished car will look a little ratty, hence the term rat rod. The only cost is welding supplies, wire, and good old fashion time. I have seen some very cool rustic old rods built, also driving on the road. The are not custom painted or never will be, that is the new look about them, some of the guys work harder to make them look that way. After they are done worth maybe $15000,00 more or less. So the next time you are passing the local burger joint that is having a car show, stop and see if you can pick out the Rat rods. You will be impressed and want to build one. There are $5.00 movies in that bin at our local ( you know the store ) the movie is called Hot Rods, Rat Rods. Well worth the money. If nothing else you may be inspired to build something, or go into the fabricating business. The picture below is a painted old drag race car. Maybe or maybe not a Rat Rod, but to me a very impressive  old super charged flat head Ford hot rod. Yes I said super charger as in blower. The owner owns a forging business and made his own adapter for the blower. Very nice work. The day of this picture he was teaching young students about how it is done. It tells a lot about people when they spend time to help young people plan the future.   

Using the right tools for the job. When you work with tools all day, a quality tool can mean the difference between a bad injury and losing a few days work. When a tool slips, you can smash your hand, hit yourself in the face or fall into the side door of the car next to you. I have seen it. Injury's are worse the damaging another car. But both can cost you time and money. Lifetime warranty tools are not always the reason to buy a tool, you can spend a lifetime taking them back to the store to be replaced. Some of my tools I have had for over 30 years and they still are in perfect condition. There are many quality tools on the market now. But please make the right choice some injury's can be life long. There are a lot of automotive shop safety videos on line. Just do a search on line and watch the videos. Then you can also take tests on line to get a automotive safety certificate to go along with your resume. Just plain weekend auto work, or all the way to automotive performance work. Try to use the right tools. Chances are you will have less injury's. Thanks to Devastation Motorsports for the fine pictures of our car. For more Auto Performance pictures go to. www.Mendola.org or DevastationMotorsports.com

I met with a admissions representative for WYOTECH on Monday 2nd of November. He had a lot to say about training automotive technicians, after high school ages 18 and on. For those of you that E Mail me from all over the Country and then some. Yes I did get your message and E mails even from overseas. WYOTECH has a very nice 9 month program, and to much more to list. Plus they can help place you in a job. I have written about other automotive training schools in the past, they also have good programs. WYOTECH teaches custom automotive interior, and much more in 6 different States including Daytona Fl. Needless to say they impressed me very much, as a fellow trainer. Darrell Pfiffner is the rep, give him a call if you are looking for training, he will send you a DVD of the school and programs. Very cool stuff if you love cars and hot rods like me. Check out the web site. www.Wyotech.edu Darrell Pfiffner 813-789-6505.

Basic automotive training can be another springboard for a career in selling automobiles. Having the knowledge to take good care of a car can have big returns, when you are ready to sell it. A lot of very good people around the world do want to buy certain, very nice automobiles to have across the world. Our business has sold one to Finland, one to Sweden, and we are getting ready to sell a C5 Corvette convertible to Norway. Just advertising right, and having kept the cars nice. With good automotive work habits it can mean the good feeling, of knowing your car is going to another part of the world. Someone else can enjoy what you had taken care of.

On a Thursday night about 10:00pm I was visiting to the ER of a local hospital and I ran into a former automotive student of mine. He was now a paramedic in fact he had his hands full with a car crash victim. I watched him working very serious on the trauma this person was enduring. He looked at me thinking I forgot who he was. It has been a few years, but he also was a trainee of mine for some time. Needless to say after he released the patient to the hospital we talked. He told me after he left my training he completed auto body and paint school. Then worked in the paint industry for a bit, but business was slow. So he went to firemen school and completed that. Then wanted to be a paramedic so he went on and here we are. I was very happy and proud to see his happiness and success. What better person to pull up on a car crash then a complete car / paramedic health professional. He is also and artist Long ago he drew this picture of my dragster.

I do advise, to do any repairs in small parts. If its a tune up, remove and replace the spark plug and wire that is the hardest to reach first. Then the second hardest one. The job gets progressively easier if you do the hardest part of the job first. Because you can work your best at the beginning of the job, when you have the most energy, then the job will not be so stressful. Break it up into smaller jobs, one plug and one wire at a time. Replacing brakes the same way, leave the right side of the car together, to use as a reference to repair the left side of the car. Never take both sides of the car's brakes apart at the same time, unless you are very good on that model car. It never hurts to do the tough stuff first.

Yes ladies also work in automotive shops. ASE will certify anyone if they pass the test. All of the ladies that are trained in automotive are highly intelligent individuals. I have seen them run the whole shop. They can sell auto parts or run the auto parts store. I have seen them pull engines apart and put them back together with out a glitch. I have trained some personally that are great at alignments, brakes, electrical systems and more. So do not be surprised if the young lady with her nails done, is the one working on your car not just running the office. The parts person on the phone, might be a highly trained lady in the field just selling parts. So times are changing, I will trust my trainees looking up parts, or with any of the work.

I went to the Total Performance automotive machine shop today.  I always use them to machine my engine parts. I found that the owner had two new employees running the cylinder head machining part of the shop. I was very impressed because they were two of my best trainee's of 4 years. Trained in automotive, and hi performance. They both had training from family members over the years, also in the business. It was impressive to see them running the big machines, knowing that, they not only can do the machine work, but they can build and install, then tune and so on. It is a good thing for someone to do your work that  knows what the end result will be of what they have done. So that means there are other avenues to go down, if you can find a job turning wrenches you might try automotive machine shop work. It never hurts to increase your knowlage of the industry. Also learning to network, as we always say. Meet people and be nice it my be your next business.  

AUTOMOTIVE TECHNICIANS CAN ALSO WORK IN THE AUTO PARTS SALES END OF THE BUSINESS. I MET WITH TWO OVER QUALIFIED TECHNICIANS TODAY, THAT SELL AUTO PARTS AT A BIG NEW CAR DEALERSHIP. I was very impressed with the way they do business. I did inspire them both with years of my training. I am Always happy to see them using the skills. If you sell parts to shops you get to network, meet people that may be your next employer or business partner. Sell parts for a year and network, make money while you network. Auto parts stores, Dealer ships, Performance stores, Online stores they all need qualified help at times. Even Master technicians sell parts, some manage the whole store. It is worth a try in the times we live in. Help people with parts it may help you in the long run.

If you are a ASE Technician or ASE Master Technician out of work. Your hobbies or passions might be your career. There are a lot of job opportunities in automotive Hi performance repair. Yes people still race, and have very hi performing automobiles. Check out the builders and chassis shops. Again as I tell everyone they need to be on time and dependable ( I stress dependable ) employees. All of the hot rod shops have dead lines for hot rod builds. Like you see on TV. Most shops will hire you, if you love your work and you want to be there. So if it is what you love to do. Just shop around, even if they are not looking for an employee. Show up and tell them you will be dependable and on time and love your work. The 68 Camaro picture above is a result of 2 years hard work, just my son and I on weekends with friends. So if we can do it so can you. Your work is a self portrait. So always do it with excellence. 

If you want to view more pictures of the finished 68 Camaro go to WWW.MENDOLA.ORG

Good automotive repair shops are still very busy. If you are a great dependable employee you are still needed. Starting you own business is also a good thing. Someone just wrote in and told me they started a mobile auto repair service. That is a good business to be in. I have done it for many years. It is a chance to network with people and other business owners. I do specialize in drive ability. Automotive computer problems, check engine lights, ect. So other small auto repair shops & big auto auctions have used my service a lot over the years. It is a chance to meet people, also a chance to help people in need that can not afford big auto repair franchise shops. So be neat clean and dependable and you will find work. There are a lot of automobiles out there so keep up the good work.

AS a graduate of automotive technology you must meet or exceed the requirements of the job interview. Your certificate tells them your qualified. But they are really interested if you are going to show up on time, and have the enthuseasem needed to work well with others. Show them you can uplift everyone that you come in contact with, on the job. Show them that you are excited to work for their company. Remember now is also the time that everyone is servicing that new car, they presented to their graduate.