Originally Posted by Zacharias

Absolutely. From what I hear, many people who enter the trade these days are lacking any sort of basic mechanical grounding. With where you are now, at your age, you have the potential to go far if you choose this as a trade.

My buddy with the shop used to take some of the co-op students from the 2-year basic mechanics course at the local college for their work experience terms. He gave up as he lacks the patience to teach someone in their second year of full-time study in the trade, which direction to turn the wrench to tighten or loosen bolts. Also to stand and watch while a guy takes 10 minutes to look up on Mitchell online where to position the hoist arms to lift a Dodge Neon.

Those are both the unvarnished truth, from his shop floor.