It can be a challenge to land a prime spot on a race car pit crew. Yet vehicle dealerships across the country are scrambling to find qualified automotive technicians for their own “pit crews”-even with salaries of ,000 to ,000 or more, depending on the market and the technician’s level of training.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the auto industry will need 35,000 new technicians every year through 2010.
Lucrative But Overlooked Careers
With that in mind, an unusual contest is getting into gear with the purpose of increasing awareness about this lucrative and rewarding yet often-overlooked career, and support training opportunities for future technicians. It’s called the No. 29 Goodwrench Expertise Challenge. And it is a challenge. “Historically, being an automotive technician has been depicted as a dirty, dead-end kind of job,” said Peter Lord, executive director, GM Service Operations. “That old stereotype could not be further from the truth. Today’s cars and trucks are very sophisticated-the computer technology in them alone, for example, is nearly 1,000 times more powerful than what took the Apollo mission to the moon.”
» Read more: Careers In The Automotive Technician Field
