The automotive industry is important for the functioning of society, and like any other industry, there is a wide range of jobs available for qualified individuals. Few other industries can boast such a ubiquitous presence. From customer service to hard science, here are a few things to consider if a career in the auto industry sounds like it might be interesting.
An auto career can help you hone and apply your automotive maintenance skills outside of work, though some of it might require a specialized toolbox. To help you learn these practical skills, you should probably try to get a certification or two as they will provide a paper trail proving that you know what you are doing if you don’t already have experience.
Automotive and diesel certifications will a couple of the kinds of certifications you will be looking for, and with the relatively recent rise in demand for auto technicians as of this writing you stand a decent chance of finding an auto tech job if you have a number of different relevant employers in your area.
The value and history of many cars are also of major importance to many people, and there are some jobs that entirely revolve around improving or maintaining the appearance of cars. Easy Car Shipping is a service used specifically to transport cars from one part of the country to another and is especially helpful if you need a classic or vintage car transported without driving it yourself.
If you were to drive one such car yourself and get in a wreck, you would need to hire an auto body technician to fix the damage. The median pay for an auto body technician is a little over $18 per hour, so while this situation might be good for the technician in that they get to work on fixing the aesthetic of a wrecked car it might not be quite as nice a day for the person who got in the wreck.
Even if you aren’t particularly auto savvy, there are still “soft” skills that can be applied in the auto industry. Car salespeople, for example, don’t generally tend to need to know the physics behind how a car engine works to sell the car that the engine is attached to.
Car Sales Managers likewise might only need to have a working knowledge of business management to perform their job’s functions, though they might sell cars on occasion as well. It is also worth noting that many of the skills that you develop while working these jobs are also applicable in other industries allowing you to work elsewhere if you find that the auto industry doesn’t quite suit your needs.
On the other hand, if you have a hard science background you may be able to apply your skillset here as well. An automotive technology degree is a good thing to have on your resume if you want to get a job working with collision science or alternative fuel systems.
If you also take into account that a modern car tends to have around 100 million lines of computer code, you might still be able to find a job working on cars in a less traditional way if you decide that programming car software is something you want to do later in your career.
The automotive industry is responsible for a variety of services that prop up society as we know it today. Whether you are a dedicated people person, interested in blue-collar work, or are more of an academic you might be able to find a job working with cars in some way.