Getting Started

Visit the BMW STEP program website to see all that they have to offer along with their requirements for acceptance of training.

Check out our helpful building an automotive resume post for preparing your resume ahead of time. When visiting all of these dealer websites, look for an ‘information’, ‘contact us’, or ‘employment opportunity’ tab and click that link to post your resume.

Even though there are many BMW dealers across the United States I picked these dealers from more populated cities and great places to live. These are locations where the potential for success is higher based on the volume of high end cars per area.

Locating a Dealer

If you want more dealers to search for or are looking for the dealer of your choice refer to the BMW dealer directory. When locating dealers across the United States using this directory enter the state, city, and zip code to narrow your search.

Arizona BMW Dealers

• BMW North Scottsdale
  18018 North Scottsdale Road, Phoenix, Arizona, 85054
  (480) 538-3900

  http://www.bmwnorthscottsdale.com/

• Chapman BMW
  6601 East McDowell Road, Scottsdale, Arizona, 85257
  (480) 464-1224

  http://www.chapmanbmw.com/

California BMW Dealers

• Pacific BMW
  732 South Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California, 91204
  (818) 246-5600

  http://www.pacificbmw.com/

• Stevens Creek BMW
  4343 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Santa Clara, California, 95051
  (408) 249-9070

  http://www.stevenscreekbmw.com/

• BMW of Palm Springs
  3919 East Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, California, 92264
  (760) 324-7071

  http://www.bmwps.com/

• BMW of San Francisco & Body Shop
  1675 Howard Street, San Francisco, California, 94103
  (415) 551-4285

  http://www.bmwsf.com/

• BMW of San Diego
  5090 Kearny Mesa Road, San Diego, California, 92111
  (858) 560-5050

  http://www.bmwofsandiego.com/

Florida BMW Dealers

• Germain BMW
  3707 Davis Boulevard, Naples, Florida, 34104
  (239) 643-2220

  http://www.germainbmw.com/

• Quality BMW Inc
  1006 Beal Parkway Northwest, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 32547
  (850) 863-2161

  http://www.qualitybmw.com/

• Bert Smith BMW
  3800 34th St N, St Petersburg, Florida, 33714
  (727) 527-1111

  http://www.bertsmith.com/

Nevada BMW Dealer

• Desert BMW of Las Vegas
  2333 South Decatur Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89102
  (702) 871-1010

  http://www.desertbmwlasvegas.com

Oregon BMW Dealers

• Medford BMW
  600 North Central Avenue, Medford, Oregon, 97501
  (541) 774-8450

  http://www.medfordbmw.com

• BMW of Salem
  Salem, Oregon, 97301
  (503) 399-9541

  http://www.delonbmw.com

Enjoying your Success

For those of you who have success searching out and locating a dealer that hires you using the BMW dealer directory from this post please contact us. We would like to spotlight a post about you, your training, and your new career as a BMW certified technician.

How to Get Involved

Get on board and work with an organization such as AYES (Automotive Youth Educational Systems) who helps today’s young talented individuals in their automotive programs. Learn how to help with educating, training, and give them an opportunity for job placement while building a strong connection between the highschools and automotive dealerships. Check out what AYES has to offer and how to get involved and get started within your automotive program or dealer. Just click the ‘get involved’ tab at the left of this link for more information for schools or dealers who want to participate.

Bring your thank you with you to the interview!

What a novel concept! You’ve just interviewed for the perfect automotive technician position, it’s close to home, the pay is great and the guys at the shop are down to earth. You want this job, bad. But wait, the interviewer told you before you left “We’re interviewing a few more candidates and we’ll let you know by the end of the week.” You’ve gotta have this job. So come prepared!

Go out to your local Dollar Tree or Dollar General, pick up a couple of differently styled packs of 3×5 ‘Thank You’ card packs for a couple of bucks. Pick something that seems appropriate professionally, don’t get something with painted bunnies hopping with sheep spewing some sort of touching colloquialism. This is such a low cost – for high impression technique, you can spring for a stash of cards.

Before your interview, use one of those thank yous and nicely hand write a note to the unknown interviewer. If you can, address them by name. If you can’t address them by name because the individual you addressed your cover letter to is known to be different than the interviewer, don’t address it at all. Just start out the card by saying;

I just wanted to write a short note to thank you today for my interview. I appreciated…

What do I say in my hand written thank you?

Remember, the interviewer will be reading this during lunch, later on in the day, or later on in the week. This card is a reminder to let them know you’re interested, you’re motivated and serves as a refresher on your important skills sets.

The first two items are taken care of by just writing a hand written note. You can actually restate how interested you are in the position and then highlight why you think you would be perfect for the job. Continuing with the text from above, you might finish off your hand written thank you note like this;

I appreciate your time and am excited at the prospect of working at ‘X auto shop’. I believe that I would be a perfect fit for your location based on my experience in repairing ‘X’ and my knowledge about ‘X car systems’. I will follow up with you more next week, but if you need to get in contact with me before then you can reach me at (phone number).

Now, you might think, “How do I know what to spotlight if I pre-write my thank you?” That is a very good question.

Hopefully you have done some research about the auto shop and the technician position you’re applying for before you go into the interview, mostly online. You should be able to kind of guess what points would interest the interviewer the most. But here is another tip.

If you can pull away during the interview or after before everything wraps up, you can finish nicely writing the note / addressing it in the bathroom or in your car. Not ideal, but it works, and can make that much more of an impression.

Handing out the thank you note

After your interview for the automotive technician position is finished, shake hands and then open your professional briefcase / folder (You have one of these right? With extra resumes and cover letters?) and pull out the thank you card. Just hand it to the interviewer and thank then for the time to interview you today.

The other option is to get the card to someone before you leave. If you feel strongly about writing something specific pertaining to the interview, and you couldn’t logically pull away during the interview you might want to finish up the note out in your car and bring it back in to the receptionist.

You still need to write the long thank you

When you get home, make some notes about the interview at the very least. I know I personally am exhausted after an interview, it can be a lot of prep and a lot of pressure. You may not feel like typing up the long thank you letter right away.

But you still need to write this letter, 3-4 paragraphs restating some of the items in the technician interview. This hand written thank you note does not take the place of the mailed letter, but this is a quick, easy little way of getting that extra edge on your competition and landing that perfect auto career.

Pay Scales

The 3 different types of pay scales used today are:

• Hourly
• Salary
• Flat Rate

Hourly speaks for itself with one exception, when having an option to make any of these 3 wages, hourly pays the least. Unless you want to perform meaning less tasks with no chance to move up in a position or company, hourly rates usually are a bottom of the barrel pay when starting out.

Salary also speaks for itself. Most positions that are paid salary usually have a fluctuation in worked hours although the pay stays the same. If you calculate your weekly pay divided by the number of hours worked, you’ll find that you don’t get paid as much as you could.

Flat rate is a special type of pay scale that has its ups and downs. Mostly ups. It’s also one of the best and most profitable scales of the three. Flat rate is designed to pay you a specific rate like $15 or $20 per hour only for the hours turned. Hours turned? The automotive field has universally adopted the flat rate system to prevent slackers and non motivated people from costing company’s big money everyday. While on the other hand, the flat rate system rewards those who work hard and understand how to work productive and efficiently.

Labor Time Guides

The universal system otherwise known as labor times, is a set group of repair times for every part on a vehicle. These repair and replacement times were originally generated from the manufactures about 25 years ago. Trying to establish how to pay technicians for warranty repairs was a tedious but yet tremendous undertaking. The manufactures research and development department made a good investment. By tearing down a vehicle piece by piece and timing the amount of time it takes to remove and install these parts with documenting every part on a car into a journal, the manufactures created a labor time guide.

Flat Rate Breakdown

Lets say you were hired at $20 per flat rate hour. A customer brings their car in to have it checked for a coolant leak. Most places use a starting diagnosis charge of 1 hour labor to check it out. If the shop rate is $80 per hour, the customer is charged this $80 to check out the coolant leak. You get paid your $20 per flat rate to check it out.

Next, if you find the leak at the water pump you then look in the labor time guide to estimate the repair for the customer. The guide recommended time to replace the water pump is 4 hours. Take the 4 hours x the shop rate of $80 per hour and get $320 to charge the customer for the repair. Add in the 1 hour check out charge and the customer pays $400 for the labor only. You the technician will receive $20 per flat rate hour x 4 hours labor for the repair and get $80. Add in the 1 hour check out charge of $20 and you now get a total of $100 to perform this job.

The bonus or upside to this job is, If you get it done in 3 hours you still get the $100.
The down side is, if it takes longer than 5 hours you still get $100.

The inside look at flat rate will more often allow you to make money than loose money, and yes if you stand around you get paid nothing. For those who have a motivation problem on Monday morning or loose their motivation after lunch on Friday, this is why the manufactures went to this system, to keep people from milking the clock. Too many places loose money or have to up their rates to offset the loss on pay from people getting paid an hourly wage and not working. The big upswing is that each time you replace that water pump, you’ll get a little bit faster and a little bit more efficient. Time is money in this field, the better you are the more money you will make.

Plan Ahead

The best recommendation I can give after 22 years in the business, is on weeks where you make more than your clocked hours you need to bank it. If you worked 40 hours this week and got paid for 50 hours, put the extra $200 in your savings account. Trust me, you need a rainy day fund in this business.

There are slow times of the year that people don’t do repairs are when they need to save money. They typically are Christmas (to buy presents), tax time (to pay taxes), and back to school time. (shop for kids) If you have a 30 hour paycheck during the week of Christmas, reach for the rainy day fund. That’s what its there for. Plan ahead and manage your money the best that you can. The automotive industry has so much to offer and being an technician has its great rewards.

Sample Questions

Here is a sample list of questions that you might encounter during a job interview.

Q1. What made you choose or why are you interested in automotive repair for a career?

A. This question goes back to your beginning. It’s geared towards one of two ways. Did you think about an automotive career when your school offered the program? Or, have you had an influence from someone at an early age. This shows how serious you are about this field and how long you’ve been planning a career in this industry.

Q2. What interests you about this job?

A. This shows your focus and preparedness. If you say I just need a job or I need a job really bad, are you really going to be a good investment for this company? What would be a good answer is, I like this job because… (Find a few reasons) or I’ve known about this company for a long time and heard nothing but good comments and thought it would be a good place to work.(Research is key, be prepared to give comments)

Q3. Why do you want to leave your existing job?

A. I’m sure you’re not going to say I hate the job or I hate my boss, because you need to show respect even if it’s true. Handling yourself in a professional manner works all the time. A good answer would be I’m looking to better myself and find a job where I can learn new things.

Q4. Do you work better alone or with others?

A. This is a two sided question. You could say something positive about both. I can always focus and concentrate better alone, but I like to see someone else’s perspective on how to repair each jobs and not struggle when learning something new.

Q5. Of all the repair areas on an automobile, what area are you the best at or what’s your favorite area to repair?

A. I’d like to think that with a back ground in Vocational or Technical training your answer would be, I like to work on all areas and to be versatile so I can benefit anyone who hires me, but my favorite thing to do is… (Everybody has a favorite thing to do)

Q6. Are you willing to work extra hours, late nights, or weekends?

A. Your answer depends on your situation. I don’t think there is a bad answer to this question. If you are committed and feel like making extra money from the new job, this will benefit both you and the company. On the other hand, if you are married and have young children and can’t work extra hours, this is the time to tell them. They shouldn’t hold this against you. Out of respect they should acknowledge how awesome it is to see someone who cares about their family and is wanting to spend time with them.

Q7. Would you be able to travel for upgrade training?

A. Depending on your situation, most automotive upgrade training classes last between 2 days to 1 week and no more than a couple of times a year. Most of which are in house any more. Even with family commitments schooling only ups your net worth. The more you learn the better you become as a technician and you increase your chances of getting a pay raise at review time.

Q8. Have you ever had an on the job confrontation with a co-worker or supervisor and why?

A. Hopefully, one good quality you should have learned is how to handle different situations in a professional manner. Every body argues and most of the time people don’t see eye to eye. Over the years I’ve witnessed vulgar, shoving, and threatening fights that either put a label on the people involved or they were terminated. One of the key things to do, is set back and evaluate each situation and come up with the best scenario for handling what ever the problem may be. If you answered no to this question, let them know your feeling on this subject and what approach you would use when problems arise.

Q9. If you got this job what goals would you set for yourself and how long would it take for you to achieve your goals?

A. Pick goals that would help you and the employer. Goals such as, learning the product better. Apply for ASE testing and work towards your Master certification. Get to know your co-workers better. Build up a supply of tools that would benefit you and help you become more productive. If the employer offers training right away, take them up on it and be eager to go as often as they are willing to send you. Be excited to get training and certification from what ever car line or place you might work for.

Q10. If you came to work here, how could the company benefit and become more profitable?

A. This is your opportunity to seize the moment. Always use ‘ I ‘ when speaking and keep eye contact with the person interviewing you to show your confidence. Think of all the things that you would want or how you would expect to be treated and form questions around these ideas. As a technician I would be prepared to work at or before 8:00 everyday. I would use my time wisely and ask questions if I need assistance. I would also be willing to help others with any type of problem that would require team work to fix. If you needed someone to work with a customer on problem solving an issue with a car, I would love to help. Don’t hesitate to ask me for any type of help, I’m always willing to assist you. These are a few answers that could help prepare you for this type of question.

Being Prepared

Most Interviews may never turn into an hour long Q and A session, but these questions can only prepare you and maybe even take your focus off the fact that your nervous. With researching and using questions from over the years of job interviews, I’ve put together this list of questions and answers to help prepare you the best possible way. When the interview wraps up you will probably be asked, do you have any questions? Here is another opportunity to take control and get information that would help you evaluate your decision if the job becomes available to you.

Questions to ask

Knowing that the interview is about over, try to limit yourself to about 3 questions. Here are a few helpful questions.

Q1. Is the position that I’m applying for a new position or am I replacing someone?

A. The answer is to let you know about growth. If the position is a new one then the shop could be expanding in size or increasing their work load. If their replacing someone, they might have a high turnover rate of employees which could mean a number of things. This might be something to take into consideration. Watch the employees around this business after the interview. You might get a good idea about moral by taking a moment to observe.

Q2. After I start here, how soon will I be eligible to go to school for training and what expenses will you pay for.

A. This shows your eagerness to learn and get into the product that you are working on. If they tell you it might be a year or two before you get training or what training? You might have second thoughts about taking the job.

Q3. How many employees are here and who do I answer to directly?

A. Knowing who your going to answer to every time you have a question or problem can help you. Between service managers, shop foremen, dispatches, or lead technicians sometimes there can be too many hands in the cookie jar. If each type of problem requires a different person to answer to or your immediate supervisor hires you but never gets involved with the day to day operations, you might be along for a ride. Hopefully one or two people would be the most you would have to answer to.

Closing an Interview

Make sure to shake their hand and thank them for the opportunity to meet with you. Ask for a business card and try not to forget their name making sure to address them by Mr. or Mrs. Leave them a copy or two of your resume. This allow one copy to go on file and the other copy to stay with the manager that interviews you. Try to get an answer on when they plan to fill the position or possibly give a second interview. If at all possible see if they can show you around the shop and work areas. This will give you an opportunity to see how clean and organized the work place is. Look for any safety hazards and shop equipment that may be difficult to work with. Find out where your work area would be and assess if its what you expected and could be comfortable with every day.

Not sure you want to work for free? Well, read on to see how this strategy can put you a leg up on your competition.

Liability Note:

The first thing to think about is liability. All shops are liable in cases where someone slips, falls, of gets hurt under a car. Unless you are hired and in the system for insurance, you may not be able to volunteer or even step foot into a shop. Some shops (independent or family owned) may have their exceptions, so don’t rule out this scenario for trying to land a job. Corporate or franchised dealers and shops may be more difficult.

The auto shop has all the risk

When an automotive shop takes the initial to hire you for a career as an automotive technician right out of a vocational school, they are taking the risk that you might not work out. The costs for any firm to hire someone who doesn’t work out are high, maybe more so for an auto shop.

Estimates of lost capital to hire a new employee that doesn’t fit are 15-30% of their salary! That means if you quit in 3-6 months and your salary is $30,000 annually, the employer will have lost anywhere from $4,500 – $9,000 on you. Placing ads, interviewing, hiring, and training the right candidate are costly for an employer and some auto shops don’t have that kind of money to go through that process.

So, save that shop the headache, work for free!

Now, we’re not talking forever, we’re not even talking more than a week or two. But you’re not working already are you? And the only thing you risk is your time and a little bit of money in your gas. What you gain if you truly are a quality worker, an edge above everyone else.

The free automotive tech strategy

If you find a shop that just isn’t hiring but you really want to work for you need to make a gut evaluation. Does it seem like they may hire you in the near future, or may create a job for you? This will help you judge how much time you should dedicate to this one auto shop.

Our suggestion is, go to the employer and have a conversation that may go something like this;

Free work – Important things to remember

Here are a couple of things to remember if you use this strategy;

• Don’t work for free too long – You need to say that you are valuable and know your skills. People will lose respect for you and your decision if you give away the farm. 1-2 weeks max, half day max each day. This will give you another 4 hours to submit applications and visit other shops. Diversify in case this doesn’t work out.
• Be sure this shop might hire or can help you – This auto shop might not be hiring, but what if they have a number of sister shops around the city? If you get in, show what a great worker you are, you might be able to get in at another shop by referral.
• Show up early, stay late - Be prompt, wait outside if you have to in your car, and don’t leave early if you chose the latter half of the day. Stay as long as you can to make a point, and never stand around. Find things to do, whether it be sweeping, or ask other techs how you can help them in your down time.
• Follow up – If the auto shop doesn’t hire you right at the end of the week, follow up every two weeks to see if they have heard of anything and let them know you are still looking.

This is just one strategy

You may still not want to work for free at an auto shop, that is fine. But this is what you display to the employer that can save them their money. You should them your dependability, your motivation (you aren’t there for the money, right?), your work ethic, how fast you learn, and how you interact with the other auto techs.

Any students tried this strategy? We’d love to hear your own tips / additions to this post. What worked for you, what was a failure for you. Share and help your fellow auto technicians.

Here are a few helpful ways to prepare in advance for entering the automotive field after graduation.

• Prepare a resume
• Prepare a cover letter
• Research and inquire about ASE certification
• Understand networking skills and how to lay out a plan
• Which resources to use for locating some of the best possible jobs

One thing to always remember is when searching for a place to work, don’t use the same old traditional approach. Don’t let going from door to door be your only option. Although it is a good option, with today’s resources there are many ways to search. You always want to increase your chances in finding a job. Another thing to look at is most employers want to see potential employees use more than the ‘door to door’ approach. This shows you’re networking ability and communication skills to potential future employers, which is one of the top ways to sell yourself when applying for a job.

Sell yourself

You’ve written up the cover letters, you have devised your resume, only you know you and what you’re best at. There is a mis-conception among people who aren’t salesmen that people don’t want to be pushed around by a salesman, that they are being bothered.

That is not the case.

Think of it as telling a story, a story about you. The interviewer knows nothing about you, and you have to tell them. There is a line between being a braggart and a good representative of ‘you’, and everyone knows when you are bragging. Typically it’s how you say something, and sometimes it’s when you overuse the word ‘I’, so take note not to talk too much about ‘I did this…and I did that’.

You’ll want to think about tasks that you have performed in school, or at a previous employer that saved them money, increased efficiency, or increased business. If it is a school setting, apply those types of savings to a potential business setting such as – “I developed my own tool for X task that would save any employer $4,000 annually”.

Money talks. Businesses are always looking to save money or grow their business and if you can appeal to that sensibility then you are golden.

Show interest

Ever run a business? Maybe, but probably not. Remember, business owners are proud of what they have built and if you know more about their history you are showing interest in what they have accomplished. Do your research about the company online, or by asking others.

Then, write up a sheet of 10-15 questions that you want to know about the position, or about the company. Make them original, don’t ask things like “How many cars do you work on per day?” and don’t ask questions that could have been easily answered if you did your homework like “How long have you been in business?”

Usually the interviewer will ask you “Do you have any questions for me?” At that point you say “Yes, I do. If I might, I have a sheet of questions I wrote up before the interview. If I could just get those out and take a look at them I think I will have some questions for you.”

What have you shown? You’re prepared and you’re extremely interested in the business and the job. This also shows that you aren’t like every other job seeker and will go that extra mile in your every day tasks as well.

Know your lines

Or, know your answers that is. Research online for general interview questions as well as questions that may be asked specifically pertaining to the position of an automotive technician. This will allow you to be prepared for the spur of the moment interview without catching you by surprise or unprepared which can reflect poorly on you.

Go over possible questions that might be brought up during an interview (Items from your resume – experience, education, and strengths)

Dress Appropriately

Plan on what to wear to the interview (dress conservative but professional). Remember, you can’t change people’s stigmas. The accepted norm is that the color black in a suit is a power color, and should only be worn in the appropriate interview where you might wield a lot of power. Otherwise,
you can come across pushy and power hungry.

Each color of suit has a different feel and meaning, you will want to research the shop you are applying to and then choose a color suit that in your best estimate will best fit the type of person you will be interviewing with.

If you don’t have more than one suit, and only have a black, for this type of position a dress shirt and tie will work just as well so don’t despair.

Be Prepared for all circumstances

Always take a few extra resumes and cover letters for different departments (service department, human resources, etc.) it shows that you are prepared.

Itemize a list

Here are a few different ways to approach your job search for your networking plan.

Use the local classifieds or want ads
Example: Career Builders

Use the Chamber of commerce in the area where you are applying, if you need to find out about a city where potential jobs may be (out of state)
Example: Indiana Chamber of Commerce

Use a nationwide job search
Example: Monster

Don’t count out referrals. Use any resource that you might have (family, friends, or old co-workers) the word of mouth approach may be one of the best. You can get an extra boost with positive comments from referrals.

Mail resumes through the US postal service or e-mail resumes through career builders or monster.com

Go door to door with specific places in mind. Places of interest where you would like to work taking resumes and filling out applications.

Pre- interview preparation

Research the job you are interviewing for ahead of time, this will allow you to ask them questions and /or show them you know something about their place of business.

Interview awareness

• Show up 15 minutes early
• Always greet people with a smile and extreme kindness
• Try not to fidget or show annoying habits
• Always look the interviewer in the eye when talking to them
• Be as confident as possible when talking (don’t use um, like, or and uh)

Post interview follow up

Send a thank you card right after the interview. This will show them that you are seriously interested in the position and show your gratitude toward the person that interviewed you.

Follow up 5 days later to show your eagerness toward getting the job.
If you don’t get the job, send them a thank you note anyway. Some employers may be planning on hiring more than 1 technician and this may give you another chance at the job.

Breaking down your automotive resume

Here is a resume break down, so you to see how to structure a resume. Keep each section short and sweet. Try to limit your resume to 1 page, employers don’t want a book. You can elaborate more about the content of your resume when they meet you in person.

You can download the auto resume example at any time and start plugging in your own information. (Just right click and ‘save-as’ to save it to your computer as a Word .doc – 1997-2003) To follow through this post you will probably want to save the document first, open it up and go through each section as we explain it.

What does the resume look like

Here is a screenshot to give you a general idea of what your final automotive resume should look like highlighting your shop experience, education and skills. Click on the resume image for a larger view.

Your Name

Use your full name, address, phone number, and if possible an e-mail address. Not all employers use the same method of communication. If you give them as many possible ways to contact you then this may increase your chances for an interview.

Strengths

What is your strength? These are expectations that all employers want from their employees. Let them know up front that these are your strengths and that you are willing to work hard to show them. A willingness to learn new things, a positive attitude, the ability to work well with others, and the desire to do whatever it takes to diagnose and repair today’s vehicles.

Education

Tell them all of your education experience within this field. List your high school, vocational program, or technical school name and location with date attending, and a brief summary of where you stand. Employers like people who are punctual. If they see that you have good attendance in school then chances are this will carry over to your job after graduation. List your grade, it reflects your retention of knowledge and how hard you’ve worked to obtain it. This shows an employer that you might be a good investment for their company.

Automotive Technology Subjects

Even though most employers know the common automotive subjects, they may not know your vocational or technical program. Give them a list to show them what you’ve learned or are learning. Some repair shops hire people who specializes in one subject while others hire those who are knowledgeable in all areas. By listing these subjects, this could help generate discussion during an interview and show your knowledge of the subjects that you are studying. If at all possible, research the ASE testing and try to take at least 1 test before graduation. Employers love to hire ASE certified technicians.

Experience

List all jobs related and unrelated to your automotive experience and include your schooling. Even though you listed your school under education, list it in experience as well, this is just like a job when it comes to learning and working everyday. Include at least 2 jobs if possible with dates, locations, and job title. Give a brief explanation of job responsibilities, and daily tasks. If at all possible, include something that might help sell yourself. (special training or ideas that may have saved the company money or given the company a boost in some fashion). Employers like people who are responsible and who have had some experience in holding a job regardless of the job type.

Final Details

Now that you have your automotive technician resume, you should head over and view our post on how to build a cover letter to go with that resume. Visit the post entitled Create a automotive technician geared cover letter to download a blank template and learn more about what should be included in a cover letter to sell you and your skill sets.

Let’s start your cover letter

Either copy this text your computer or you can download the automotive cover letter as a Word file. You will need to fill in the blanks, highlight the areas to be updated, and type over to make the necessary changes to benefit you.

Unless you are applying for a job out of state or where travel may be involved, a cover letter is not always something that would be left with an application or resume. The idea behind a cover letter is to get someone’s attention with a professional image and this also shows your typing and communication skills.

(Date)
(Company)
(Address)
(City, State, Zip code)
Attention: (Name of Employer or contact person)

Dear (Contact person)
My name is____________and I am a student at _____________(school name)where I am finishing a 2 year Vocational Automotive shop program. I have worked very hard to maintain perfect attendance with a 4.0 GPA. In addition to my studies I have worked part time in the automotive field to gain as much hands on experience as possible, so the transition into a full time career will be a little bit easier.

I am very interested in a job position with your company and would like the opportunity to meet with you to show you my credentials. I believe with the skills that I have learned in my training program, I can be a great asset to you and your company.

Please contact me and let me know when we can meet. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
(Name)____________

Final Details

Now that you have your automotive technician cover letter, you should head over and view our post on how to build a resume to go with this cover letter. Visit the post entitled Building your automotive resume to download a blank template and learn more about what should be included in a resume to best sell you and your skill sets.