I went to school for automotive, worked in the industry for a little while and said that was enough. Flat rate sucks, you have to kiss ass of whoever assigns the jobs to get the ones that pay. If you are good at working out the tough problems you are screwed because you get a lousy half hour of pay for diagnosis no matter how long it takes you. Then you have to deal with the jackoffs in the office and the stupid customers, nothing worse then people and their cars. I went over to the construction/farming side and will never go back. The pay can be a little less than the top automotive guys are making but it is a much happier place to be. Dealers around denver are paying upward of thirty an hour and no flat rate or getting screwed on warranty work.

You can also go work for some of the smaller construction crew like I am now. You run your own show, your the only one there, nobody really bugs you, as long as you get stuff fixed. Make your own schedule. I dont know if I could go back to a dealer setting again, and I still get over 30 an hour.

The tooling for construction/farm is generally cheaper. Not as much specialty tools needed and things are much more standardized. You do need much bigger tools though. The customers are generally more understanding on the time involved in repairs. If you want you can even get into field work, which is nice for getting out of the shop and being your own man a little.