Guess I have to change my user name since I just got laid off...

Congrats, tech. Yay for employment!

 

He does work in mysterious ways, his wonders to behold (and I'm not even particularly religious, though I am spiritual)! This is the best news I've heard in quite some time, very uplifting, and I don't even know you. Yet I felt what you were going through having been there myself at one time, and could be there again any day.

The depression, feelings of worthlessness, and the ever present nausea and gnawing sick feeling in the pit of the stomach are truly debilitating. It's so great that all of that is now behind you.

Not only did a better opportunity come your way, but with it comes the new born energy and excitement of a new adventure! You're a blessed man. Congratulations!

 

Im glad to hear you had a good turn around. As a service writer I will give you a few things to do to make your life easier.

1. Be honest and sincere with your customers
2. Have fun and make it a point to have them laugh and smile, jokes and compliments go along way.
3. Dont ever take any bad attitudes personal
4. Treat them the same way you would want you or your family treated

I know these sound simple but after awhile the job can get to you or you can have it be rewarding if you let it. Learning the sales of selling service and taking care of peoples vehicles is a demanding and important job, just like being a tech. If you become a good service writer you can make over 6 figures in the larger cities at good dealers.

Im glad to see your feeling better and things always happen for a reason. best of Luck! Brian

 

Congrats on the new job! :thumbsup:

Life is funny how, when and where it takes you...enjoy the ride.

Almost forgot: don't worry about changing your user name, as long as you've got your vfr you will always be hondatech!! :biggrin:

 

I just can't believe things have worked out for me the way they did. I mean Tuesday I talked with a guy that runs a placement service specifically for techs and service advisors in the car business and he made calls to virtually every import dealer from Wilsonville to Corvallis (that's a 100 mile radius from where I live) and nobody is looking for a tech. That was discouraging big time. A lot of the jobs I was looking at on the employment dept. website- they would have paid less than I was gonna get on unemployment. I was basically starting to come to grips that I was pretty screwed and might be unemployed for awhile. I mean Oregon has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country right now (12%) behind Michigan, so when more than 1 in 10 people out there is out of work it's scary.

Then on Wed. I get a call from one of my good friends who I ride bicycles with 3 times a week, and he taught me how to ride a motorcycle- he's the fixed operations manager for Withnell Auto group which has Dodge, Hyundai, and Nissan. Anyway he says they have an entry level front-counter/service advisor position and though a lot of people have applied he thinks I may be a good fit- so I applied, had an interview that afternoon and got hired pending my background check (which will be clear, they never found that hooker's body...) So I'll likely start sometime next week. It really is funny how things work out. I mean this is exactly the kind of opportunity I have been interested in for the last 4 or 5 years, but when you're making $55k a year turning wrenches it's hard to leave that to start over at a $30k a year position- but it looks a whole lot different when you are sitting at home unemployed, there are no tech jobs to apply for, or really anything else to do.

I'm really excited- now i am going to be on a path that can lead me to better things, techs really have a difficult time moving from that position to anything else unless they open their own shop- it's a good living until you're body can't take it anymore, but service advisors can become service managers pretty easily and that's the direction I want to go. I'll always repair cars- I have too many tools and too much experience not to, but now i can do it when I'm not under the gun for absolute speed and I can pick and choose what I do. I will not miss having to repair squeaks/rattles/waterleaks one bit!

 

Glad to hear you found a job quickly. That is a blessing.
A friend of my wife's been looking for 3 months now and she's getting so depressed.

Best of luck in your new job.

 

I am glad things are working out for you, Best wish to you with your new position

 

Coming in late here. so.
wow.
bummer.
really?
woohoo!

now that i'm up to speed.....

My wife worked for a company that always fired / laid off the smart ones & kept the losers. she saw it coming & offered to be laid off & saved a couple peoples jobs for a while. you can imagine how things worked out for the company in the end. they're gooooonnne.

with the changing automobile economy, i think the repair / maintenance business is going to diversify into more independent shops.

you have the tech skills. if you can learn the people skills, the world will be your oyster, dude.

like oysters?

 

I feel for you HondaTech. I was in the car biz for about 12 years and I was similarly canned in 2000 after 6.5 years at a Volvo dealership. Why? Because I held onto the old axiom of the founder (Customers for Life) after the sons took over. I guess I didn't espouse the new axiom (Rape the Customer).
Quality guys always get jobs. You will too.

 

Now YOU are one of those guys that can tell the "things looked bad when I lost my job but it turned into an opportunity" story .

In a bad economy you found a new and probably better job.......I try to never listen to the naysayers of the world, I just dont have the time, and now neither do you brother.

Sweeeeeeet.

 

Wish you luck with a new job soon, having been retrenched 3 years ago with young children and stay at home mum to me it is the sudden feeling of emptiness that comes with being no longer required and seemingly no where to go that was my biggest enemy but overcome once will make you stronger forever.

 

what a change of fortune! i was about to start posting a consoling note for you then read a little farther down the thread to find that you landed on a job! even if you're not gonna make as much as before, at least you got a job right away and not much downtime. good luck and count your blessings my friend!

 

I am sorry to hear that managers are dickfaced, snake in the grass, backstabbin, liersno explaination thats just bullshit sorry to curse but thats total BS, hang in there and try other dealerships or maybe a repair center hopefully things will pick up in economy but hard to tell with obamas ideas......I would go collect unemployment and see if they have job placement programs good luck.........

 

Oops, should have read further before replying, congratulations on walking into a new job handling Mopars.

Maybe he found out the Boss owns a new Mitsubishi instead of a Honda ?

" MITSUBISHI Motors is offering a free goat with every Triton ute sold before August in a novel effort at correcting the economy.

Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand general sales and marketing manager Peter Wilkins said the economy's recovery was in the hands of the rural sector, and goats, like Tritons, were "hardy, versatile units which will integrate directly into existing farm operations''.

Mitsubishi offers free goat with ute | The Courier-Mail

 

Just from my own experience, things always work out, and you are a living example. Alot of it is YOUR OWN attitude. There are a lot peeps out there who would still be whining about having to take a 25K/yr pay cut, and bitching. You on the other hand are grateful and optimistic about this new opportunity. I believe you probably would have even made lemonade from your lemons even if you stayed unemployed for a while... keep the positive outlook, keep "doing the right thing" and life and the universe will always treat you well in return... or at least with your positive outlook you will see it that way. :smile:

 

one other thought.
you are leaving a company that is cutting back.

yet in the same economy, you are joining a company that is hiring.

this is good.

 

One of the other things I noticed the few times I have been at that particular Dodge store as well is the overall attitude everyone has- it has never felt like a pressure cooker of stress from a bunch of people trying to make their nut for the week, just a bunch of really quality people trying to do right by the customer, because if they do they'll make their nut for the week. I should fit right in! I have always put the customer first because I know there are too many dishonest shops and dealers out there and once you burn a customer you won't see them again and it is really difficult to find customers and harder to retain them and making a few bucks short term isn't worth sacrificing the trust I have built long term with customers.

I know a bunch of Honda customers that are gonna be pissed I'm no longer around- since they always requested me, and have been used to seeing me there for the last 10 years. The other odd thing is now that all my tools and equipment are at home I have 5-6 really good jobs lined up to do on the weekends that will save the customer a couple hundred bucks over going to a shop/dealer and supplement my income nicely. I can do timing belts in my garage all weekend long!

HondaTech lives!

 

All I can say is SRT8 Challenger......Life is better already!!

New Username......Got to be.........HEMITECH!!!

 

It's called Integrity. Don't ever give it up!

 

Well for anyone interested I finished my first week and it went really well. I have the ADP system (the DOS based program we use to write repair orders) about 90% figured out, and with repetition speed will come. I know how to do a lot of looking up warranty claims and VIN history with Chrysler and they started me in on helping code and close out warranty claims. It's busy and exciting, but the day flies by and I really enjoy it. Everyone I work with seems to be a pretty quality person, and all the customers have been really patient and understanding with me which has helped a lot. All in all things are feeling pretty good right now.