I’ve worked with a number of apprentice mechanics over the years. Some are a good fit to work in the field out of a service truck. Some aren’t.
One young mechanic I worked with desperately wanted to be in a service truck. He thought it would be cool to drive around the countryside and meet people. He loved to lean on a workbench and talk about what he had fixed and what he was going to fix. He was the first one on the Snap-on truck every week and the last one off but always seemed to need to borrow tools. He had a lot of cool Snappy coffee mugs, beer koozies, and sweatshirts, however.
At about the same time, I worked around another young mechanic. He was personable, but not one to hang around the parts counter or coffee pot. He took extreme pride in figuring out things by himself and got annoyed when he had to ask for advice. He made the Snap-on guy come to him in the shop because he hated to waste time. And the Snap-on guy did because the young guy bought a lot of tools. He didn’t brag about them; he simply enjoyed owning and using them.
After a year or so, there was an opening for a field mechanic to run one of our service trucks. Both kids applied for the position. The boss surveyed some of us old guys to see which of the shop techs he should consider for the position.
Gee, which of the two young candidates do you think got the job?
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2023 issue of Service Truck Magazine.
