4 Side Hustles To Explore After Auto Mechanic School
Auto mechanic schools equip people with the skills and knowledge needed to offer a diverse range of services in the automobile industry. The learning experience you gather there will prove useful across various roles in auto shops, assembly lines, dealerships, and other related industry lines. And if you are skilled and versatile enough, you can work in more than one role and earn some extra money on the sidelines.
In this blog, we discuss four side hustles that you can explore after having completed your training at a good auto mechanic school. These options provide a route to gaining more industry experience, shaping up your work portfolio, and earning more money.
1. Mobile Mechanic
Mobile mechanics carry out routine maintenance, large repairs, parts replacement, refurbishing, and general servicing of cars of all types at the request of their customers. For such roles, you’d be efficient at offering such services as tune-ups, wheel alignment, tire/brake/jobs, and other tasks that may involve the engines and other critical vehicle parts.
You’ll need good diagnostic knowledge, technical abilities, and advanced automotive knowledge to be a good fit for this role. And if you’re pretty good at it, you could command more than decent wages, commissions, and earnings from car owners, dealerships, body shops, etc. The right automotive training school can equip you with these skills and give you work options to explore on completing your program.
2. Auto Parts Seller/reseller
As an auto parts reseller or vendor, you’ll be responsible for the purchase, inventory, distribution, and sale of used, refurbished, or even new auto parts. You can find these parts for decent prices at repair centers, car dealerships, auctions, and specialty parts shops. And if they require any touches to make them more marketable, you could have them worked on at an auto shop.
You can now look for places to sell them for good prices. Online sales platforms like eBay or Craigslist provide a good place to sell these parts while you can also sell to auto body shops, aftermarket stores, and directly to customers/car owners. You can develop the right mix of business and technical skills for such roles at CATI School.
3. Auto Detailing
The job of Auto detailing professionals requires them to improve the appearance and resale value of a car. As an auto retailer, you’ll be charged with the cleaning, painting, polishing, and maintaining/enhancing the overall quality of cars. You should be able to apply the right touches to a car, even to the smallest detail.
Whether you’re decking out the interiors/exteriors, applying gloss or paint, or trim to faded portions, or working on the tires, and wheels, your work demands increased attention to detail. And if you’re able to carry out your work properly, you can rework cars to look much better and command higher resell prices. Your skills would be much appreciated at body shops, car retailers/dealerships, and by satisfied patrons or clients.
4. Auto Parts Specialist
Auto Parts Specialists work at auto parts stores, warehouses, and other outlets where they can put their vast knowledge about auto parts to good use. If you’re interested in this option as a side hustle, you’d be essentially charged with ensuring that mechanics get the supplies they need to carry out repair work.
Auto Parts Specialists know how best to stock and order parts from various makers and models to be used in replacements for vehicles that need them. They work closely with mechanics/technicians and can help establish connections with large parts manufacturers, assemblies, garages, and workshops. If you have gone through auto mechanic school, you’ll have known all about the relevant inventory software, technical skills, and other hard/soft skills that are vital in this role.
Are you considering enrolling in an auto mechanic school?
Explore the training programs at Careers for the Automotive and Transportation Industries (CATI).
