If you’re one of those people that likes cars, that likes working with them or any other vehicle for that matter, you might be interested in becoming an automotive electrician. If you’re already familiar with the electrical systems inside cars or you’re generally fond of fixing stuff or understanding how they work – you might be interested in becoming an automotive electrician.
There’s more than it meets the eye when it comes to this profession. With the improvements in the automobile industry, the demand for specialized electricians is rising. This profession is one of the fastest-growing and on top of all that – it can be more than handsomely paid. Some professionals in the trade can make more than $50,000 annually.
If all of those things sound appealing to you, you may start wondering how to get involved in this whole thing and more importantly you may start wondering how long it will take you to become a professional at this. Well, we’ve decided to find out that and more and bring it to you. In this article, we’ll try and cover most the essential things regarding automotive electricians – from how to become one, what job entails, how long it takes to become one, where to find work and more. If that sounds interesting, stick with us for a few more moments and find out.
What Is An Auto Electrician?
Most modern vehicles come equipped with electric parts and systems which can be accessed through diagnostic tools and equipment by auto electricians. Basically what this means is, if anything breaks down, needs repairing or replacing, an electrician will diagnose the problem and deal with it accordingly.
How Do You Become An Auto Electrician?
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As you might already know, all electrical systems in any kind of vehicle can be diagnosed, installed, repaired or replaced by an auto electrician. Considering how complex these systems are, you can’t just decide one day you’re going to become a pro at this. You’ll need to go through school or any other form of training or education to become one.
According to one of the recent studies, almost 20% of the professionals in the field have a bachelor’s degree and almost none have a higher education level than that. With that in mind, you could argue that a high school education or GED should be more than enough. However, as we’ve previously mentioned, the automotive industry is rapidly evolving, we’re closer than ever to an era of completely carbon-free, electrical cars – so a higher level of education might become a requirement for this kind of job in the future.
We’re not the only ones who feel this way. In recent years, many colleges and faculties around the world, like mmc.edu.au for instance, have created opportunities for young people to elevate their education on this subject by attending college-level courses on automotive technology and diagnostics.
If you take that into an account, you can get a pretty decent estimate on how long does it take to become an expert at this field. But, we wouldn’t want to have you guessing, so we’ll expand on that in just a second.
How Long Does It Take To Become An Auto Electrician?
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Depending on which route you decide to take, the length of this journey can vary. If you stick with high school diploma, it will take as much as it takes you to finish high school and that can be either 3 or 4 years, depending on which country you live in. that is, if there’s a high school that provides an education towards this subject.
On the other hand, if you’ve graduated high school that had nothing to do with the job, you may want to take a specialized course. That can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, depending on the course. Some basic, introductory courses will last around six months and you’ll be able to this job to some extent after you finish. If you’d like to take a step further and pursue a more valuable certificate or a degree – it can take up to two years.
Basically, how long it will take is entirely up to you and which route you decide to take. You’ll learn on the job, so, in a sense, you’ll learn your whole life. As long as you live and do this, there will be something else to learn, but that’s pretty much true for every profession and calling out there. But, to sum it all up – it’ll take you anywhere from 6 months up to 2 years to become good at this job.
What Do You Do As An Automotive Electrician And Where You Can Find Work?
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The question many of us face when we’re done with the education is where we’re going to work. It’s not like the jobs grow on trees (unless you’re picking apples for a living). For an automotive electrician, a job hunt is pretty straightforward. You can go and work for a dealership, you can seek work in a mechanic shop or you set up your own shop and work for yourself. Whichever one you choose is up to you. In most cases, you’d start out in shops or dealerships and in time you’d set up your own shop and create a place for another aspiring auto electrician to come and work at.
As far as your day-to-day job goes, you’ll deal with anything inside a vehicle that has a wire attached to it. Of course, you’ll do testing and diagnostics, that’s a given, but on top of all that, you’ll have to get your hands dirty and repair or replace those faulty parts, including the:
- Ignition
- Cruise Control
- Fuel Injection
- Airbags
- Transmission
- Air Conditioning
- Alternators
- Heaters
- Navigation Systems
- And so much more…
Final Thoughts
As you can see, being an expert in this field requires you to cover a lot of ground. You have to be familiar with various parts of vehicles, various models and brands of vehicles, you have to be willing to learn constantly, get your hands dirty and put in work every single day – sometimes even for more than 40 hours a week. If you’re cool with all that and you welcome it with the open arms then you might just be the right person for the job.
