Teaching Automotive Is My Passion

This story begins about 17 years ago, in 2005. I had just received my driver’s license and was having the feeling of freedom that most kids do when they get their drivers license and are allowed to go out on their own for the first time. I had been into cars for a few years prior, but it was mostly just interest in something I wasn’t able to do. The same year I got my driver’s license I started a program called Automotive Service Technology offered at a vocational training center that had partnered with my high school at the time. I attended that program for my junior and senior year of high school, and my love for automotive grew exponentially during this time. Towards graduation time I started looking into places to further my automotive training. I found a school local to me called Ohio Technical College, located in Cleveland Ohio, and applied there. I was accepted and started attending in August of 2007. The program I was enrolled in there would be a two year program that would further my knowledge previously gained at the vocational school. I quickly rose to the top of my class there, and started looking for my next challenge in this field. That challenge presented itself in a program BMW was offering at the time called BMW STEP. This program was an extension of automotive training that specialized in BMW’s product line at the time. This would be no easy task however, as they only allowed 8 students into the program every 6 months, but normally had 30 plus applicants at any given time. The application for entrance to this program was much like a job interview, where you had to present a resume with your prior accomplishments, and then had to sit down in a job interview with the director and instructors of the program. They then determined from this if you were a good fit for the program. Well after completing this whole process, I waited patiently for a response of whether or not I was accepted, like a college applicant waiting for their acceptance letter. Well the time came and I found out I was accepted into that program. The next 6 months after entering the program were grueling, where they cram as much information about the brand as they possibly can into you. At times it was hard to absorb all of it, but I made it through. Upon graduation I began looking for a job, and found a dealership in Raleigh, NC that seemed like a good fit for me. I packed up my entire life and moved to the great state of North Carolina. I proceeded to work for that dealership for 2 years, cutting my teeth in the automotive field as a full fledged technician. Once I got some experience under my belt, I decided I wanted to move onto learning about other brands. I then moved onto working at an independent service facility, where I would be servicing all makes and models, but mostly specializing in German vehicles. This experience taught me a lot of things about how all the other brands operate. After 5 years working there, I felt the need to return to the brand I loved so much. I then returned to working on BMW’s, where I remained for another 3 years. After 3 years back in dealership life, I had this urge to venture out on my own and do my own thing. I left the safety net of working for someone else, and started my own automotive repair business. It was difficult at first, as I was doing a lot of contract work for friends and previous employers trying to keep the money rolling in. Eventually I got my footing and was doing okay for myself. While going through all this, I decided to start a YouTube channel showing people how to complete automotive repairs on their own vehicles. So I started making videos of vehicles I was working on at the time. I found out that I really enjoyed this, and I enjoyed helping the people that would ask me questions about the videos I had made. Then one day, a friend of mine had let me know that the community college local to me was hiring automotive instructors. I remembered back to my days in school, and how much I enjoyed my teachers and the things I had learned from them, and thought to myself that I might enjoy being that person for the next generation. So on to the next stage of my career, I applied for the position and after an interview process was offered the job. I accepted the position and have been working as an automotive instructor at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, NC since May of 2021. I have found that I greatly enjoy teaching others about automotive, and want to continue to broaden my reach by using the internet, social media, and YouTube to continue teaching others about automotive.