Future career considerations for future car trends

[Brad]

So last week I posted about being interested in becoming an auto mechanic, and I appreciated some well written responses, that have helped me rethink my decision. I have decided for now that, my dreams and goals are bigger than a salary average of $30k. This is mainly due to the fact that I wouldn’t have a problem living on that income but it’s not suitable for a family one day if you want to provide on $30k. I’d imagine i’ll have at least one or 2 children in the future (I’m 22 now). I don’t have specific salary in mind, but I want to be confident that I’ll be making 50-60k annually, and I don’t want to wait 25 years to gradually make my way up there. It’s not that I’m not willing to put in the time, but again I want to have a family, and the long road from becoming a basic mechanic and owning my own shop from the research I’ve done takes years.

With this being said, I started to explore other career opportunities in the ‘automotive industry’. I still like the idea of being a mechanic for the hands on, but after a while I’m sure the work would become more routine and eventually mindless. I could be wrong but, making a long story short, I got looking into designing cars. For one I’ve always been good at art, however I know making a good living really means something like becoming an engineer of some sort. This post mainly is comprised of two questions:

1. What are some other careers within the automotive industry that pay better than the typical mechanic? I know the obvious ones like mechanical engineer, but I’m not solid in math. I love knowing how and why things work don’t get me wrong. But I just wasn’t gifted with mathematic/ scientific application in school. I much more thrived in history and English, but now that I am getting older, I’m becoming much more curious in why and how things work. After all we live in a world where products rule us. I might as well apply myself and use that as a career. So aside from mechanical engineering, what are some other areas of work where I’d still be considered involved in the automotive industry?

2. Piggy-backing off question 1, what does the future of mechanical engineers look like for the automotive industry? Let’s say I do it anyways, I don’t want to find out that after years of schooling I can only design machines in a manufacturing facility. According to my research, electric cars only comprise 1% of the car market, but looking at future trends, I know cars will always be evolving, especially with the self autonomous movement that we will see by 2025. Would it make more sense to get into electrical engineering since that’s what autonomous vehicles would be? I’m even thinking computer engineering. My point is I want to get an education that will still be relevant to cars by the time I get out. Naturally cars will evolve, its inevitable. Clearly, I’m having a hard time making sense of what direction I should go in.

Please give me any advice or articles, personal experience, or facts you know that will help me continue in my search of pursing a career involving cars. Again, I want to stress, my goals and dreams are bigger than 30k a year (yes I know money doesn’t = happiness).

The more info the better, I’m glad I have finally taken advantage of this forum, and I hope to become a part of this close knit community of car lovers!

Thank you

Topic

[Jason White]

Since you said you are good in English and history maybe get a degree in business and work your way up to being a service manager, and it only goes up from there.

I was recently in Nashville (Smyrna) TN at Nissan Corporate and I’ll tell you, there are so many careers in automotive not involving turning a wrench or selling them.

[Author]

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