Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "Rainman Ray Got Fired Today!" video.

First of all, a man with up-to-date mechanic skills can just about write his own ticket, or hang his own shingle, and do very well on his own. Second of all, sometimes you don't even realize what the opportunities around you are, unless there's a shakeup or you get 'fired' or informed that next year's contract won't be yours. I took a full-time temp job for $30,000/yr back in 2000, up in Gunnison, CO. It was chicken-feed for the amount of training I had, not that I was the most perfect man in my field, to begin with. But it's a resort area, so there was a LOT of cheap, 2nd-hand outdoor gear and outdoor clothing. There was fishing, hunting, skiing and water sports. A real outdoor Mecca. And to enjoy that country, it would've cost thousands of dollars to travel there on vacations. Plus I was coming off years as a 'professional student,' rarely making over $20,000/yr, but I learned how to live pretty good on next to nothing. So $30,000 was like being rich, except for the fact that $500/month to wipe out my student loans ASAP meant I was no closer to saving up for my own place, unless you count debt amortization as progress. I worked that gig for 6 years, and early in my 7th, found out my contract wasn't going to be renewed. I think I was only making about $33,000/yr by that last year. So I had to get out of my comfort zone and cast a net for a new gig. If I hadn't been "discontinued," I'd've stayed in that dead-end job, with just enough money to continue my budget outdoor experience. Long story short, I landed a permanent position, with an actual path to promotion. Instant pay raise to $40,000, with nice raises every year, to now more than double that amount. It was in a less outdoorsy place on the Front Range (Just East of the Rockies) in Greeley, which is not exactly a destination village, like Gunnison was, but I liked the people, the new place really valued me, and within 5 years, I had enough scraped together to buy that house I always dreamed about, and I've been doing quite well for myself, ever since (by my standards, at least). Anyway, I wouldn't've changed gigs without being forced to it. It's a pain in the neck looking for work, and it's so EASY to just get in a rut. I didn't have time or energy to even LOOK at the opportunities available. But you MAKE time and you FIND the energy, when you HAVE to. Usually, these "forced break-ups" lead to something better, especially nowadays, where there's a real shortage of men in the trades, including mechanics. I think outfits such as the one you left are getting more and more desperate to make ends meet, in particular car dealerships. Heck, I'm hearing rumblings that Ford is thinking about discontinuing their dealership business model, entirely. That's too bad. I used to work at a Ford dealership in the shop as janitor/grease monkey to pay for school. It was a filthy job, but it paid the bills, and I really liked the guys working in the shop. It wasn't a mechanic's job, but I LOVED having shop privileges, and a couple mechanics showed me where they kept the keys for their tool chests, after my cleaning job turned up MANY a lost tool, because I set a new standard of "clean," including the filthy, greasy spaces under the work benches. That hard work gained the mechanics' trust and respect. Coming to work to a spotless stall was something they really appreciated, and they hadn't gotten that from anybody before me. I learned enough about the business to realize that out of the $30-$50/hr (1980s. Memory fails.) flat-rate hour they charged, the mechanics were getting about $17/(flat-rate)hour in some cases. That was plenty to live on and buy a house, in the 1980s, when you could still buy a fixer-upper for $20,000-$30,000 and have your own place. But the dealership kept more than half of what they charged customers for labor. Good mechanics could beat the projected labor times for repairs, and make much more than $17/hr under that flat-rate setup. Of course if they weren't very good, they made less. But good mechanics could come in under the projected times, like clockwork. Here's to your landing on your feet!
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