While I was working at North County Smog and Repair I had a moment of realization about what my life would be like if I went to a four-year college or I was to go to a two-year school and start working right out of the gate. My original plan was to look at Texas A&M University or ASU, I was looking at going into automotive engineering. Only the only reason I wanted to do that was for the simple fact of saying I attended a four-year college. This really wouldn't be bad other then it may just slow me down and put me in debt. The reason I was even thinking about doing this is that of two simple reasons there has been no one in my family to attend a four-year university and that people always look at you differently when you show that kind of level of dedication for something. One thing I really noticed though while I was working was how I could go to Palomar and start getting my certifications in mechanics and work for a small shop like Scottys then work several years, then look at making my own shop. Only this just has really made m,y view change because there are so many ways I can go about it and then the reality of do I really want to put myself into such a high amount of debt or do I want to work and make money and hopefully get my own business later on.
When I look at what my co-workers have been able to accomplish with only a certification it really sounds like you get really far with everything. It makes me wonder how their lives could have been if they went to college or what if they owned there own business how would they fair to everything that is going on in the shop. I have also noticed how well of my mentor has been since his father has been slowly working on obtaining the shop. I really think it is a career that can lead you down a successful path because it is one of those things that will always be needed. We look at careers like doctors, dentist and another important career that aren't like hobbies and never thought about your mechanic because they are always there waiting to fix some part on your car that is broken on your car. When I look back at the internship, it has been the most amazing time of my life. I have had a blast being able to learn so much about these cars and what parts are located in what areas. I definitely feel more prepared after working there on cars. I feel as if I could work on a car before but wouldn't know how to do as much or how to pull it apart. After internship, I feel so much more comfortable with cars and somewhat of what I think of what I could do to pull a vehicle apart. I really feel really prepared more for what you do when you have to diagnose cars and find out whatever the problem might be.
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While we were at our high school internship we were tasked with coming up with a project that can help benefit your mentor or the company they work for. When first coming up with ideas I wasn't really sure what I could do to help their shop but then Scotty my mentor told me about how they didn't know what they had in stock for oil, oil filters, air filters. these where just some of the items they didn't have logged in their computer. When looking through there computer at Inventory they had some oil filters that where negative 70 this just proves that knowing what they had would help them so they would use the product they have in there shops.
This project was very interesting for me to see because I have worked in smaller companies before. It was really cool being able to help out Scotty with knowing what they have in there shop inventory, especially since they moved shops only a year ago and they weren't really sure what was over in their second shop. During the time of the move, they were just trying to move supplies to there new shop down the way. This project was also able to help them keep up with there inventory for the future when they have time to just count out what they have gotten back in stock. When they use an oil filter they write it down on the sales list of whatever product they have used. When I went about taking inventory all I did was take a piece of printer paper and wrote down what the item was and its part number and counted the quantity on the shelf. Once I had taken the information the quantity of the items I took it and went straight to the computer and I corrected the amount that where already in the computer and made them to the correct amount on the computer so when they add it next to the order slip they can see how many they have left at the end of everything. While I was working on putting in the part number to update their amount of oil filters and air filters, you would find some that had not yet been put into there machines so we took note of that and highlighted them so we could deal with it later. Part #1
When I look at what I have done and I can see what I have visually done to the shop. When you look at the shop you will see several things going on with there inventory, they had never looked inside their second shop where they had oil filters and air filters in there that in the computer where they check people out said there were hundreds of some filters they where missing because they ended up ordering them from there distributors when they ended up having them right there. Other than that I was constantly trying to help them with, organization of there building because they recently moved into this building about a year ago because the business ramped up so much. They never had a chance to really see what was in their old shop so they ended up putting all of it in the their new shop not knowing what they had and really just trying to move shops as fast as possible so they could get back up and running. I found my self-being an intern was really beneficial for myself because I looked at knowing that I only have four weeks at my internship so if I want to learn anything I need to speak up for my self so I don't get stuck moping and sweeping the whole time. I have had the opportunity to use working in groups working with co-workers. I have also had the opportunity to use what we have done in school to work in groups being collaborative, see how other people think and how they come up with their own solution. These are some of the minor things that have really made me notice how my education at HTHNC has really impacted me as a student and as an Intern. Part #2 One thing I really saw from people around me that makes me want to make sure I do the same is that I do as good of a job as others so making sure I don't make mistake and do quality work vs being the stereotypical mechanics that just want to get money off them. I find these to be something I really want to do because I don't want to be like some other mechanic because I want to do my due diligence in life to help as many people as possible and make their stuff run. I also noticed how working for a store like North County Smog And Repair is a really credited place because they aren't just trying to nickel and dime you for a part in your car that would be pointless. I looked at the picture fully when I started to realize how fast one day would go by. Then I started looking at that week we are on and realized we had just finished our third week already and was so shocked about it. I then started to think about how this is only internship this isn't me even being older with a full-time job, a family or anything else that might distract me at times. I really noticed when I was talking to a coworker about what his day is really like he always get there early and then stays late and then ends up going home to have to help his wife put the son to bed eat dinner then talk to his wife and do their little stuff around the house to only realize that it is ten o'clock at night and he needs to go to be and get ready for tomorrow even though he never had a chance to stop and take a break. In these photos we are looking at the machines that do smog, the one on the left is a computer that gets used with cars newer than 1995. The way it doses smog on a vehicle, every car never then 1995 has an OBD2 port that you plug in the computer while it runs a diagnostic. The picture on the right has a car on a dyno it makes the car drive on it and you put a probe in the exhausts pipe to see how much pollution it is producing. This is a photo of a coworker and me bleeding a set of brakes on an older Cadillac. We started with gravity bleeding the brakes but it didn't work for all of them so we went to sucking the fluid to help bleed the brakes. This photo allows you to see the underside of a Ford Ranger where my coworker and I where replacing the clutch. Doing so we have to remove the transmission the fly wheel. In this photo I am standing up stairs looking down in the shop. This photo is the shop getting ready to open.
In my mentorship, I have been trying to produce working on cars. I started off my Internship with a lot of sweeping and moping around the shop making me question if this was going to be a good internship, it had me worried that I was going to have an issue with my internship if they weren't going to ever let me work on a car. As time has gone on I have been able to talk with my mentor after the first week and he told me that if I want to watch the guys in the shop work on cars that I can go ahead and do that and that if they need a hand with whatever they are working on go ahead and give them and there is no reason I cant especially since I am looking at this as a carrier in my future. I have also seen myself try to ask as many questions as possible since I know we only get to be here for four weeks so asking as many questions as possible gives you the chance to learn and take in as much information in the work environment as possible. I also found myself to look at only four weeks being like I am going to ask any questions I have because I really don't have that long, to begin with anyway so why not make these four weeks count for something. I find that really doing the work that you have been told by your mentor by doing it as soon as possible really makes you valued and makes you stick out. Any time I have been given a task I try to finish it the right way and as soon as I can to show that I am not just trying to slack off and never get anything he is looking for done. I am very always ready to work I constantly getting there before time to start I also stay late every night by a couple of hrs because I really want to be remembered and want them to see that I am really taking this time seriously and trying to get as much about everything they do form either diagnosing a car or fixing the cars issue. I have really noticed myself finding this to be somewhat of a passion that I constantly want to keep doing because just being able to watch what they are doing and hope one day that will be soon.
During our high school internship, we are staked of creating a project. This project in some way should be able to benefit your mentor or their business. My project for the internship is going through there stock of oil filters, oil, and fluids. I have already gone through and collected the amount of product they have in there shelf. I am going to input all this information into the computer so they can keep track of the amount of inventory they have. They recently moved to a new shop and they have never actually looked at what they keep in stock so doing this really helps them know how much product they have and need plus it allows them to know how much they use. I really think I am going to work on being really organized with my work because there is a lot of product I have to sort through plus I think I need to go back through the work and also add new information and I also need to go back and recount the stock because the workers have already used up oils for instance so I need to go back and recount stock right now. I really think this is something I can do on my own it will just be very tedious doing it on my own I feel confident that I will be able to input information on my own no worrying about others.
One really impressive thing with my mentor is he has been working at north county smog since 1998 he has been there for 20 years, working with his father. My mentor Scotty got his smog licenses at the age of 16. Scotty has now become the manager and working on becoming the owner of the business. Scotty is responsible for answering the phones writing up orders dealing with customers and when needed working in the back with his employees Ordering parts and pay bills for the shop. Wheather or not he was choosing to work here it was pretty much being born into the business making him continue his career, Scotty started working here as a summer job to help his dad but then is turned into something more making this be the career he has produced in life. For this career you need to have certain certifications to be able to go far enough with it, for instance, you have to have a certification for smog a car there are certifications for everything in this field and that is very important because other while owing a shop and not having these certifications won't allow you to have a wide range of customers in your shop. Leaning most of what you do come from school due to there being so many certifications that you can get but you also learn in the field with the hands-on learning with the cars. Working in this industry it is hard manual labor and your body does hurt after work causes your put into acquired positions making it hard on the body. When you work the front end part of the store everyone wants there stuff now and done as cheap as possible making a battle of its own being the first line when people are upset with things going wrong with there car or when their car doesn't get finished on time. The shop is like a Christian family with how close all the workers are to each other. Work days are really crazy in the morning and in the afternoon everything starts to mellow out and make everything not so stressful. To be successful in this career it comes down to doing the work correctly because mechanics do get a bad rap about just trying to get their money from you and that you need to double check your work because if a customer has to return, if they are not going to be happy especially if it was caused by the mechanic and it wastes time and money at the shop.
Internship Reflection: After one full week at this internship I thought it was going to be ruff with always asking my mentor for what ever my next project was going to be and trying to avoid the other workers in the shop so they can still finisher there own work. As time when on thought the week I started talking to the guys more and really started to connect with them and going in the hummer and joke around the shop making me feel a lot more conferrable with everyone there. Really so far there has not been a hole lot regular high school has done to help me at my internship because it not like we go into math class learning about what socket we need to use on bolts. I definitely find my self learning lot from the other shop guys there is so much going on the inside of a engine bay but there can be even more going on that I havent learn before . The job I chose is really interesting because how the environment is so relaxed but high stressed at sometimes. I noticed that my Internship gets really busy so being able to distract myself with doing work in the shop it really makes it easier on my mentor and I am able to help in other areas until he is done working with customers. One thing that has caught me off guard at my internship is how fast the days goes. I started off by working with my mentor taking cars in by getting there licence plate number and getting the number of miles the car has. Then we would take this information and enter it into the computer and it allowed me to see what has to be done in order to take in a customers vehicle. I am really excited to see what I am going to be able to do with my mentor and colleagues because they have so much valuable information they can tech me behind cars. I am somewhat worried about trying not to annoy my mentor with asking him what he wants me to do after each task. I am hoping I will get taught something soon that I can constantly work on so I wont bother my mentor, because he is very busy on his own he is the only person that runs the front end of the shop and customers can walk in at any time or the phone can ring at anytime making him always carry a phone.
May 1, 2018 Was carried day while at our carrier day we were tasked with finding out our schedule and seeing what a day at this carrier is going to be. When we look at what a typical day looks like it seems like it can be stressful at times but enjoyable at others cause customers and shop atmosphere. While visiting and watching the business I got to that the general rules of this company being based on safety and friendly ness to one another. Dress code is really all about wearing clothes that you aren't worried about destroying from either engine grease or getting it caught in somewhere in the engine bay. This really does not changing anything for me because it allows me to just pick up some close and wear whatever I want. When I look at this whole profession it was really amazing, I got to see what it's really like to work on some cars and I got to also see how much stress can be put on everyone one when there running a little behind.
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