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Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

fortune.com

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Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#31

Post by AngryData »

signatoremo wrote: post #17
TimorousBestie wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Net worth: 30 million. He can easily finance a small trade school as a pilot project on his own, without shareholder approval. So does he think it has ROI or no?

Why should he do that? He isn’t the owner of Ford. What if he gets fired like his predecessor?

Well if what he said is true it wouldn't matter because he would have a school that profits off of training supposedly in-demand skill sets. Unless of course he is lieing and mechanics are paid like garbage but he needs someone to blame for the poor reliability of current Ford vehicles and is angry he can't get more people fixing them despite them often making below the median US wage.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#32

Post by Barrin92 »

tharne wrote: post #26

Anytime a company says it "can't" fill positions, it's because they're not paying enough, they're unwilling to train, or both. One those few things in life that really is that simple.

>life that really is that simple.

It definitely isn't. Here in Germany I could redirect you to a dozen small businesses in the trades I personally know that are starved for young people and that pay better than a decent chunk of degrees, but vocational and blue collar work even here, and this is in my experience even more common in the Anglosphere, is just deemed unattractive by a significant chunk of the workforce.

It's so bad that I know a handful of people who'd even pass the business on because their own kids didn't want to stay in the trades but go to uni.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#33

Post by itopaloglu83 »

canucker2016 wrote: post #5

related article - "...Then a Mechanic Responds" https://www.motor1.com/news/774805/ford-ceo-complains-shorta... HN discussion of related article - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45500699

In summary, roughly speaking, you’re expected to do the tasks within the time frame described by Ford or you’re only paid for that time.

But then everything takes longer, because nothing is realistic and people end up working overtime for free.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#34

Post by nhumrich »

tharne wrote: post #26

Anytime a company says it "can't" fill positions, it's because they're not paying enough, they're unwilling to train, or both. One those few things in life that really is that simple.

The salary they pay is double the median for car mechanics. You still think that's not paying enough?

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#35

Post by itopaloglu83 »

AngryData wrote: post #28

Dude is out of his gourd if he believes mechanics are making 6 figures without doing crazy overtime. Just because a job posting is advertised up to 6 figures doesn't mean they will actually offer you such a wage. I live in Michigan and am from a family of mechanics and 95% of mechanics never break $100K ever. He is also extremely ignorant if he thinks it takes 5 years to learn how to take an engine out of a vehicle,…

Designing a car that is easy to maintain and diagnose is a lot harder than it seems and manufacturers are incentivized to focus on new sales than maintenance.

Well, then we ended up weird designs that expects you take and engine out to change an alternator or estimates that are way off.

It’s quite dishonest that all the problems of the entire sector is being merged into “nobody wants to work anymore” style conversation with a lot of fine prints.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#36

Post by stonogo »

culopatin wrote: post #25

I tried looking for these on their careers page and I can’t find what he’s talking about. Regardless I don’t think I’d move to Detroit for this. Even if I enjoyed the trade.

He's talking about mechanics in the dealership network, so I looked in five or six major metro areas, and couldn't find a single example of a six-figure job at 40/hours per week. One promised "up to $12,000/month" at $40/hour -- which works out between 70 and 80 hours a week.

I don't think he's got a firm grip on this market.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#37

Post by m463 »

itopaloglu83 wrote: post #35
AngryData wrote: post #28

Dude is out of his gourd if he believes mechanics are making 6 figures without doing crazy overtime. Just because a job posting is advertised up to 6 figures doesn't mean they will actually offer you such a wage. I live in Michigan and am from a family of mechanics and 95% of mechanics never break $100K ever. He is also extremely ignorant if he thinks it takes 5 years to learn how to take an engine out of a vehicle,…

Designing a car that is easy to maintain and diagnose is a lot harder than it seems and manufacturers are incentivized to focus on new sales than maintenance. Well, then we ended up weird designs that expects you take and engine out to change an alternator or estimates that are way off. It’s quite dishonest that all the problems of the entire sector is being merged into “nobody wants to work anymore” style conversati…

I had a ford and when working on it I realized one thing:

This car was designed to assemble, not to disassemble.

Easiest example: the gray fabric-like panels in the trunk that cover everything? They are attached with small christmas-tree fasteners that mate with holes in the trunk walls. They take maybe 1/4 second to fasten. But to unfasten they take finesse to carefully remove without breaking the fastener.

Cars are like that all the way down. Also, a lot of these types of fasteners are designed to be replaced after you take them apart. But basically no mechanic does that. It's one reason why you have door and other interior panels making squeaking or other vibration noise after your car has been worked on.

Even decent reusable fasteners like screws frequently deserve a little locktite when replacing them and nobody does that.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#38

Post by stonogo »

nhumrich wrote: post #34
tharne wrote: post #26

Anytime a company says it "can't" fill positions, it's because they're not paying enough, they're unwilling to train, or both. One those few things in life that really is that simple.

The salary they pay is double the median for car mechanics. You still think that's not paying enough?

They don't pay a salary at all, so no. Mechanics are flat-rate, which means you get paid a fixed amount for a given task, standardized in terms of hours of labor by some agent like Mitchell 1, and the dealerships frequently cut the hour rating for warranty work, which means mechanics have to work faster on in-warranty cars to break even. This weird-ass billing practice is why I left the field; total comp is much better in IT.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#39

Post by rc5150 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #21
_9za9 wrote: post #4

Six figure hourly-wage "salaries", as long as you put in the 20 hours overtime every week. He also didn't mention the swing shift going from 2 weeks on 3rd, 2 weeks on 2nd, 2 weeks on 1st, and repeat. We can probably find a bunch of other anti-worker issues if we look into it. He also suggests it takes 5 years of education to learn to take out an engine. You're better off getting a college education in that time. Or…

> No future. No advancement, No life. Honestly starting to feel the same way about developing software.

Welcome to the club, it's like that in tech support, too.

Re: Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

#40

Post by gruez »

tharne wrote: post #26

Anytime a company says it "can't" fill positions, it's because they're not paying enough, they're unwilling to train, or both. One those few things in life that really is that simple.

>Anytime a couple says it "can't" find a house, it's because they're not paying enough, they're unwilling to build it themselves, or both. One those few things in life that really is that simple.
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