Motorcycle Mechanics Institute
#11
08-31-2014, 02:44 AM
My two cents...I went to MMI and took the Harley-Davidson Program, I had job offers before I even graduated. 1 month later I'm working for the "Stealership". Now I HATED Phoenix, the cost of living is stupid and you can easily find a job for 6 bucks an hour, part time, and the only way to make it out there is to get student housing were you get crammed in a small apartment with 3 or 4 other guys OR you work your *** off to get a decent place to live on your own. Now as for the school, you get what you put into it. Day 1 I saw a bunch of guys that knew all about Harleys cause they worked out of their garage or wrenched on their own stuff or whatever, and guess what, they didn't make it through. I saw a bunch of young kids, right out of high school treat it like its some kind of party and put forth little to no effort into school and guess what, they didn't make it either.
The school isn't JUST about the hands on instruction, there's a lot of bookwork to it too, you WILL learn how to read a service manual! There were too many guys with bad attitudes, little to no work ethic, DUIs on their records, no motorcycle endorsement, and couldn't figure out how to keep their damn shirts tucked in and these guys expected to have jobs when they got out and they were unpleasantly surprised when they weren't getting offers before graduation.
Dealerships scan through your transcripts and one of the most important issues to them is attendance. They wont hire someone who has a record of not showing up. Yet guys were still surprised come graduation.
Yes the school is expensive but its A LOT cheaper than a college or university. Yes SNAP ON absolutely loves to sweet talk the students, but its your own damn fault if you fall for it. (FYI, the local SEARS gives AMAZING student discounts on Craftsman).
Yeah there is a lot of nonsense that comes with it, but like I said, you get out of it what you put into it. If you have a good attitude, good work ethic, decent grades, and a good attendance, you will already stand out from the pack.
People that talk crap about MMI either have never gone there or were one of those students that expected everything to be handed to them and put no effort into achieving anything. Yes on rare occasions even the GOLD STAR Student may be passed up for a job, but the opportunities are everywhere, you just have to take advantage of them..Oh and just to finish this off, at my shop, 2 of 4 techs, the shop foreman, 1 of 2 service writers, and the shop manager are ALL MMI grads.
The school isn't JUST about the hands on instruction, there's a lot of bookwork to it too, you WILL learn how to read a service manual! There were too many guys with bad attitudes, little to no work ethic, DUIs on their records, no motorcycle endorsement, and couldn't figure out how to keep their damn shirts tucked in and these guys expected to have jobs when they got out and they were unpleasantly surprised when they weren't getting offers before graduation.
Dealerships scan through your transcripts and one of the most important issues to them is attendance. They wont hire someone who has a record of not showing up. Yet guys were still surprised come graduation.
Yes the school is expensive but its A LOT cheaper than a college or university. Yes SNAP ON absolutely loves to sweet talk the students, but its your own damn fault if you fall for it. (FYI, the local SEARS gives AMAZING student discounts on Craftsman).
Yeah there is a lot of nonsense that comes with it, but like I said, you get out of it what you put into it. If you have a good attitude, good work ethic, decent grades, and a good attendance, you will already stand out from the pack.
People that talk crap about MMI either have never gone there or were one of those students that expected everything to be handed to them and put no effort into achieving anything. Yes on rare occasions even the GOLD STAR Student may be passed up for a job, but the opportunities are everywhere, you just have to take advantage of them..Oh and just to finish this off, at my shop, 2 of 4 techs, the shop foreman, 1 of 2 service writers, and the shop manager are ALL MMI grads.
#12
08-31-2014, 06:41 AM
Road Captain
Like with any tech school grad, they fall victim to student loans and stealership flat rape. They have a 6 month life span before they quit and go back to school for something else, or get another job making pizzas for 2x the money...
The industry is rapidly changing, but the pay and bennies get worse. Stealerships pay their techs (of 30+ years experience) no more than $25/Flat rate hour (techs were making that in the mid 1990's. 20 years later and the pay has stagnated and is rapidly declining).. And you will only average 5 hours a day.
The trend is, even with motorcycles; they are increasing maintenance intervals or eliminating maintenance requirements on certain things all together.. This is so the "cost of ownership" is down for the owner of the vehicle. This translates into less money for the mechanic.
Building engines, transmissions and all the other "enjoyable" work, pays the worst especially under warranty. To make a living you'll need to sell accessories, tires, brakes etc. To make the money. But, hopefully you don't deal with stealership politics, because if you do, then your pay will really suffer. I can write a whole book on this problem..
To aspiring youth with mechanical aptitude: DO NOT go to chain Tech Schools and DO NOT become a flat rate mechanic. You'll be sorry.
There is good money working with your hands. And it's for government fleet garages. It won't be on bikes, cars or trucks in stealerships and independent shops. Save your passion for bikes as that. A passion. Make it a career, and you'll hate it.
All the MMI, UTI, Lincoln tech, Wyotech schools are, are Puppy Mills that supply victims to stealerships. Stealer principals sit on the boards of these schools and "sponsor" them to have first crack at cheap grads. This pimping happens at all these schools. I've lost count on how many kids I've seen graduate, show up at the stealership, starve out and quit. Explains all the nice shiny Snapon tool boxes on Craiglist.
The industry is rapidly changing, but the pay and bennies get worse. Stealerships pay their techs (of 30+ years experience) no more than $25/Flat rate hour (techs were making that in the mid 1990's. 20 years later and the pay has stagnated and is rapidly declining).. And you will only average 5 hours a day.
The trend is, even with motorcycles; they are increasing maintenance intervals or eliminating maintenance requirements on certain things all together.. This is so the "cost of ownership" is down for the owner of the vehicle. This translates into less money for the mechanic.
Building engines, transmissions and all the other "enjoyable" work, pays the worst especially under warranty. To make a living you'll need to sell accessories, tires, brakes etc. To make the money. But, hopefully you don't deal with stealership politics, because if you do, then your pay will really suffer. I can write a whole book on this problem..
To aspiring youth with mechanical aptitude: DO NOT go to chain Tech Schools and DO NOT become a flat rate mechanic. You'll be sorry.
There is good money working with your hands. And it's for government fleet garages. It won't be on bikes, cars or trucks in stealerships and independent shops. Save your passion for bikes as that. A passion. Make it a career, and you'll hate it.
All the MMI, UTI, Lincoln tech, Wyotech schools are, are Puppy Mills that supply victims to stealerships. Stealer principals sit on the boards of these schools and "sponsor" them to have first crack at cheap grads. This pimping happens at all these schools. I've lost count on how many kids I've seen graduate, show up at the stealership, starve out and quit. Explains all the nice shiny Snapon tool boxes on Craiglist.
And once again the expert comes in bringing up the stealerships and how it's all their fault. You have absolutely no clue what you are even talking about once again. Just STFU already. Do you even ride bro? Or better yet do you even own a bike? You must have nightmares about the time when you went up MMI and got a job at a stealer back in the day. You thought it was gonna be so fun to work on bikes but then you crashed on a test ride and got fired. You have never been able to get over it and hate stealerships to this day.
Get over yourself dude. You are an ******* with no friends.
Last edited by Scrambler900; 08-31-2014 at 06:46 AM.
#13
08-31-2014, 07:51 PM
My two cents...I went to MMI and took the Harley-Davidson Program, I had job offers before I even graduated. 1 month later I'm working for the "Stealership". Now I HATED Phoenix, the cost of living is stupid and you can easily find a job for 6 bucks an hour, part time, and the only way to make it out there is to get student housing were you get crammed in a small apartment with 3 or 4 other guys OR you work your *** off to get a decent place to live on your own. Now as for the school, you get what you put into it. Day 1 I saw a bunch of guys that knew all about Harleys cause they worked out of their garage or wrenched on their own stuff or whatever, and guess what, they didn't make it through. I saw a bunch of young kids, right out of high school treat it like its some kind of party and put forth little to no effort into school and guess what, they didn't make it either.
The school isn't JUST about the hands on instruction, there's a lot of bookwork to it too, you WILL learn how to read a service manual! There were too many guys with bad attitudes, little to no work ethic, DUIs on their records, no motorcycle endorsement, and couldn't figure out how to keep their damn shirts tucked in and these guys expected to have jobs when they got out and they were unpleasantly surprised when they weren't getting offers before graduation.
Dealerships scan through your transcripts and one of the most important issues to them is attendance. They wont hire someone who has a record of not showing up. Yet guys were still surprised come graduation.
Yes the school is expensive but its A LOT cheaper than a college or university. Yes SNAP ON absolutely loves to sweet talk the students, but its your own damn fault if you fall for it. (FYI, the local SEARS gives AMAZING student discounts on Craftsman).
Yeah there is a lot of nonsense that comes with it, but like I said, you get out of it what you put into it. If you have a good attitude, good work ethic, decent grades, and a good attendance, you will already stand out from the pack.
People that talk crap about MMI either have never gone there or were one of those students that expected everything to be handed to them and put no effort into achieving anything. Yes on rare occasions even the GOLD STAR Student may be passed up for a job, but the opportunities are everywhere, you just have to take advantage of them..Oh and just to finish this off, at my shop, 2 of 4 techs, the shop foreman, 1 of 2 service writers, and the shop manager are ALL MMI grads.
The school isn't JUST about the hands on instruction, there's a lot of bookwork to it too, you WILL learn how to read a service manual! There were too many guys with bad attitudes, little to no work ethic, DUIs on their records, no motorcycle endorsement, and couldn't figure out how to keep their damn shirts tucked in and these guys expected to have jobs when they got out and they were unpleasantly surprised when they weren't getting offers before graduation.
Dealerships scan through your transcripts and one of the most important issues to them is attendance. They wont hire someone who has a record of not showing up. Yet guys were still surprised come graduation.
Yes the school is expensive but its A LOT cheaper than a college or university. Yes SNAP ON absolutely loves to sweet talk the students, but its your own damn fault if you fall for it. (FYI, the local SEARS gives AMAZING student discounts on Craftsman).
Yeah there is a lot of nonsense that comes with it, but like I said, you get out of it what you put into it. If you have a good attitude, good work ethic, decent grades, and a good attendance, you will already stand out from the pack.
People that talk crap about MMI either have never gone there or were one of those students that expected everything to be handed to them and put no effort into achieving anything. Yes on rare occasions even the GOLD STAR Student may be passed up for a job, but the opportunities are everywhere, you just have to take advantage of them..Oh and just to finish this off, at my shop, 2 of 4 techs, the shop foreman, 1 of 2 service writers, and the shop manager are ALL MMI grads.
I think more people need to take a better look at what the REALISTIC jobs are for any given program. College degree does not automatically mean 50K+ salary. If you are spending 100K+ for a degree that only pays maybe 30K a year you're in bad shape and I don't feel the least bit sorry for you. The same could be said for these Tech schools. You need to take a look at what the jobs are like after graduate and determine if the investment is worth it.
#14
08-31-2014, 09:43 PM
I think CAV summed it up fairly well. Also what needs to be taken into consideration is you will need a passion to do this type of work full time. A persons life is at risk every time you turn a bike back out the door. I would say that having some sort of apprenticeship for a mechanic be it mc or auto would be a great learning tool but as technology is advancing so fast and constantly changing up you wouldn't want a old timer or someone who lacks certain skill sets to limit your capabilities. But then again apprenticing you can go around to many guys at a particular shop and learn more hands on from different techs at different times to help adapt and expand your skill set further. Good luck in your careers.
#15
09-04-2014, 10:44 AM
#16
09-04-2014, 06:59 PM
Road Captain
don't kid yourself, mechanics is hard, physically demanding work which is why I have not gone into yet. lifting, bending, cuts on your hands, chemicals, etc. It can also be frustrating, stuff breaks and breaks often, rusted bolts, stripped threads, etc. Like said above you have to have a passion for what your working on.. I've got a 2-year engineering degree and work as a designer, purchaser, shipping clerk office type position but as I've learned more about motorcycles as a hobby I've also thought about doing something like this as well..
and as far as tools go, if your a professional, use professional tools. the better tools are just nicer, and they cost more because the tolerances on them are much better, this is important because you'll have less stripped fasteners, better grip & leverage which may prevent injury to yourself, and you'll do less damage to the machine your working on. Plus good tools hold their value like HD motorcycles, just check ebay, people pay almost new prices on used tools for snap-on & such. Creftsman are decent though, much better than lowes & home depot junk.
and the tool boxes, there is no comparison, it's like a Mercedes compared to a bottom dollar kia. craftsmen tool boxes are just cheaply made, they are made for home use.
and as far as tools go, if your a professional, use professional tools. the better tools are just nicer, and they cost more because the tolerances on them are much better, this is important because you'll have less stripped fasteners, better grip & leverage which may prevent injury to yourself, and you'll do less damage to the machine your working on. Plus good tools hold their value like HD motorcycles, just check ebay, people pay almost new prices on used tools for snap-on & such. Creftsman are decent though, much better than lowes & home depot junk.
and the tool boxes, there is no comparison, it's like a Mercedes compared to a bottom dollar kia. craftsmen tool boxes are just cheaply made, they are made for home use.
Last edited by 06Sporty75; 09-04-2014 at 07:04 PM.
#17
09-04-2014, 07:50 PM
Elite HDF Member
I have worked on cars, trucks and motorcycles for over 40 years and have like 50-60k invested in tools and box, now I wouldn't do it for a living anylonger as the dealers as a group pay on a flatrate system and and time has gone on the times have dropped and all the techs make less money for more work. It used to be a great trade but not so much anymore. they are charging big money but the salaries have not gone up much and in many cases have gone down. I am now out of it, and doing it only as a hobby. I made more money 10 years ago than last year. the work is harder as you need to know electronics as I do but they just don't pay. Whem you work 40hrs and get paid for only 30 figure it out why cornors are cut on your bike and now real good tech's are very hard to find... good luck all who enter this profession. Things will change but it will take time.
#18
05-23-2018, 01:39 PM
5th Gear
#19
05-23-2018, 02:05 PM
HDF Community Team
#20
05-23-2018, 03:05 PM
Tourer
You've resurrected a four year old thread, CAV has not been active on here since 09/2017. You will find a lot of opinions in these forums but you have found the best one by far. good luck with your endeavors