Working Diesel Technician - Overhauled S1E3

Working Diesel Technician - Overhauled S1E3 is now available on your favorite podcast app! 

Want to be a guest on Overhauled? - https://www.diesellaptops.com/pages/podcast-guests

In this podcast your host Melissa Petersmann (The Diesel Queen) discusses diesel technicians, trucks, the diesel economy at large, and many more interesting topics in a style that only she can bring - raw and unfiltered. 

Melissa is joined today by Fernando, a Diesel Technician. Fernando talks about the process from going from Technician School into the job market. The transition, the differences, how to be successful, and how to stay up to date in the industry.

As always, thank you for watching and listening!

Transcript for Working Diesel Technician - Overhauled S1E3:

Melissa:

Hey guys, it's The Diesel Queen. Welcome to my Overhauled podcast. I have to make an apology to you, guys. My first few podcasts were a little screwed up. Long story short, it had to be kind of cropped down a little bit because I am technologically challenged. Back to how I am a heavy equipment mechanic, not a professional YouTuber or a podcaster. So please bear with my fuckups and enjoy these podcasts. Again, I apologize. I'm a heavy equipment mechanic trying to make podcasts, so bear with me.

Hey guys, this is The Diesel Queen here on the third episode of Overhauled, partnering with Diesel Laptops to bring you guys a little bit more insight on this industry. Today, I am here with Fernando, who is a young mechanic living in California.

Today, we're going to get a little bit of an insight as to how does somebody with no background in this industry find themselves in the industry? This is important because this is the people that we are trying to look for because obviously, as we all know, this industry needs more people.

We're going to dive into Fernando's story about how he got into the industry, what made him want to stay into it, and his experiences so far in the diesel industry. I think you guys are going to get a lot of good content from this. He is a very driven and hardworking individual. I am excited for you guys to see this episode. Let's get it.

Tell us a little bit about what you do, who you work... I already know who you work for, but tell them what you do, who you work for, how you got where you are.

Fernando:

I started work for Cummins, and they were student-to-work program that we had. I was going there part-time every Wednesday, when our class would have a student-to-work-program. Every Wednesday, we would go to job site and actually have hands-on with the techs, and that was a really fun experience. That was really fun. That was a whole different culture for me, from being at school and being at a shop where I'm working on a customer's truck. That was really fun. And just the culture, getting the hang of the culture because the culture, it's fun. It's just a whole different vibe.

Melissa:

Oh yeah. Yep. I get that for sure.

Fernando:

Yeah, especially when you're in the shop. It's fun. It's a whole different world. I was with Cummins for about a year. Then the whole pandemic started, and then I went over to Papé Kenworth with which I'm currently at right now. Papé Kenworth is a very good place, and I've been having a blast since then.

Melissa:

That's good.

Fernando:

Everything, everything, everything that I do every day is something new. It could be engine work, it could be from doing a service on a truck, just the whole [inaudible 00:03:29].

Melissa:

So your timeline here, you went to trade school or a community college, correct? And then Cummins and then Kenworth?

Fernando:

Yes.

Melissa:

Okay. Were you also an apprentice in Cummins too?

Fernando:

Yeah.

Melissa:

What in high school or what experiences did you have in high school exactly that brought you to the decision that diesel and the trades was something you wanted to do as a lifetime career?

Fernando:

It was very different. I didn't go to college. I didn't go to a community college. I didn't go to a regular... Like UTI, or... Just really as well. I didn't go to any of those. So the program that my high school offers, they offered diesel mechanics. So my high school, more of a trade school. Trade high school.

Melissa:

Okay, okay. That makes sense.

Fernando:

Yeah. There are different programs that students can attend.

Melissa:

That's cool though, because that's rare.

Fernando:

Yeah. It's really cool. Last couple of weeks, they just donated electric truck, a Mack electric truck, a 2020 Mack electric truck to my ex school, which is really cool. But it's just like, since I've been there, all these changes have been happening throughout the year, it's amazing because when I was there, the shop was barely going on because they had barely opened. It's just like, man, it's crazy how... In 10 years, everything's going to be different. It's more going to be electric and stuff like that.

Melissa:

Especially you're in California, correct?

Fernando:

Yeah. I'm in Fresno, California.

Melissa:

Which part of California?

Fernando:

Fresno, California.

Melissa:

Okay. I've spent quite a bit of time in the wonderful city of Los Angeles this summer for some music video filming and stuff like that. I don't know how anybody in that city would get around without Google Maps.

Fernando:

I know.

Melissa:

It's like exit and then it's an exit within an exit, and then an exit within an exit within an exit. I don't know how you guys do it. I'm from Wyoming, and I show up like, "What in the mouse trap maze is this?" I've got a couple of friends from California. I have a friend that work in Southern California for a John Deere dealership, so I know that sometimes, things in California run a little bit differently than the rest of the world. I find it very surprising that you actually had the opportunity to do diesel work and do a trade work in high school. That's cool. What made you decide to be a part of that in the first place?

Fernando:

I mean, throughout high school, you kind of figure out what you want to do. I was in that position, freshman year. I was trying to figure out what I like and figure out myself what is it that catches my attention. I never thought I was going to be a diesel mechanic.

Melissa:

I don't think any of us do.

Fernando:

I literally never thought I was going to be a diesel mechanic until one day, my instructor Rubio, when the whole diesel program was starting, I remember he walked into my English class and he started talk about the program. Since that day, it just changed my vision, my goals, everything, and it was like, "Man, I like that. I want to do this. I'm going to try it."

Melissa:

So you don't have any kind of like family background or you were obsessed with your F-250 you had in high school or anything like that?

Fernando:

No, no, no.

Melissa:

That's cool though. That's cool.

Fernando:

Nobody... My brothers are, no, they're not diesel mechanics. Here far, far, far away cousins, they have their trucks. We do transportation. But other than that...

Melissa:

That's cool. That's unique because with my background, even though I'm a girl, my background makes sense. I grew up around it. I literally grew up in the back of a tree harvester with my dad. It makes sense for somebody like me, but I am very excited because... So what I was trying to explain to people on my podcast with Tyler originally is going and talking to kids in high school doesn't always work, as far as trying to get people into this industry. What I'm trying to nail down is how can we get and attract more people, like yourself, that has no background in this. Your family doesn't have a background in it. How do we attract more people? You brought up an interesting point with your high school had diesel programs, you had instructors that talked to the kids.

In my high school, we didn't have anything like that, but we had a mandatory classes of welding and automotive and woodworking, actually. You had to pick between welding and woodworking, and then you had to take one year of automotive. That was a requirement to graduate. It was a really cool experience to see, you know, the little five foot, nothing goth chick that has the platform boots that are this tall, straight up, goth chick, fucking fishnet leggings, fishnet shirt, in my welding class running beads on an arc welder. Would she have picked that class if that was mandatory? If that wasn't mandatory, would she have ever even remotely thought of trying to do a welding class? Hell no. But she was good at it, and that's like, how can we show kids? And she literally was, she was straight up bleached white hair goth girl. How do we show people and show kids and get people interested in this when they don't have a background in it?

It's easy to convince the kids that mommy and daddy own a trucking industry, or mommy and daddy run a logging operation, or farmers, or they just grow up in the atmosphere of Wyoming in the west and everybody drives a diesel truck. That's like a status in Wyoming. So how do we invite or entice people like yourself into the industry? And that's what I'm trying to nail down here is what exactly enticed you in that? You say that was your instructors in the high school and the fact that that program was available for you to try is kind of the reason why?

Fernando:

Yes. That's more of it. I got into it to try it out and learned, get experience from it.

Melissa:

And you figured out you liked it pretty much?

Fernando:

Now, I like... Yes.

Melissa:

Is it the blue collar part of it? Is it the working with my hands, blue collar, getting dirty part of it? Is it the technical, learning the systems part of it? What part of that did you really enjoy? Which part of that really was like, "Yes, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life"?

Fernando:

I love the blue collar. I like how it's blue collar. I'm very energetic. I'm always doing something. So I was like, "I need to find something that I like and move," and I'm just out there out, just out. I'm just out.

Melissa:

Yeah, you're not a "Let's sit in an office all day and I'll be satisfied."

Fernando:

God made this world for us to enjoy, so I got to be out.

Melissa:

I agree. I agree. The transition for me from working six-day weeks and working in a shop full time to doing this has been a little bit of a shocker. People always tell me, they're like, "Oh it's got to be easier, right? You're not really doing that much. You get to sit in an office." I'm like, "Yeah, I have to sit in an office." I'm not used to that. That's not something I'm used to. I'm used to go, go, go, go, go. I've got customers. I got 18 jobs on my board. Four of them are big jobs, two of them of which I already have torn apart and I'm waiting on parts or approval, and then 10 other little jobs that I'm also trying to figure out how the fuck to get into the day, and that's what I'm used to. That is how I've spent the last seven years of my life.

It's a hard transition, but how do you transition people from a classroom scenario of high school or whatever into the "I want to work all day." I think the people that are like you, that are energetic, don't want to sit down, don't like sitting down all day, that's perfect. That is the perfect people. That is the people we need in the industry. We do not need the kid that wants to sit at their computer for eight hours a day and do training and think that's a fun day. We need the kids that are like, "Oh my god, I have to sit here and do fucking training all day." That's the kids we need.

Fernando:

When I'm at work, everything I do, it is just like... Everything has it own step process. We get the truck and we get the work order. We talk into it and we go pick up the truck. Whatever we fix, we fix. But then we have to write it down. We have to type everything down on the work order to say what we did and how we fix it and stuff like that. So we're still working with computers...

Melissa:

Well, in the diagnostics?

Fernando:

There's still that office, writing down, sending notes, sending emails or to write comments, tech support, stuff like that.

Melissa:

Well, it's important, right? It's important. Your stories are important, whether you're trying to submit something to warranty or submit something to the customer, you need to be able to prove why you're charging them $4,000 for a job. Honestly, whether it's a 30-minute job or a three-day job, you've got to be able to prove to them why it's you are worth and why what you did is worth what they're paying. They're not in the shop working with you. They don't understand that I broke a bolt and it took me fucking three hours to get it out. It was a horrible fucking experience for me. They don't get that though. They don't understand that. So you got to in a little bit better wording, you got to explain, I broke a bolt and this sucked to ass for three hours. You got to put that in there or they're not going to understand it. If you just put broke bolt, spent three hours extracting, they're not going to get that. I broke it off. I had to heat it, I had to drill through the center of it. I had to use three different drill bits to get it to the right extraction size, and then I had to get the right extractor in there. And you better pray to God you don't break it or then you're really screwed.

Obviously, you don't need to write in a work order like I had to go to the bathroom at this time and I walked over and talked to so-and-so and asked questions at this time. It doesn't need that. But it's really important, and people don't actually... I've worked in many shops. I've figured out a technician either cares about it and understands the value of that or they don't.

Fernando:

Yeah. Or they don't basically.

Melissa:

Or they don't. I can't tell you how many technicians I've met, and not even just the old technicians. How many technicians I've met that will write R&R transmission, and that is what they send to the boss. They don't understand why does it need to be any different? That's what I did. It's like, "Yeah, but nevermind. You're never going to get this. You're never going to see this the way it needs to be said." But you're right. And it's going into even... At Deere, we called it DTAC, which is dealer technical assistance, and that was pretty much the engineers, and we had to submit cases, and if you needed help with something, you have to write a very in depth story as to everything you tested, what all the values were that you tested, how you checked everything, or you're going to get the, "Did you check this?" If you don't write "I checked the battery voltage", they're going to ask you to check the battery voltage, and then you just wasted two hours of your time waiting for a response. So you're a hundred percent correct. It's not just getting your hands dirty. There is office work involved in that.

Fernando:

Yeah, there's office work.

Melissa:

There's definitely office work involved in that. Especially if you're at a dealership, especially.

Fernando:

And you have educated off that too, learning all the log, uploading files and stuff like that, especially warranty. Warranty is a whole different story, let me tell you.

Melissa:

Yes, I'm not sure exactly how Peter or Kenworth, sorry. You're Kenworth, right?

Fernando:

Yeah, Kenworth.

Melissa:

I'm not exactly sure how Kenworth does their warranty, but I know Deere, they just recently changed their warranty systems where you get paid for what your story explains. They used to pay you on book time, and that sucked because obviously, if anything wrong happened, it was hard. It was hard. I have had to fight. I did a skid steer warranty job when I first started in the industry, and John Deere had these problems where the E-series skid steer would have hydraulic or hydrostatic pump failures, both, and it would contaminate the system. That means metal in the entire hydraulic system, which means you have to do what they call a level seven cleanup, which is you replace every single hydraulic component, you sponge out every single line, you have to clean and/or replace the entire hydraulic and hydrostatic system on these, entire system, pumps, motors, lines, everything.

And they paid, I think... What were they paying, like 80 hours to do that? The first two of them that I did, 120 was my first one. Honestly, I hadn't even been in the industry for a year yet, so I'm like, "What the fuck?" I spent so much time like line markering every single little component so I wouldn't forget where it goes. And the second one, I think, was 90 hours. I got paid for almost every single one of those hours on those jobs even though it was over because of my writeup, and people don't understand that. And now the warranty, they won't pay you at all. They only pay you based on what your writeup is. So if your writeup says you did 40 hours worth of work, that's what they're going to pay you. But if your writeup is shitty and it only is explaining 20 hours of the 40 hours you have in it, guess what? You're only getting paid 20. Well, the dealership. I didn't work flat rate, so technicians just got paid the hourly. Are you flat rate?

Fernando:

Yeah. Flat rate.

Melissa:

So what's your take on flat rate? Because that is a very controversial deal in the diesel industry.

Fernando:

What's your opinion first?

Melissa:

I personally don't agree with it. I think it creates a situation where technicians are, they're forced to do jobs as fast as they can, and sometimes, the quality goes downhill. I know that if you're doing break jobs and easy shit like that, that you can just knock out boom, boom, boom, you can make insane money with it. But I do think flat rate can create an environment where your technicians rushed, they're going to take shortcuts, and they're not going to be as willing to help other technicians because that's cutting into their flat rate time. To me, that can create, not saying it does, that can create a bad environment where nobody wants to help anybody because everybody's worried about their time. That's my opinion. What's yours?

Fernando:

In my opinion, since I've been working at a dealer, I do see that. I do see that where technicians are working on a job, they're limited on time and you have this other technician, for example, like me, I'm always asking questions. I'm...

Melissa:

As you should. As you should be.

Fernando:

I'll be like, "I need help. I'm stuck." They'll be like, "Of course, man." They'll explain to me. They do a really good job explaining to me, but it's not like... I wish I had them there and guide me. Am I doing alright? I feel what you're saying... I mean it's just how it is.

Melissa:

You can't be lazy on flat, right?

Fernando:

Yeah.

Melissa:

That's for sure.

Fernando:

At the same time, it's all good because once you do something and once you learn how to do it the right way and good, you kind of like, okay I can assess some time aside and help the techs and stuff like that.

Melissa:

I was curious to ask you that, especially coming from apprentice side, I actually was considering... Before I started working for Deere, I had considered a position at Peterbilt that was flat rate. What they had told me is I have six months non-flat rate to figure my shit out. And after six months, it's go time. You got to fucking get your shit done. The one thing that I... Looking back at the first two years with my career, and I think everybody who starts in the industry understands this, I fucked a lot of shit up.

There once I felt like I fucked up everything I touched. The environment that I was working in at John Deere, I didn't have the... I was fucked so hard on myself. My boss never had to discipline me because I was yelling at myself and my head more than he ever would. But the environment at which I learned in was a good one. We weren't flat rate. I'm not saying the flat rate is the corporate problem there, but everybody was willing to help me. I was taught to exhaust all my resources before I asked for help. But I was also taught that if it's going to take you two jobs to line up pins on an excavator bucket by yourself, or if it takes 15 minutes, if you ask for help, you ask for help. Not working in a flat rate, I was curious what those first few years look like in a flat rate shop. Is it cutthroat? Is it hard to get people to help you? Is it hard to learn? Is it an inviting environment for a new mechanic?

Fernando:

Good thing you touched up on that point, and I'm going to add a little bit to that. I learned in a very good environment. Well, Papé, it's a really good environment there. Everybody helps each other. I might be taking too much on something and then boom, a tech walks behind me, "Hey buddy, you need help?" It's like everybody knows... It's like if I'm struggling or somebody else is struggling, they're going to go help and teach the team member the right way so that he can do it faster or he learn something new. But that's a really good part that you said, the environment. It all depends on the environment

Melissa:

That's why I wanted to talk to you about that because there's a big stereotype involving dealerships and involving flat rate. There's big stereotypes out there. Obviously, you just heard my stereotype version of it. So I was curious to know your take on it because obviously, this industry is having a very hard time getting mechanics in the door and is having an even harder time keeping them. What I'm trying to narrow down into is obviously, you can't say that much about your current employer. I know that. I know how that is. You don't want to be like, "These people fucking suck." Can't do that. I get that. I'm trying to get to the bottom of, can flat rate be part of the issue as to why technicians start into this field and don't stay in it? Is there toxic... but it sounds like there is. That's just the stereotype.

Fernando:

There's a little bit of everything. I'll put it like that.

Melissa:

Yeah, all shops have their problems, right? There's not a single shop out there that doesn't have some form of bullshit. You just got to pick the one that you can handle the bullshit in, right?

Fernando:

Yeah.

Melissa:

So that's maybe...

Fernando:

Play words.

Melissa:

Yeah, exactly. Every shop has bullshit but every shop has a completely different personality too, depending on the people that work there. Some of them are fun and laid back, and then you work at other shops and everybody's uptight, worried, and the boss walks in and everybody's like, "I swear to God I was working." Or you work at some other shops and the boss walks in and everybody's like, "Hey," and then he comes over and starts bullshitting with you. It depends on the environment for sure.

Fernando:

For example, every time I go to work I'm always like, "Hey, what's up man?" To everybody, I'm saying hi. I'm just a positive... To be out there and just make someone's day. So [inaudible 00:26:20] it. They already know me. They're like, "Hey, wait, Bernie, Fernando." Everybody's just saying hi.

Melissa:

That's good.

Fernando:

Once the culture is there, it's fun. Everything, but the shop is... For me, it is like a playground, every time I go...

Melissa:

It's like I used to call it... I used to have this old mechanic we worked with at Hannan, when I first started at Hannan, and he used to call it adult daycare. He used to call it adult daycare. His full line all the time was like, "I'm surprised we'll even get paid to do this." But he was also 70 so didn't give a shit anymore.

Fernando:

We are living the dream.

Melissa:

Exactly. Do you like swing shift? Did you just kind of get thrown into that because you're bottom of the totem pole right now?

Fernando:

Yeah, they were looking for somebody in the day shift, but I had a choice. I actually had a choice. I had a choice to go to day shift or night shift. But I decided to stay with my shift because... This is what we were talking about a couple minutes ago. The reason I stayed with the swing shift is because there was less techs and I can get more help from these techs that. Well, one of the techs there has me under his wing right now. He's really good and he has a lot of experience, and he's helping me right now, vetting me through the troubleshooting, understand the schematics. Let me tell you, wiring is a whole different story. Schematic, checking voltage, checking resistance, disconnect over here, disconnect over here, checking this over there, over there, over there. It's like that. That's one of the reasons I like swing shift because there's less techs and I can learn more.

Melissa:

So you feel like it's a better learning environment for you?

Fernando:

Yes. That's the main reason why I stayed.

Melissa:

That's a good reason. At the Deere dealerships I worked at, there was no such thing as shifts. We all worked pretty much 7:00 to 5:00. It could vary. Maybe you could come in early and leave early a little bit, but there was really no variance. It was pretty much 7:00 to 5:00. Do you guys work Saturdays and weekends? Do you have a five-day week?

Fernando:

Six day a week. There's techs that go from Monday through Friday, 7:00 to 2:30 and then there's a swing shift from 3:30, which I'm in, 3:30 to 12:00. And then there's another crew that goes into work from Tuesday to Saturday.

Melissa:

Okay, so you guys split the weeks up a little bit, but it's still pretty much five days a week.

Fernando:

Yeah, five days.

Melissa:

Okay. My first job was at International, actually. I worked at International dealerships for three months. It was not flat rate, but they cut our hours down a lot because they were really slow and they could not afford to pay all of us eight hours a day. I got a paycheck one time, which is two weeks. I got a paycheck that was 40 hours. So I just bought a house and I'm like, "I can't afford this." So I run around and I interviewed at every fucking truck dealership I could fucking find, or truck shop. There was like this western distribution truck center that I was obsessed with because they polish the chrome on their Peterbilts every day, and they're really pretty. I'm just like, that's the girl in me, I guess. I'm like, "Oh my god, it's pretty. I want to work there." They laughed me out of the shop and told me I was going to be a distraction.

I could not find a job at a truck shop that was not a night shift job because pretty much all the day shift jobs were taken. At the time, I didn't want to do that. But I was just curious if... I know Caterpillar, that's where they start their techs. Like if you are at the bottom of the totem pole at Caterpillar, you start on the shittiest shift that they have, which they assume is night shift. You have to work night shift until a position opens up and you pray to God you get day shift. I was just curious about what your take was on that.

Fernando:

At International you used to work at, they used to pay flat rate or hourly rate, or what was it pay?

Melissa:

I've always worked for hourly. I've always worked hourly.

Fernando:

Yeah. I mean, hourly is... Yeah, hourly. Hourly. Yeah.

Melissa:

But it's... Equipments, it's hard too. Some John Deere dealerships are flat rate. There are John Deere dealerships out there that are flat rate on the [inaudible 00:31:25] side.

Fernando:

Did I say Papé pays flat rate or hourly rate?

Melissa:

Flat rate.

Fernando:

Yeah, it's not. My bad. I'm sorry. Hourly rate.

Melissa:

That's fine. That's good though because I prefer that. Some people don't though, some people can. I like to do engine rebuilds and shit like that though. Honestly, it's hard to make book time on jobs like that in the first place, let alone if you're flat rate. Like axles, I've done so many fucking loader axles. Grader axles, any type of internal planetary, mid-section planetary axles, I can fucking rip them things apart and put them back together. I got that shit down, I can make time on that shit. But what they don't understand is sometimes, these axles are in an ancient piece of shit that's like 80 years old and you break every single mounting bolt for that motherfucker or you have to heat it and cut it out off the fucking frame, and that takes a lot more time. In flat rate, how do you make up for that shit? Is there a way that you can still charge the customer for that time if you run into a situation like that?

Fernando:

Yeah, basically, when that happens or when we run into an issue, any kind of issue, if it's a bolt that breaks, et cetera, we stop. We talk to our foreman, and the foreman talks to the customer. It shares with them the problem or the issue that we came across with.

Melissa:

I mean we do the same thing, actually. Get approval.

Fernando:

Approval is basically on more time.

Melissa:

So you said you went to trade school-ish, sort of, in high school, diesel program. Do you feel like they properly help taught you and properly gave you the resources to enter this industry? Did you feel like they did a good enough job giving you the resources and the knowledge you needed to enter this industry and the realistic expectations?

Fernando:

Yeah. At the time when the diesel program was going on, it was barely new. We had no tools, trucks. It was just Mr. Rubio, my instructor, and it was more of book side that I got.

Melissa:

Well, that's still important. You still have to know how the systems work.

Fernando:

But other than that, Mr. Rubio is a really good instructor, like I said, and he explains... Mr. Rubio was an instructor at UTI. I mean, that says a lot too. What do these industries expect, these companies expect? A lot of it is you can't bullshit around. You can't bullshit around, you can't mess around. You have to be tunnel vision.

Melissa:

So I had a young lady on here before you, and she's 17, thinking about getting into the industry. That's what I told her, and that's what I tell everybody, is you have no idea how far you will go if you show up and you try.

Fernando:

Yeah, show up.

Melissa:

That's the two major things. These companies, they're not asking you to be perfect. They're not asking you to never fuck anything up, but they like it if you didn't, probably, but you learn from it. The only real mistake is one you don't learn from. That's all they want because it is still a rarity. It is actually a rarity to have a technician that shows up every day and is reliable and tries. I can't tell you how many times because this industry is so desperate for people. Shops will hire anybody that's a warm body, but that warm body isn't going to make it anywhere unless they're trying and they're showing up. You can get really fucking far just by trying and showing up. It sounds like you kind of agree with that statement.

Fernando:

Oh yeah. Period.

Melissa:

So do you feel like this school gave you... Did your expectations of this industry match what it actually was?

Fernando:

Yeah, it matched. It matched what it actually was. Duncan Polytechnical High School does a really good job on getting Duncan kids ready for work, the work industry, because it's a trade school. And just throughout my whole high school years, it was just like us, work on yourself, work on your skills, learn your skills, who you are. Duncan, that's all it is about. When you do something, learn, and next time you do it, you know how to do it. So it's just putting the effort of learning.

Melissa:

Well, we get a lot of kids, and I've seen this firsthand. We get a lot of kids in the industry that come out of tech school, and I'm talking Deere Technical College because they actually have their own college, believe it or not, and WyoTech, the big schools where you're rebuilding engines, you're rebuilding transmissions, you're doing all this shit. We got people that enter this industry that expect to be doing that day one. So they get mad when their employer makes them, which for me, I thought this was normal but apparently, not everybody thinks this. They get mad when they have to do PDIs, pre-delivery inspections and services for at least the first six months, little jobs here and there like tire rods maybe or add batteries. They were expecting to enter the industry and just start doing engine rebuilds and doing transmission rebuilds. And I don't feel like the school that they went to gave them a realistic expectation of what they were expecting.

WyoTech, for example, actually had a pretty extreme deal, which I don't know if they still do this under new ownership. I went to WyoTech. Your hair could not be touching the collar of your shirt, guy or a girl. So if you were a guy, you had to have your hair buzzed short enough that your hair did not touch the collar of your shirt. And if you were a girl, your hair had to be in a tight bun. You couldn't have your ponytail touching your collar, nothing. You had to have your shirt all the way buttoned up, guy or girl, all the way buttoned up. You had to have your shirt tucked in, you had to wear the proper pants, you had to wear steel toe boots. If you didn't show up for class, whatever time, it doesn't matter the reason why you didn't show up for class. It did not matter. You lost points in that class for missing time in that class.

Go and enter the industry and you're like, "Hey, I want to take a personal day because I'm tired of being here." And your boss is like, "Okay, you have the vacation time. Take it." So what I'm trying to get at is, there's some extremes that some of these schools go to to try and prepare kids for the trades in the industry that are not always as accurate as they could be. I'm trying to get down to, do you feel like... It sounds like you do, you were pretty well prepared. Did they tell you that you were probably going to be not doing engine rebuilds for a while and did they set that a good expectation for your first year and what that would look like?

Fernando:

Yeah, I already had a expectation what I was going to be doing in the apprenticeship program. Basically, you do two years of services, 90 day bits, PDIs, from everything, but actually, you do everything from services, diff service, a diff rebuild or... It's just everything. They put you to do everything. So basically-

Melissa:

You got to be willing to do whatever they hand to you, right?

Fernando:

But you have to be willing to learn. If you're putting in the work, doing your training, learning, and they see that you're catching on pretty fast, then they're going to put you on doing [inaudible 00:40:38].

Melissa:

Exactly. That's a really good point. It's a really good point.

Fernando:

And a good job.

Melissa:

When I worked at International, my first jobs actually was... A couple of the big jobs... I only worked there for like three months, and this was right out of fucking WyoTech. I got to do leaf springs on a dump truck, which was fun, and I got to do a differential third member in a truck that... It's like the third one this motherfucker had. It's like, "Dude, stop doing burnout." I don't know what he was doing with this semi-truck, but he broke the axle shafts in three differentials. And what I think he was doing was he had the diff lock on when he wasn't supposed to. I'm pretty sure that's what he was doing. It's like, "Dude, stop doing burnouts, okay?" We did that and then it took... When I started at John Deere, I did a lot of services, and some of those services were 12-hour, 16-hour jobs. You get a grader where you have to change all the hydraulic oil, the tandem oils, the circle gearbox oil, engine oil, you got to run a valve adjustment, all that shit.

Those can be pretty in depth for just starting out too. It took me about, I think it was six or seven months before they finally gave me a backhoe transmission job, which I fucked up by the way. It took them, I don't know, I think they gave me a month off of it, and then they started giving me big jobs again. But I tried really hard in my training. I always wanted to learn. I was always willing to learn. I was always willing to take advice from people, and they saw that. That's why they're like, "All right, we're going to start pushing this girl into more shit." But some people expect that they're just going to get that right away, they're going to walk into the shop and be given a transmission. Then they're disappointed, and then they're mad. They want to leave the industry, and they're not willing to put in the time it takes to build that trust and build that relationship with your job where they can trust you to do that. Is it backups can be expensive for them?

Fernando:

I remember when I messed up a MTM.

Melissa:

On a what?

Fernando:

MTM, manual transmission.

Melissa:

Where'd you fuck up?

Fernando:

The connector. I was removing the transmission and I... No, I was installing the transmission. I had everything up. I had everything connected already, and I just had missed one thing. And that one thing can lead you to, ooh, let me tell you. Let me tell you. So I was signing the air line. There was an air line that goes through the transmission to the MTM and there's a connector, the main connector. I was hitting it. Oh, I wasn't hitting it. I was tying it down and my wrench slipped. Boom, the connector breaks, and you're talking about a $4,000 part.

Melissa:

The first fuckup I had, would you like to hear it? The very first fuckup I ever had, which was like, I thought this was the end of the world, it was so bad, was at McCandless, the international dealership I worked at. I was doing an oil change on a semi... I don't even remember, I think it was a WorkStar. I got the oil plugged out, drained the oil, went to go put the oil plug back in and I ran over to the fucking technician because I didn't know how to use any of their Nabstar computer systems or anything. I ran over to the technician that's helping me. I'm like, "Hey, how tight do I need to make this?" This motherfucker, he did this all the time. He'd go over and he'd like squeeze my arms because I was like a buck 15 soaking wet.

He'd walk over to me and he'd squeezed my arm, and he's like, "Hands me a ratchet," and he is like, "I don't think you'll fuck this up," because I'm small. Well, I took a half inch drive ratchet to that and my long snap on one, and I tightened that motherfucker until righty tighty became righty loosey. That was my first fuckup. I had to replace the entire oil pan and I couldn't get it out. It wouldn't come out, so I had to do the whole, like take a punch and a hammer and poke a hole in the bottom of the oil pan just to get all of the new oil I just put in it, by the way, drained out so I could replace the oil pan. That was my first fuckup. That is when I learned that that little feeling you get when it's starting to become righty loosey, that's how I learned that.

Fernando:

I want to share something. So basically, for all the kids my age, I'm 20 years old, I've been in the industry for five years already. So I started when I was like 15, 14, something like that. I tell my friends, I'm like, "Learn from your mistakes. Don't put it hard on yourself, and like, 'Man, I suck. I'm not meant for this.'" I'm like, "No, bro, just chill. Learn from your mistake. Next time you do it, now you know how to do it. You learned the hard way but it's alright." I personally learned the hard way, and sometimes-

Melissa:

We all do. We all do.

Fernando:

Just got to take it easy on yourself and just be positive about it. Don't be negative.

Melissa:

The only true mistake people make is if they make it twice.

Fernando:

They make it twice. Yeah. Those are the people that don't learn from their mistakes.

Melissa:

Exactly, exactly.

I guarantee, you fucked something up bad enough, you will never do that again. I guarantee it. That backhoe transmission I was given that I fucked up, I didn't have the torque converters flying in all the way. Thought it was, I pulled the total rookie move of bolting the transmission up to the engine flywheel housing and it was like this far, and I'm like, "I got that. I can just draw that in with bolts." Number one bad idea that every mechanic that is seasoned knows. I didn't know that. I'm like, "I can just draw it in. It's so close. I got this." Well, I start drawing it in and I hear this pop and I'm like, "Maybe it's just the recess inside this that popped. It's fine, it's fine. It'll be fine." Go to start it up. No transmission oil pressure. I'm like, "Hmm."

Turns out I didn't have the torque converters flying into the internal transmission pump ears, and it broke them. The reason it wasn't going in flush or the reason it wasn't flushed to that housing is because it wasn't all the way in. It wasn't allowing it to be flushed. So when I drew that in, it broke them fucking ears off. I removed that transmission in half the time I did the first time, I'll tell you that right now.

Fernando:

Yeah. You see that when you do something, in the next time, it's so much easier.

Melissa:

Yeah.

Fernando:

[inaudible 00:47:51].

Melissa:

Oh no. I love sharing fuckup stories. That was actually one, you actually did it for me. I was going to ask you what one of your favorite fuckups are because everybody's got their favorite, where they're like, "This was such a learning experience," because I want to show kids that, exactly what you were saying is, it's okay to up. Everybody does it. Especially the first three years of your fucking life in this industry are going to be rough. You are going to contemplate your life decisions all the time. I had seven years into the industries, eight if you included school, and I still fuck shit up. I'd still be laying underneath a piece of machinery and be like, "Why did I choose this as a career?" I'd still have those moments contemplating my entire life decisions on if I'm good enough for this and if I should even be here. So it's normal and it's fine. That's what I tell everybody, especially people starting in the industry, "You'll be fucking fine."

Fernando:

Yeah, you'll be fine.

Melissa:

Show up and try. You'll be fine.

Fernando:

As long as you try. There's a saying in the shop that we have, where if we do something or you messed up something, we'll be like, "Hey bro, you still want to be a diesel mechanic?"

Melissa:

Right? Yeah. Well, that is the one thing I will tell everybody is the shit talk will happen, and if you fuck something up, your coworker is probably not going to let it go for like a month, or at least, right? But it's okay. He'll fuck something up and then you can torture him for a month. It's fine. That's just the environment and it's fun. If you can't give each other shit, that's not fun. You have to work with each other for at least eight hours a day. Let's make this a little bit entertaining for everybody. This isn't like a prison. I've worked in some shops, especially the first Deere shop I worked in that had quite the personalities. Quite the personalities, but it makes it entertaining. It's fucking free entertainment all the time.

We had the fucking old guy in the shop and his fucking prodigy at each other's throat all the fucking time. One time, the old guy was leaning up against the loader bucket talking to the guy that was welding it. I watched his prodigy run up with a fucking sledged hammer and he hit the bucket with that fucking hammer as hard as he possibly could. I'm pretty sure that old guy jumped high enough in the air that the tube can flew out of his pocket. But they were constantly doing that shit to each other. Constantly. Some people are like, "Oh my god, that's such a toxic work environment," and I'm like, "That's free entertainment. That is fucking free entertainment." I will watch this shit. If we could be on Comedy Central, we would make a fucking killing. TikTok wouldn't like us, but Comedy Central would love... Whoever allows South Park to be a thing, they would love us. The sense of humor in the shop is great and if it's not, it's not fun working there.

Fernando:

I don't know what to say. So I wanted to share with you, we were talking about what the workplace... What the workplace like...

Melissa:

The environment?

Fernando:

Like what the workplace needs or needs from the technician or person going into the industry. What I like about my school is that every Wednesday, no matter what week or what month it is, it doesn't matter. Every Wednesday, we work our workwear shirts.

Melissa:

You do what?

Fernando:

Workwear shirts. So every Wednesday, we have a Duncan Polytechnical High School workwear shirt that we have to wear every Wednesday.

Melissa:

Why is that?

Fernando:

They're showing us the skill of waking up, going to work with a workwear. So they teach that skill at Duncan, where every Wednesday, everybody, all the kids have to wear a workwear shirt related to their pathway.

Melissa:

Yeah, that's good.

Fernando:

Like if they were going to work.

Melissa:

Yeah. Like I said, I'm always curious because WyoTech took a very extreme pathway, which like I said, they're under different owners now, and I don't know what they're doing. But they took a very extreme route to try to give people the correct facilities and expectations of what employers expect. Obviously, I've never worked in a shop where steel toes are not required, and I've never worked in a shop where a uniform is not required. But taking a day off is not the end of the world. You got to have a fucking balance. You cannot live at work, you have to have a fucking balance or you will go crazy.

Fernando:

Oh yeah.

Melissa:

Do you find that the other apprentices that you've been around or work with have the same attitude that you do? The willingness to learn, willingness to try, willingness to want to be a part of it, or is that kind of a rarity amongst your peers?

Fernando:

So there was, at one point, you kind of see everything. There's those techs that just, I don't know. But there's those... My buddies, they're in apprenticeship right now, and they graduated as I did because some of my buddies that went to high school, we started the same time at the apprenticeship program. So it's kind of like I see them and it's like, "Cool, man. You have the same hunger as I do with work. You actually go to learn, do what we got to do to improve our skills in the diesel industry." I do see where everybody goes boom, boom, like, "I'm ready to do this, what the day expects from me."

Melissa:

I went to school with a lot of kids... The reason I ask you this is because back in the day, I guess... I'm not even that old, I'm not even 30 yet, but back in the day of WyoTech days, there was like 5% of the kids that really gave a fuck. And then there was a pretty large group that were kind of like, "I'm just here to survive and it's whatever. I'm going to try, but this is college, I'm not taking it that seriously." And then there was a good like 20% of the kids that didn't fucking care, didn't show up, didn't want to try. They just wanted to barely scrape by enough to get a job and live. There was also the guys that thought they knew way more, and they maybe came from a background where they were already turning wrenches or working around it. So they kind of treated schooling like it was stupid and it's stuff they already know. So they didn't really get much from it.

What I've always told people is your schooling and what you learn from people, you get out of it what you put into it. You can't just show up and be like, "I already know all this. I don't need to fucking learn this." You're not going to learn anything. For example, I took a grader capstone when I was in Hannan, which capstones are the warranty certification programs. You spend three days learning about this machine, and then you have a hands-on test and a written test. There was a particular mechanic in there, that was the older generation mechanic. The whole time, his entire attitude was, "I've worked on these things since the B-series, and I fucking know all this shit. I've been working on shift for 30 years. I don't fucking need to know any of this." That was his attitude the whole time.

I had been in that shop for a year. I outscored him by a lot. I got a 98% score and this guy barely passed. I'm not saying book smart is everything. We had a hands-on test too, where they bugged the machines and you had to diagnose it. I outscored him. Not because I know more, not because I'm a better mechanic. Because I fucking paid attention, because I knew I didn't know what the fuck I was doing and I needed to learn this because I felt like an idiot all the time. It's completely the attitude that you bring to the table with these things. It's not even just tech school, it's all the trainings you're going to be sent through for the rest of your career. If you enter trainings where like, "I fucking already know all this shit," you're defeating the purpose of the training. You never know, you might learn something you didn't know, even if you have been in the industry for 30 years.

Fernando:

You know what, you're freaking awesome. You're freaking awesome.

Melissa:

I've worked in a shop for a long time.

Fernando:

My friend, she was also in the diesel program when I was in high school. Literally, she was the only one that gave it her all. Because of her... Her name was Alexa. Right after high school, she went to UTI. I'm going to get to the point, she was the only one I would compete in class, actually compete. I was very on top of my shit. I was very on my stuff.

Melissa:

Well, you seem like you want to learn.

Fernando:

Yeah, and she did too. I've seen that and I was like, "Man, okay." All the time, all the tests, if it's homework, everything, she was right behind me all the time. I was like, "Damn, this is awesome." So when events will come around, like skills you would say, we'll go compete with other schools and stuff. She would do it too. It's like, "Okay, cool." She knows how to do it. She has a mind and she's book smart and everything. She was competing with guys that were like 22, 23 and I was like, "So cool. That's freaking awesome."

Melissa:

It's all on your attitude.

Fernando:

Yeah. [inaudible 00:58:42].

Melissa:

Not all girls are like that.

Fernando:

Yeah. Not all girls are like that.

Melissa:

There is a stereotype that people have, that they think that just because we're a girl, we're like this big rock star, which is not... We're just like the guys. There's some of us that are good and there's some of us that suck. But that's cool. That's the exact mentality I was getting at, is if you already know that you don't know what the fuck you're doing, you're going to learn way more than the person sitting next to you that thinks they already know what they're talking about. You're probably going to excel past them pretty fucking fast. Because it's all about the attitude you have. This industry is constantly changing. You were just talking about electric trucks earlier. Everything in this industry changes constantly. Emissions were a giant change. A combine has 40 controllers on it. Things are always changing, and if you do not have the mentality to adapt and learn, and continue to learn no matter how long you've been in the industry, you're going to fucking fall behind. The 20-year-old that's willing to learn and willing to try is going to blow right past you.

All right. Well, last question I guess. Do you think there is anything that employers, schools, people like me trying to make podcasts, what can we do to help get people interested in this industry? What can we do to try to help solve the crisis of there are not enough technicians that are in this industry to fill jobs?

Fernando:

When I was... Pitch the opportunity. I feel like we just need to be more out there. Talk to students, go in colleges or anywhere. Talk to these students and show them the opportunity. Because I feel like there's a lot of people, a lot of kids that don't know because the lack of information.

Melissa:

Well, there's a lot of people that still think this industry is dirty, greasy, grimy, low end of the totem pole shit job. There's a lot of stereotype that still exists for this. They don't see that a lot of us have houses before we're 21. A lot of us are making more than our parents, and we're in the low level blue collar job. We're supposed to not be making more than people in the white collar industry, but we are. That's the other thing I've been trying to help spread. Obviously, especially if anybody has ever seen me actually work, I'm the mechanic that's dirty as fucking covered in oil and grease by nine o'clock. That's me. My base trashed. I've lost every tool out of my toolbox. All the tools are spread all over the floor because I'm in a rush and I've tracked floor dry and oil all the way across the shop. That's me by nine o'clock.

I've always been like that. Don't know why. But people think that is the industry and that's everybody in the industry. They think that's the entire thing, and it's not. Like you stated before, there's a lot of computer skills, electrical diagnostics. There's a lot to this industry and it pays well. People don't understand how well this industry pays. This is not just a low level I-fail-at-life career. This is a career that people are excelling in. This is an actual career. This is a good career to get into. You'll have a job anywhere. You can be picky about where you want to work, especially in a place that's populated. If your boss doesn't do something you like or he's being an asshole, there's about eight shops right down the road that'd be more than happy to hire you probably for a raise.

So trying to get the awareness of this industry out, and I can sit here and blab and talk about it all day long. I've been doing it on social media for years, doesn't make a difference. I've been trying to get other people on here to be like, "Look, I'm not full of shit. There's a bunch of people here of all different levels, and this is their experiences. This is what they feel about the industry," and this is how they feel that we can attack this problem of not enough people getting into this industry.

Fernando:

To be honest, I've talked to a lot of people and almost all of them, like I tell them, "Hey bro, you should be a diesel mechanic," "Yeah, bro. It's a dirty job. I don't like to be greasy..."

Melissa:

Wear gloves.

Fernando:

Yeah, just wear gloves. But there's a lot of people like that.

Melissa:

Well, it is hard work, working overtime and stuff like that is, but it's rewarding as hell. So I tell people all the time, it's one of the most rewarding jobs you can have.

Fernando:

Yeah. I wish people could understand, but...

Melissa:

It takes a certain type of person, but I'm glad that I had you on here because I wanted somebody that did not have an obvious background as to why they chose the industry. Because like I said, my background makes sense. It makes sense. My dad had a long truck. He had a fucking Dodge pickup truck I was obsessed with. Hence why I'm obsessed with second gens because it was a second gen that came from my dad. I grew up around it. So I really wanted to get somebody in here that did not grow up around it and did not have that background, to figure out, "Okay, if you got interested in it and we got you into the industry, how do we get more of you into the industry?" So that's good. Do you have any other questions for me or any other things you want to mention?

Fernando:

What I do want to mention for the kids, for anybody, you have to find your skill, you have to find what you like. You have to find who the real you is, to do something, and I feel like a lot of people do it just because they have to do it to survive. But no, you have to find something that you like and just do it, sharpen. When you sharp iron, the result always comes out really good. They always say when the process is done right, the result comes out.

Melissa:

I like having people on here that want to talk and want to share and want to be in front of the camera and that's good.

Fernando:

But I also want to say too, I actually do want to say this. Melissa, you said that this job pays you with a good result... What was it that you said?

Melissa:

It's a rewarding job.

Fernando:

Rewarding.

Melissa:

Yes.

Fernando:

Yes. That is totally correct because I'm 20 years old, I bought myself my first truck. I have a 2015 2500.

Melissa:

Nice.

Fernando:

I bought it and I paid it off. I'm barely 20. This job can not change your life completely, but it'll get you...

Melissa:

Well, you're definitely above.It's not just a low level paying job. It's not minimum wage. These employers are really stepping up their game and making sure they're paying people what they're worth. I flew through pay raises. I flew through pay raises. Even when I thought there's no way I'm going to get a pay raise because I fucked up so much shit this year. I'd sit down into the review and my boss would be like, "You try hard. You work good, you show up. Here's $2 an hour." I'm like, "Go. That's fucking awesome. Wasn't expecting that." You can go so fucking far. Even if you just stay a mechanic, you can make... I'm not going to put a dollar amount out there because every single area is different on what that value is, but if you don't live in California, no offense, you can make over $30 an hour, easy. Easy. Even just being a shop mechanic, even if it doesn't have that many years of experience, you can make... I ended the industry close to that, really close to that, and I only had seven years in. Obviously, in California, that's $50. But it's more definitely above the mid pay, I'd say. You said you're not even 21 yet, you already bought and paid off truck. There are people in their sixties that haven't done that.

Fernando:

And I also bought myself a house.

Melissa:

I owned a house before I was 21 as well.

Fernando:

I'm proud of it. I'm blessed.

Melissa:

You should be proud of it.

Fernando:

Our work pays off.

Melissa:

It does. Well, that trend is just going to keep increasing because the amount that they're paying people is directly related to the other scale of, this is the amount of people going into the industry. So they need to compensate, and they do. Our industry compensates very well, and they are willing to pay you. They're willing to train you, they're willing to pay you, they're willing to give you all the resources you need to succeed as long as that's what you want.

Fernando:

They do anything like... They actually send you out of state to learn. They pay you to learn, and everything's paid for. You just have to show up.

Melissa:

Yep, yep. All you got to do is make the plane ride. Yep. All of our John Deere training was in Moline, Illinois. I flew to Moline all the time. I appreciate you being on here and appreciate your willingness to talk and share and be honest and realistic with people about how you got into this industry and what you think about it. I appreciate you being on here.

Fernando:

I really appreciate you guys. I really... I'm very... I don't know. I am without words for this amazing opportunity, being on a podcast with another diesel mechanic, diesel technician, and I'm really thankful for this one. Thank you, Melissa.

Melissa:

You're welcome.

Thank you.