Hey guys and gals I am thinking bout moving to Arizona to attend UTI. I know there are a few of you guys on here that are attending or have attended. I would like to know what you thought about the school and for those of you that have graduated how easy was it to get employed ? K a bit about me, I have been going to school for welding and have done all my pre requisites for welding and for a two year automotive program. The thing is I dont want to attend school here anymore, there is not much to do in my town and its a go no were type of town. I can move to a bigger city like Seattle or Portland but would rather go further and to a nicer school.

I have seen a lot of the friends I have grown up with settle for ____ jobs, or go off to school just to drop out. I have a few that have gotten out of town and are doing good. Most of my friends that have done something with themselves either went off to a military branch or have left town for good paying jobs. i have seen a lot the people I graduated high school start having kids and settling for the local mills and ware house work. I have seen friends get involved in drugs and the partying has taken over their lives. I on the other hand have a dream and goals that I would like to accomplish.

I have been in the phoenix area before. I don't remember much though since I was younger. I am still a young guy so I can make things happen if I put my mind to it. My goals are to attend UTI than when I am done with the program look into getting ASE certified. I also plan after that program to attend School of Automotive Machinist in Texas. The reason I would like to do Arizona first and the reason I would like to attend both schools is because I would like to get a job related to the racing scene. I understand it is going to take some time to get their but I have 100 percent support from my parents and family so that is definitely a plus. My best friend is also moving down to Arizona but through his work. But we plan on some day moving back home when we have our educations complete and start up our own business, geared towards the import industry to keep it going.

I have a few questions for all you in the area, I have automotive experience as I have worked at Napa, AutoZone, Sears automotive and a few other shops. i have done pretty much everything from alignments to motor swaps. I was wondering how the job market it over their ? Since I will need to find a job in order to live on my own. I would really like to work in a shop working on cars or selling parts. I am just looking to expand my knowledge and experience. I also have welding experience so I can look for something in that neighborhood as well.

I know I wrote a lot so to those of you that took some time to read this I appreciate it. I just wanted you guys to know more were I am coming from. I am not planning on going down their just to get away from home to party, those are not my intentions. I am looking to get my life together and grow up and do something with myself.

(UPDATE) 4/17/09 UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE 4/17

Ok so I got accepted to UTI, but I am having second thoughts after my instructor talked to me and told me he would recommend WYO tech for what I am interested in. He told me that he went to UTI and did not recommend it to me and to go to wyo tech if I did not stay and do his program. I dont know what route to go anymore as I looked into WYO tech when I was younger but did not look back since. So after I got off the phone with the representative from UTI I decided to check out the WYO tech web site and well they seem to offer more programs specialized towards the performance aspect of the industry, witch is were I am trying to go with my career. They also encourage to be your own boss rather than be an employee. anyone on here gone to WYO tech ? I would like to hear some input please.

I am also looking to get more involved with a good car club and meet friends that are into the same things. car scene down here is going downhill and everyone that has something impressive only bring it out a few times a year.

I went to the Avondale campus. It has its ups and downs. If you do decide to go to UTI, I HIGHLY recommend that you take Ford FACT after. I learned more in the 5 months of FACT than I did in the 12 months of UTI.

what about the other programs they offer ? i have no problem with ford but what bout the mercedes or porsche ?

Porsche is very hard to get into, and it's not even as good as the FACT training. If you want to work for Porsche, you have to have that training, but a lot of other manufacturers won't give a crap about it.
Mercedes wasn't offered when I was there, so no clue on that.
Audi has great training, that's another one of the top programs.
BMW training is also hard to get into, but you're essentially signing up for nazi camp :lol:.
Volvo is everyone's back up. Then everyone that gets into it says they wish they made it their first.

But FACT is by far the most advanced training program. Almost all manufacturers will recognize it and it's VERY hard to get into if you're not attending UTI. If you're attending UTI, you basically sign the paper and you're in. I got a job at a Paul Miller dealership (Porsche, Bentley, Rolls, Audi, Land Rover, BMW, and Honda + they frequently deal with Lamborghini) because of the FACT training. I had literally zero work experience and they hired me right away.


As far as the job market in Arizona, there are a LOT of dealerships and Phoenix is rapidly expanding. When I moved to Avondale, my apartment complex was just about as far west as possible in the Phoenix area...by the time I moved 18 months later, it had expanded another 10-15 miles west.

Ask aen too. He's currently going there

nice i would really like to get into something like that. the ford program was what my buddy told me to do also. he was signed up ready to go their and then he got offered a job working on windmills for good cash so he packed up his bags and took the job. he makes good money and all but he still wishes he would have gone to school. me on the other hand was offered a chance to work at Hanford nuclear chemical depot ( were the nuclear bomb we dropped in Hiroshima came from ) for 29/ hour starting out . I turned it down cause i know I will fall in love with the money and forget my dreams. It happened to my parents and a lot of people I know. I would rather do something that will make me happy the rest of my life. thanks a lot guys. I would most likely go for a dealership job, I plan on going down there in the summer time to go look for work before i go down. Think a dealer will give me a job because im going to school their ?

wow, I'm currently going to school for criminal justice, and what you're doing is actually my dream... I really love cars, but Law Enforcement is what I know. I really have very little experience except for working on my car a little bit. I'm watching this thread because the path you're taking sounds like something I might want to do....

wow, I'm currently going to school for criminal justice, and what you're doing is actually my dream... I really love cars, but Law Enforcement is what I know. I really have very little experience except for working on my car a little bit. I'm watching this thread because the path you're taking sounds like something I might want to do....

same here in regards to the dream...

hey scikotic, just think, if you did come out to phoenix, you'd be local to todd... lol

haha i know man. That will be sweet since I will be running his kit really really soon. I have almost everything. I have asked him if he needed any help in the shop I would kill to get a job working with Todd building some sick ___ products, I am not counting on it though but it would be sick. Maybe I can get a job at a dealership or local shop and see if he needs an extra hand everyonce in a while. That is the reason that I have taken welding as I would like to some day build turbo systems for our cars and be able to tune and do some crazy stuff with them as well. thanks a lot guys.

i recommend it. i graduated from uti 12 yrs ago. and now i can finally afford to do a few mods to my car

what program you take ? what did you like about it ?

i just read over all of this and my room mate is contemplating on doing the same. Good luck with your decision bro.

thanks man were are you located ? what is he thinking bout doing ? just get more involved in the racing part of the industry ?

i think he was thinking about going to the one in houston to work at a dealership

thats tight man. I have heard that AZ has a good import and racing scene.

Just my 2cents.

I am not trying to knock on you but i would think about this long and hard.The economy is ____ right now and the job market for mechanics no es bueno.I have a handful of friends that all have degrees form UTI and cant get a job to save there lives.Maybe the job market will be better after you graduate,but i personally would wait a lil while.Good luck with your decisions and i hope it works out for ya man.

This is a local car club that i hang out with.They are a good group of people.If you do come down feel free to stop by and come hang out
Teamv-locity.com

my opinion. the job market for mechanics are pretty good right now. my shop is even hiring. do it. make the move. dont sit around wasting time thinking about it. i took auto and diesel. i make a living working on diesels. its where the moneys at

Just my 2cents.

I am not trying to knock on you but i would think about this long and hard.The economy is poop right now and the job market for mechanics no es bueno.I have a handful of friends that all have degrees form UTI and cant get a job to save there lives.Maybe the job market will be better after you graduate,but i personally would wait a lil while.Good luck with your decisions and i hope it works out for ya man.

This is a local car club that i hang out with.They are a good group of people.If you do come down feel free to stop by and come hang out
Teamv-locity.com

Ya I am definitely taking time to think about it. But you also gotta remember I will be done with my AAS in welding before i move from here, meaning if I cannot find a job as a mechanic I can always weld for a living. I just started working again so I am saving my money. I still have to finish my car though. I am just tired of the small Community college and small town. I plan on getting in with a race team after my schooling is done. will see though. I am not trying to become a regular OE dealer mechanic. thanks guys .

UTI...
Take some Keflex and the infection will go away. :rofl:

.....or you can join the air force :wink:

Ya believe it or not I was considering it. I went and did all the test and got approved, I scored well on my test and passed the physical exam. I have friends and family in every branch of the military including air force, so i have spoken with them about it. But at this point that is not were i want to go. I would rather stick to schooling and experience to get me were I want to be. By 25 if my career does not look promising than I will join hands down. that has always been my back up since day one.

i would wait. i recently graduated from UTI sacaramento campus in auto technology with toyota t-ten program.... and i can't get a job to save my life. job market (at least around here) is horrible. i even have a couple ASE's and still no luck.

that sucks man. having no job sucks. I am not planning to go to that school to get a job following it. I am just planning on attending to learn the content and move on to SAM racing. I am doing it so I can get ASE certified. If everything fails I would have no problem with traveling to a different country to work ... like Australia, were the import scene is really hott and their economy is doing good.

yea sounds like u know what u want.

u know u don't need to go to school to get ASE's. as long as you can pass the tests and have 2 years automotive experience u can get them.


my whole problem is not being able to relocate.
i wanna wait till my daughter turns 18 in 3 more years. then ill be free to do whatever.

Well if you go, it's 12 months + 5 for FACT, and there is probably a 1-3 month wait to get in. So it'll be almost 2 years before you finally get out of school.

UPDATE

ive heard good things about WyoTech. would you be going to the campus in Laramie?

Has anyone on here attended wyo tech ? or know of anyone attending ?

ya the laramie campus.

Laramie is a cool town if you dont mind there only being like a walmart and a few grocery stores.

i was there for about a year at UW before coming down to AZ

I am trying to get a job as an engine builder. or R and D for a big company. I would like for some day open my own shop. I would like to get ASE certified too while doing it. I have been going to school for welding and in 6 months will have my aas. so I am trying to continue on with my education to make me more well rounded.

nice man. I ride quads so I am sure i will find some were to ride.

can a mod please move this to the off topic section ?

Wyo tech is an excellent school, they were even used for an episode of Overhaullin. The tuner scene is supprisingly large there in part due to no emission standards in Wyoming.

Oh and if you can weld then the oil field has a job for you or the coal mine they are always hireing, you could work and go to school at the same time.

On the down side Laramie is a cold and baren location, it is the only placed ive ever lived where the wind prevented me from going for a bike ride, for multiple days in a row. Also the university of wyoming is there and most of the townies have attitudes towards the tech students.

So if you can handle the cold and wind and plan to go just for the education Wyo tech all the way. Just when your looking for an apartment dont tell em youll be going to Wyo tech.

ok sounds good. The laramie campus does not offer the performance and powertrain package I was thinking bout taking. I would have to go to the sacramento campus. But it is closer to my home If I go to Sacramento. The performance and powertrain is were I want to specialize in as well as motorsports and chassis building and I am not too sure bout their hot rod program. But ya I am going to school just for school and no partying for me. those days are gone, just trying to get ahead in life. thanks. I have heard good things bout them so I am not sure might change my mind from UTI.

i graduated uti with ford fact, all 8 ASE'S and everything under the sun.

im having trouble finding a job, but when the economy picks up....

haha, in any case, go to uti, wyotech doesn't have the support that uti does.

OH, bmw and mercedes have dropped out of the dealership programs so you can't get into their programs even if you wanted to

how do i know? i was supposed to start mercedes may8th but they shut that down and the last graduating mercedes class was april 11th

fml.

I say get your bachelors then go to UTI

Get a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. If you can put in 12+ hrs/day thinking of nothing but calculus and systems you should do rather well. In the long run you will make way more money as an engineer than a tech. And combining the two makes you invaluable.

In all reality the school work is not that bad, become an engineer and you will never regret it.

yea that's what im doing, im going back to college for mechanical engineering =D

that's actually partially why i can't find a job, im focusing on school too and that's on the backburner

Ya I suck at math horribly. I did an Automotive math 111 and damn that siht was hard. But I did pass it, I spent most of my time doing homework than the time I was in class. I have all my pre recs done to start the auto program here locally next fall but I really need to get out of the area, I hate the town I have grown up in now. I registered to go to WYO tech starting school on September 29. I talked to a representative from both schools and the one from WYO tech was less pushy and a lot cooler of a guy. Plus we took a cruise around town and talked to some of the guys that graduated from WYO tech locally and they had plenty of good things to say. So that is were I will be attending school. I am taking the motorsports and chassis, hot rod and upholstery programs that they offer. Best of all that is 9 months worth of specialty programs and I will still pay less than attending UTI. That is the main thing for going that route as I am trying to get into a specialty field and own my own business one day. Also I will be getting my associates degree after I am done with it all. Best of all if I finish school with good grades and attendance my uncle is going to reward me with 10g worth of snap on tools, witch equates to 20G of snap on tools since you get 50% off all snap on equipment once you are enrolled in the program for the year you are in and the following year. So it does not seem bad to me. I plan on starting my own bushiness doing upholstery and then going from their and let it evolve. thanks for everyone opinions and help you guys are good people.

hopefully wyotech works out for you im going to UTI and interning at WORLD racing in torrance so i get the best of both worlds

Ya i know your lucky man. Rob was saying some good things bout you the other day I called him. I was talking to him about this very thing.. How long is your internship ? He helped me out with trying to get on with a race team. What are you planning on doing after the internship ? Is it fun working for them ? let me know some details man, me and you have the same goals it seems like man. Nice to find other people going to school for similar things.

I met the guy that teaches the upholstry program at Wyo tech he is very genuine, and the work his students put out is first rate.

When you can't take Laramie any longer take a cruise across the border to Ft. Collins aka Ft. Fun, it is a whole different world than Laramie.

When you can't take Laramie any longer take a cruise across the border to Ft. Collins aka Ft. Fun, it is a whole different world than Laramie.

+1 on that... Laramie has nothing compared to Ft. Collins... just watch out and try not to identify yourself as being from Wyoming when you're around CSU...

I went to the boston campus... my feeling on UTI is its alot more glamorous when they are trying to get you to go there then when you are actually there.. i dont want to no recommend it but its exhausting they dont put you in the best environment to succeed. You have to options for classes 6:30 A.M. to 1 P.M. or 2P.M. to 8:30P.M. i was in the morning group had to wake up at about 5:15 every morning go to school til 1 work from 1:30 to 10 everynight just to be able to pay for rent and all the other bills that come with it... its just completly exhausting.. and too get into any of the MSATS you pretty much have to have a perfect record with a 4.0 and perfect attendance.. there is so much put on too you to not do anything wrong... most of the msats wont even look at your app if they see you have any accidents or speeding tickets.. plus with all of this they talk about all the money you will be making i work at a bmw dealership now.. not as a tech.. but these guys arent making nearly as much as UTI tells you, you could be making... UTI told me if i went through the BMW msat i would come out making around 50k a year... and when i got to the level of a master tech i could be making close to 100k... i cant guarantee you none of the guys in my shop now make close to 100k and there are a hand full of mastertechs... i bet most of them are barely making over 50k... my feeling on UTI is its just like a comm coll... all the kids that dont know exactly what they want to do or just are lazy or dont care go there they will literally take anyone that applies... and half the kids i was in school with didnt give a ____ and wasted my class time while i was trying to learn... not to say other people didnt have good experiences at UTI but mine wasnt very sucessful... haha but if cars are what you really love and you think its a career you want to be doing for the rest of your life then go for it....

You would have been much happier with the evening class. The first two hours of the class aren't spent waking up.

And it's not just the MSATS that look at your driving record. When you try to get a job, every dealer will run a check. They have to insure you because you will be driving the customer vehicles on a daily basis.

agreed. it wasn't the experience that ithoght it would be, the classes were way too long and all the instructors frowned upon people that aren't shooting for dealerships. I was a premed student prior to, though that would have earned some sort of respect in another college, this school looked down upon that, always asking me why i'm there; like i'm wasting their time and my own.

i never understood that, and no i didn't walk in as a pompous douche

Msats that look at your driving record is a given though, stop driving like an idiot and you'll be fine. they put emphasis on doing nothing wrong because that's what companies look for nowadays, the best of the best. the ones that actually try.

another gripe i always had was that some of the instructors have noidea what they were talking about. forinstance, some would get mad when you asked questions, specific questions or snap back with "we don't teach that in this school"


air conditioning: the instructor was talking about thermodynamics and the laws of. i proceeded to ask a couple of questions on thermodynamics and how it all works, he was wrong. i knew something was fishy from the moment that he started talking about it. (i took 3 thermodynamics classes in college prior to coming to uti) he proceeded to tell me that this isn't something that everybody wants to know and that i should keep those questions to myself. Most of the class screamed "yea!" and "that's college ____ stop asking that ____" "do you think we're in college or something?!" followed by bouts of laughter and such.

the worst part of it though is that for the rest of the class he hated me, he would give out test answers when i went to the bathroom, would try his hardest to get me to rephase, and refer to me whenever he wasn't sure about something that somebody else asked as the smartie that knew everything....i answered everything accurately. lol that ____ed him off hardcore

AEN, does Ms Beach still work there?

nope. i was refering to bachrodt though

wait is ms beach the audi instructor?

No, she teaches the intro class and service writing.

ya that is what I started to hear, everything changed when the local community college instructor that graduated from UTI told me to really consider WYO tech for what I am wanting to learn after he went their for spring break and sat in classes for 2 weeks. That meant a lot and changed my decision. I am now enrolled at WYO tech laramie campus so we will see how that goes. I dont want to work for a dealership I could care less bout it I want to open my own shop some day. Those are my goals and that is what I will stick too. I am trying to get on with a good race team after wyo tech for the experience before going solo.

I have the same gripes... they didnt necessarily hire the best teachers they just hired guys that were good at working on cars... that doesnt at all mean they know how to teach... i had a guy that moved here from spain haha... mr.gomez... that was a hard 3 weeks its really tough trying to learn when you cant really understand what the teacher is saying... i thought that was really difficult...

i will say this though, uti is looked upon higher than wyotech.

i will say this though, uti is looked upon higher than wyotech.

yeah, sad as it is UTI is placed higher than wyotech from employer's view.

the only manufacturer that i know of that is affiliated with wyotech is honda.

I am not gonna work at a dealership so what would that matter if dealers dont look at wyo tech like that ? I am a welder also, I am about 5 months from my aas. If I wanted to get a job because my goals aiint working out for me than by all means I would get a job welding. Everyone keeps saying that dealers look for this and that and well I dont care what dealers are looking for cause I am not trying to get stuck in a shop getting paid ____. I would rather make something of it. I am young and dont have any kids and dont have a problem living away from my home. I am trying to get a job that I will love for the rest of my life not something that I am going to wake up in the morning and dread going to work.

ok sorry.

no need to apoligize man. Others will find it useful that might be in the same boat.