Unique Careers in Parts and Warehousing

As far as automotive careers go, when parts and warehousing careers are brought up, people are usually less than enthused. However, it may surprise you to know that out of the wealth of trades training B.C. has to offer, training to work in the parts and warehousing sector actually provides you with some of the most interesting and unique opportunities in the automotive world. From writing and engaging the public, to successful entrepreneurial endeavours, parts and warehousing is as multifaceted as it is rewarding. These are some of the more unique careers available to graduates of a program in parts and warehousing.

Automotive Service Writer

Love automotive parts and have a natural gift for communication? Well lucky for you, automotive service writers enjoy stable and lucrative work, while getting to exercise their creativity and great interpersonal skills. They act as the liaison between the automotive mechanic and the customer, delivering information and offering advice. Service writers ensure that the proposed repair schedule or solution is not only completed on time but also to the customer’s satisfaction.

The ideal candidate for a service writer is someone who has a knack for problem solving and excellent communication skills. You’ll be responsible for keeping the customer informed on all of the goings-on with their repairs, in addition to ensuring that the processes and repairs that they ask for are being carried out, and not something else. Without an automotive service writer, the communication disconnect between the mechanic and the customer can spell disasters like failing to fix the identified problem or doing more work to the car than needed, resulting in overcharging. Automotive service writers keep the entire operation running smoothly.

Check out this video of an automotive service writer giving some great advice on the 3 C’s of order writing:

• Greeting customers
• Arranging for vehicle service or repair action
• Calculating an estimate based upon the diagnosis
• Monitoring actions of repair and informing customers of the progress
• Generating invoices
• Handling payment transactions
• Following up with customers
• Making courtesy calls
• Keeping inventory levels regulated

Be Your Own Boss: Entrepreneurial Possibilities

With the impeccable training that comes with today’s fast-paced world of auto mechanic apprenticeship, graduates from exceptional automotive programs leave with not only practical, hands-on knowledge of automotive parts and services, but also of the bureaucratic work, computational requirements and finances of the automotive industry. Couple this with a couple of business courses and the prospect of setting up your own parts company or consulting firm is easier than it looks!

Not only will you be doing what you love in a field that you’re enamoured with, but you’ll also have no one to answer to but yourself. If you’ve always wanted to be your own boss, but didn’t want to give up your foothold on the automotive industry this could be just the career track for you!

While the prejudice still remains that parts and warehousing will only lead you to a career pushing around boxes of mufflers in a dingy garage, it couldn’t be further from the truth, and we hope that this blog post helps to dispel that age old cliché, proving that exciting and rewarding work in parts and warehousing is not only possible, it’s inevitable!