Shop interviews are not like office interviews. Nobody is going to ask where you see yourself in five years. What they’re working out is narrower and more practical: can you do the work, will you turn up, and will the rest of the team be able to stand you.
What we’re actually assessing
- Reliability. Genuinely the top of the list. A tech of average skill who is there every day at seven is worth more than a brilliant one who isn’t.
- Honesty about your level. Overstating what you can do gets found out on day two, and it costs you far more than admitting a gap would have.
- Whether you can be taught. Skill gaps are fine. Defensiveness isn’t.
- How you talk about your last shop. Everyone has a bad-employer story. Telling it bitterly makes the interviewer wonder how you’ll describe them.
Questions you’ll probably get, and what they’re really asking
- “Walk me through a job you found difficult.” — Do you have a diagnostic process, or do you replace parts until it stops?
- “What are you not comfortable with yet?” — Are you honest about your limits? Say something real. “Nothing” is the wrong answer.
- “What tools do you have?” — Usually just practical planning, not a test. Answer plainly.
- “Why are you leaving?” — Keep it factual and short. Pay, distance, hours, no path to progress. All fine reasons.
Bring these
- Your certifications — Michigan and ASE, whatever you hold.
- A short list of what you do daily and what you’ve done occasionally. It’s more useful than a formal résumé in this trade.
- Your driver’s licence.
- A rough note of your tools, if asked.
The questions you should be asking
This matters more than people realise. The questions you ask signal your level as clearly as your answers do — and you are also deciding whether to work here.
- “How is pay structured — hourly, flat rate, or a mix — and is there a guarantee while I get up to speed?”
- “What does the path from here look like at one year and three years?”
- “Do you support certification testing?”
- “What’s the mix of maintenance versus diagnostic work?” — tells you whether you’ll be stuck on one job.
- “How long have the technicians here been with you?” — the single most revealing question you can ask. High turnover in a shop is never about the technicians.
Things that quietly cost people the job
- Being late to the interview. In a trade built on scheduling, this is close to fatal.
- Not knowing what you earned or produced at your last shop.
- Talking over the person interviewing you.
- Asking only about pay and time off before any discussion of the work.
- Being unwilling to do a practical assessment. Most shops will ask you to demonstrate something — that’s normal and it’s in your favour if you’re competent.
If you have no experience at all
Say so plainly and lead with what you do have: reliability, mechanical aptitude of any kind, willingness to start at the bottom. Shops that hire entry level — we do — are assessing attitude, because everything else is teachable.
Come and talk to us
We hire technicians at every skill level, plus service advisors and shop managers across 10 Midas shops in Wayne, Oakland and Washtenaw counties. Application takes about two minutes and we reply to everyone.