Applying for a job and then hearing nothing is the most common experience in this trade, and it is the reason good technicians stop applying anywhere. So here is exactly what happens on our side after you send an application, including the parts that are slower than we would like.
Step one: someone reads it, usually within two business days
Applications go to our hiring team, not into a general inbox. Every one gets read by a person. If you applied on a Friday evening, realistically that means Tuesday.
What we are looking at first is simple: which shop you can get to, what you have done before, and whether you are looking for maintenance work, line work or an advisor seat. We are not screening on spelling or on a perfect résumé. Plenty of the best technicians we have hired wrote three sentences.
Step two: a phone call, ten to fifteen minutes
The first conversation is short and it is not a test. We ask what you have worked on, what you want to be doing in two years, what your commute looks like, and what you need to earn. We will tell you the pay range for the seat before you ask — it is published on our job pages anyway.
The most useful thing you can do on this call is be straight about your level. Saying “I have done brakes and suspension, I have not done driveability” is worth more than claiming everything, because we will find out in the bay and it wastes both our time.
Step three: come to the shop
The interview happens at the store you would actually work at, with the manager you would actually work for. Not at a corporate office, because there isn’t one — this is a family-run group.
Expect to walk the shop. Look at the bays, the equipment, the lifts, how clean it is, whether the technicians look like they are busy or standing around. That last one matters more than anything we say, especially if you are considering a flat rate seat, because car count is what determines your paycheck.
Ask the manager the awkward questions while you are standing there. What is the average tech efficiency here. How long has the longest-serving technician been here. What happened to the person who had this bay before. Managers who answer those questions straight are the ones worth working for.
Step four: a working interview, if it fits
For technician roles we will often ask you to spend a few hours in the bay before either of us commits. This is paid. It is not a free afternoon of labour, and if anyone in this industry asks you to work unpaid to prove yourself, that tells you what you need to know about them.
The point is not to catch you out. It is that some people interview well and work slowly, some people interview badly and are excellent, and a few hours settles it for both sides.
Step five: an offer, in writing
If it is a fit you get an offer with the rate, the pay structure, the schedule and the benefits written down. Health insurance for you and your family, paid vacation, and a 401(k) come with full-time seats.
Read the pay structure carefully — hourly, flat rate or base plus commission are genuinely different jobs financially, and you should understand which one you are signing. If anything is unclear, ask before you sign rather than after.
What the first week looks like
You will be paired with a lead or a senior technician. Nobody is thrown into a bay alone on day one. Expect to spend the first days learning the shop’s systems — how work is dispatched, how inspections are documented, how parts are ordered — more than proving your wrenching.
Bring your hand tools if you have them. If you are entry level and do not, say so before your first day and we will sort out what you need to start rather than letting you walk in unprepared.
Where it goes from there
The ladder here is not decorative. Maintenance technician to line technician to A-tech, and from there to lead, service advisor or shop manager. Several of our managers started in a bay. Pay moves with skills and certifications, and we would rather pay to certify someone we already trust than hire a stranger at a higher rate.
If you have applied and not heard from us within a week, call the shop directly on (313) 436-1667 and ask. That is not a nuisance — things occasionally get missed, and we would rather you chase us than assume the answer was no.
See what is open across our shops in Livonia, Taylor, Canton, Redford, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Southfield.