CLEVELAND — Bob Lytle just joined Jay Collision Center. His experience allowed him to jump right in to his new job.
“I came from another shop that basically closed their shop because they couldn’t find any techs,” Lytle said.
Shop manager Mike Kopczyk said he’s lucky to have found him. He said the industry as a whole is seeing a shortage of new talent ready to fill up a shop.
“Anybody that’s good is gonna already be established at a shop. They’ve probably got years of experience there. The younger generation is dwindling down to where there’s not as many people coming into the business,” Kopczyk said.
He told Spectrum News that schools that teach this trade usually teach you the basics. But he said on-the-job experience is how you grow in this industry.
“To master skills. It’s all time, it’s not anything that you can read in a book,” Kopczyk said.
Experience taught Lytle that the job is more than just hammering away. He said it’s also about learning the precision needed to complete a project correctly. He said there are a lot of ways to do it wrong.
“You could easily cause more damage than good. If you don’t know what you’re doing you could cause the panels to go in wrong,” Lytle said.
