Profession of automotive technician: successful lateral entry

Profession of automotive technician: successful lateral entry

Alexander Stock found his dream job in a roundabout way, even though it was something he was born with. “My father was a transport contractor and did a lot of tinkering with his own trucks - I watched him do that as a child and later helped him,” he says. However, his early experiences as an assistant mechanic were rather negative - the job seemed too dirty and too cold to him. So Alexander preferred to complete an apprenticeship as a baker, but in everyday working life he realized: “The flour dust is not healthy either, and it only gets warm when the oven is heated up.” After an interlude as a truck driver, he discovered his latent talent for quickly understanding complex technical issues and recognizing the causes of defects that others had overlooked. He quickly decided to enroll in the preparation course for the final apprenticeship exam to become an automotive technician at Wifi Eisenstadt, crammed the relevant specialist literature, completed the exam and, in the same year, the master's exam. The career changer's lightning career caused a stir and earned Alexander Stock an appearance on regional television and a report in a local newspaper. His conclusion from this time: "Further training pays off. As a truck driver, I was an unskilled worker, today I'm a master craftsman."

Today Alexander Stock works as a technology trainer for Knorr-Bremse GmbH in Lower Austria in the commercial vehicles department. He also holds training courses at the Wifis St. Pölten, Linz, Graz, Eisenstadt and Innsbruck as well as at the Automotive Academy in Vienna, which participants need to obtain the §57a test authorization. Stock's specialty is braking systems for commercial vehicles. The now 51-year-old has gained decades of experience in this field since he first helped his father replace worn brake pads as a teenager. Both the employees of the Knorr-Bremse branch in Mödling benefit from Stock's know-how, as do the company's customers, for whom the brake specialist conducts product training, offers support with test procedures and helps with troubleshooting. “A diagnostic device often shows an incorrect error or no error at all, and then things get interesting,” says Stock from experience. His approach to identifying the cause of a defect: “I always look at the mechanics and pneumatics first before I consult the electronic diagnosis.” Particularly in brake systems, certain signs of wear allow clear conclusions to be drawn about specific malfunctions.

Alexander Stock knows from his own experience that theoretical knowledge must be combined with practical exercises in order to consolidate your knowledge in the long term. “The participants in my courses have to lend a hand themselves; I just watch and take corrective action if necessary,” explains Stock. The positive feedback from the participants after completing the course proves him right and makes him happy. Since many older skilled workers were sent into early retirement for economic reasons in the wake of the Corona pandemic, they were unable to pass on their knowledge to their younger successors in a timely manner. The result: Alexander Stock's practical courses are well booked; every year he conducts around 90 training courses, some lasting several days, throughout Austria. The success of his training courses is actually measurable: the number of calls to the Knorr-Bremse technical hotline always drops significantly after training.