Winning respect

Perhaps the only way to know for sure would be to match your skills and techniques against your coworkers in a competition.

Think of it as your shop’s equivalent of the NHL all-star skills competition.

Unfortunately, even a friendly contest isn’t very practical for most shops, where everyone’s busy and problems are as varied as the solutions to them. Besides, most shop owners discourage direct competition between their technicians, preferring instead to foster a cooperative work environment.

There is, however, a major competition open to most technicians.
The ACDelco Technician of the Millennium wound up its third national competition last October in Las Vegas. And the "all-stars" who have been tested – including the Canadian who took home the top prize – say it’s an exhilarating experience.

Dave Weibe, a licensed technician with Crestview Auto Service in Saskatoon, SK, won a Chevrolet Silverado SS pickup, a Snap-on special edition toolbox, a Vetronix MTS 5100 engine analyzer, a subscription to GM Service Information, an SPS Pro Reprogramming System, a Fluke 87 DVOM, and a SPX tool package.

Better than all of that, however, he earned bragging rights as North America’s top technician.

Doing well in the competition is a great boost, he says. "It helps with one’s confidence. It makes you feel that you do know what you’re doing after all."

Besides the ego boost, though, he says it’s good for the trade and the public’s perception of technicians.

"It elevates the status of technicians and the whole trade," he says.
In the previous Technician of the Millennium competition, the top Canadian was Jeffrey Taylor of Eccles Service Center in Dundas, ON. He says competitions are a great way to celebrate the unique skills of automotive service technicians.

You could say the test itself is a little artificial. What are the chances there would be so many faults on such a relatively new vehicle? And in what normal repair situation are you under the kind of scrutiny that the ACDelco officials put you under (where not using a fender mat costs you demerit points, and a spot of grease on the steering wheel could put you out of contention)?

But there’s one thing that’s common to both competition and his everyday work: the need for concentration.

"During the competition, you are completely oblivious," he says. "You know how athletes always say they don’t notice the crowd, or hear the cheers, they’re that focused? Well, you really don’t. I knew there were people around me, but I was just totally absorbed in the repair."

So, what advice would these winners give to aspiring technicians of the millennium? Well, not surprisingly, they want to keep some of their cards to themselves, but here are a few of their ideas on how to distinguish yourself in competition.

Research, research, research

Know everything there is to know about the car you’ll be working on.
ACDelco tells you the make and model of the car that will be the subject of the hands-on competition about two months prior to the competition.

"It showed which competitors were well prepared," Weibe says. "You don’t want to waste time looking for stuff. You want to know where things are."

Taylor agrees, no doubt. When he competed in the 1999 finals, he had to check a particular fuse on the test vehicle – a Buick LeSabre – and unlike some others, he knew where to find it.

"If you didn’t know the fuse box was under the back seat, you were screwed!" he says. "You’d be flipping through the manual trying to figure out where the fuse box was. Only two of us knew where it was!"

Rent, strip, and reassemble

What better way to do research than on the car itself. Since buying one is out of the question, though, renting or borrowing is probably the best option.

Taylor took three cars apart to see what makes them tick. Weibe did the same.

"Everybody there [at the final competition] had a car," according to Taylor. "Whether they tell you they did or not. I know they did because we all talked about it."

Learn to repair in public

Most people hate to work with someone watching over the shoulder. In Las Vegas, there were 5,000 people watching the finals from the grandstands. Then there are the judges. "It’s hard to focus," says Weibe. "People cheer when the cars get started. Every time somebody got something fixed there would be a cheer. It is good for the person that got the thing fixed but bad for everybody else. The audience is told what the problems are. So if the trunk release doesn’t work, they’ll be able to see that. The starting of a car is obvious. A competitor might make a signal when they complete something and there will be a cheer for that. There is cheering for no reason too." Weibe says that there’s no easy way to prepare for this and even some experienced competitors unnerved by this scrutiny.

Don’t get psyched out

As with most competitions strategy is important. Technician of the Millennium competitors know there are things you can do things to unravel your opponents. Being the first to start your car is one of the best ways to do it.

"If you get it started first, you psyche everybody out," says Taylor. "It costs you five or six minutes when you hear that car start beside you or down the line. It costs you mental time because it does frazzle you – it frazzles me. When I did it in the regionals here in Toronto, I was the first one to get it going. I was fourth or fifth to get the car started in Vegas."

Reverse psychology also works. In the regional competition. Weibe purposefully left the starting of the car for last.

"The strategy I used in the regionals in Vancouver was to not start the car until the end. I did not use that in Vegas. I’m not sure why. I guess I just wanted to go head on," says Weibe. "Maybe I just tried to win without using some strange ideas or strategy or maybe it seemed like going straight ahead was the way to do it in this particular instance."

As far as he knew, nobody tried to elicit cheers from the audience to unnerve the other competitors.

Bring your poker face

Although you share many things with the people who are in the competition, you’re out to beat these people, just as they’re out to beat you. Not much information or chit-chat happens before the competition.

"You know people, especially in the regionals, says Taylor. "You meet them at training classes and see them at different events. One of the guys I competed against at the regionals works with me everyday in our shop."

Weibe says he keeps the chit-chat to a minimum, especially when people start asking him questions that could reveal his strategies. "I wouldn’t want to give them any advice because I don’t want them beating me."

Capitalize on the written test

Probably the least stressful part of this competition is the written test. It contains 100 multiple choice questions. "It goes from super basic to complex wiring diagrams where you have to figure out where the problem is," says Taylor. "With multiple choice it’s easy because the answer is always there. You just have to find it."
If you study hard, you can get some easy points.

Be clean

Although technical prowess and speed in diagnosing problems is the key to the Technician of the Millennium competition, work habits and clean-up are also monitored. Not using a fender mat when peering into the engine bay will costs you demerit points. Leaving marks, such as palm prints or grease stains, will also cost you dearly. And these could be the difference between winning and losing.

For now, the competition is over, but both Weibe and Taylor plan to enter the ACDelco Technician of the Millennium competition again.
"It’s a challenge," says Taylor.