[Halon]

Drafting is a good career. We have a lot of them here. But it's counter-intuitive to how you just said you don't want to sit at a desk. From what I've seen, it's pretty much a desk job. Taking engineers designs and drawing them up in various auto-cad type of programs. But that is kind of cool. It's like building stuff, but rather than with your hands, you're building it on a computer making a computer model of it. You'll end up proficient in the autocad programs, which will let you have fun on the side getting to use those skills to draw up car stuff like flanges, manifolds, etc.

If you want actual hands on type of stuff though, I'd get into a technician type of course. Something like Electronics Technician, Robotics Technician, etc. They are very hands on and that degree can apply to so many different things. You can work here building fuel handling cranes, electrical cabinets, gear boxes, traveling to do field service support and installations. You can work at production plants as a maintenance guy on the assembly lines. Comcast installing cable lines, Verizon working on cell towers. A technician type job is very hands on, of course it'll require some desk time to do paper work but just about every job has that. I just always hear stories about people that have automotive tech degrees that end up changing oil at Midas and it takes a long time to get into a real position.

If you went into say the Dunwoody Robotics program, it's 100% placement. When you graduate, you will very likely end up with multiple job options, probably none of them offering less than $40k starting salary. You come work here as a Field Service tech, that'll be your base pay but with all the travel involved you will make almost double that and gain tons of experience. That's pretty good money for a new-grad if you ask me.

And again, I think 3D printing is going to become a big industry. Dunwoody has a program for that as well.


Don't let us change your mind though, choosing a school and a career path is a very personal decision. If automotive is what is really calling your name, don't let any of us stop you. It could lead to working at your dream job working on Jeff Gordon's race team or some shit, who knows. Chances are it won't, but you never know unless you try. Like Jet said, I keep cars as my hobby. After working on other peoples shit boxes all day will probably not leave you with much motivation to work on your own. I'm a hands on type of person too so I went into a profession where I'm still hands on and get to build stuff, without ruining my hobby by making it my job.