Honest,Educated Opinions Please; Wyotech\tradeschool

[retodd7711]

Keep us posted on your progress.
Both the good and bad as there are other guys facing the same decision as you.
Best of luck in your choice!

[hAetWagon]

Okay guys here's the update on Wyotech as I started yesterday.

To answer ..someone.. I can't remember who. As far as my skill level.
I'm an accomplished ,experienced machinist and do whatever I focus on well. I expect to graduate at the top of my class, that's my goal that I've set anyhow. For 27k excellence is a must.

The school is very strict as far as appearance and dress code are concerned. This is hilarious to watch as you can imagine.
I'm one of the older guys and y to watch nit's fun to watch the young guys try to buck the system.

A couple things have struck me so far negatively.
I'm still in the classwork phase and haven't covered anything new as of yet so for now I can't say much.

1. After the staff get you all sigend up and committed; they all act like you are being a huge inconvenience bythem having to talk to you. I'm not being a whiny little girl here either. I've been a bouncer for years and can deal with some ridiculous crapola without letting it bother me. I had 6 people in a row give me attitude within 20 mins and its bothering me,
2. One of the buttons fell off of my brand new shirt and they refuse to replace it. saying to just sew a new one on...
3. They forced a laptop on me with my tuition to the tune of $1000.00 It is a lesser model than what I have now, and is refurbished, valued somewhere around $300.00

To summarize it's typical salesman BS. Wine and dine you and then forget you exist. I don't know if they think I'm young or something but I'm keeping my eyes and ears open and mouth shut.

In the end I won't leave because of it. The instructors seems great and I'm very excited. IF I buy a 27k dinner I just expect a hug or some lovin..sheesh

[newagecustom]

I graduated from uti in 2000. I had some negative and some positve experiences but overall i think i would have been better off taking an apprentice at a dealer or independent shop and investing the money in tools and equipment. But in the end its your decision, i applaud you for making an informed choice before jumping into it.

[hAetWagon]

Thanks bro, I did consider that as well and actually tried to go that route about a year ago. Being in the capital of California though everyone wants a rockstar as an employee.
I know I won't be when I get out but I'll have a good head start. I also don't know where I'll be geographically so I wanted a head start that applies multiple places. PLus I'm going to strive to get every optional certification that I can incl Aluminum mig welding etc.
In the end I may not get a job in a body shop right off the bat but I'll at least have all my welding certs under my belt.

I've decided to keep this thread going as it pops up when searching for Wyotech and opinions on Google and will hopefully be a big help to folks in the future.

[jason65]

Good luck dude.

[Corts60]

Glad to see you are following through! I don't know what it is with people that act like that. It is their job to help you and then they give you crap.

But hey, such is life. Good luck with everything man!

[hAetWagon]

Here's an update:
This will really help with accountability as well.

We're a month in and have been in the shop for 2 weeks now.
I''m holding a 97% on all of my exams and have perfect attendance.
I'm also doing very well on all of my competencies.
Welding is going very very well.
Metal refinishing ( to repair sheet metal without plastic filler ) is going AWESOME.
Combining this with body filler is going very well also.
My goal is to get through all of my competencies so I can take my truck in as are the rules.

I've mentioned before that I have very high standards for myself seeing as this is such a large investment and since I'm almost 30.

Things are on track.
100% in the class is 2200 points and is a culmination of exams,quizzes, labs and competency points. It is very strict though. There's a lineup every morning to check your appearance,
(shirts wrinkle free, pants that fit,belt, no earrings, must be military shaven.)
points can be deducted at every turn. So far I have not had any points deducted.
I selected the 3 guys in my tool group carefully and it was a wise decision.
One gentleman is 40, and is here because he wants to be. He's competition for me seeing as he can focus like you should in a situation like this.
Another kid is 17 and is my direct competition. He graduated 3weeks before school starting and jumped right in. He's very intelligent and could pass for 30 on the maturity scale.
The other guy, the 40yo picked. I've had to go back and redo some stuff during reassembly but whatever.
Out of a class of 60 we've lost 5 so far.
If I owned a shop and had to hire people TODAY.
I'd hire the 2 guys from my toolgroup.
out of 60.
This blows my mind. Everyone in there is sleeping and dickin around like it's still high school. More than half the class is failing.

I'm on track for my personal goals.
Out of the 55 left I'm at the top of my class.
still have all of my professionalism points.
was nominated a class leader by my instructors and elected as such by the class Thursday.
So far this is the greatest thing I've ever done. Wyotech is making money off of it's students at every turn from tuition,to housing,to the laptops forced onto us...but it's ok.
I'm going to squeeze everything I can out of this and want to make sure that every option is available to me.

Perhaps I have a larger fire under my ass though. The past couple years have been very tough and the downstream challenges aren't over.
My credit sucks so I can't finance tools. (and take advantage of the 55% off we get from Snapon for being a student) so I'm having to work to pay for housing of course but still need to get tooled up for a year from now. I'm currently working two jobs as security at a couple nightclubs, training Wednesdays to bartend at one of them and am trying like hell to get a job right after school.
The last three days of the week are rough as I'm going on a couple hours of sleep.

MY bodybuilding lifestyle has gone out the window for the moment. And that's how I know I'm growing up. Priorities....ugh.

I honestly love what I'm doing though. REALLY love it.

[fastwillie 696969]

lawnmower mechanic is good to get into i dont know any one laying off
lawnmowers

[b-rad]

Originally Posted by 70blowngmc

lawnmower mechanic is good to get into i dont know any one laying off
lawnmowers

dude u are a 100% right that is what i plain on doing when i get out of the army

[hAetWagon]

Originally Posted by b-rad

dude u are a 100% right that is what i plain on doing when i get out of the army

I hope you are kidding man.
How much is it to buy a new lawn mower?

[b-rad]

Originally Posted by hAetWagon

I hope you are kidding man.
How much is it to buy a new lawn mower?

no I'm not kidding. they are great money to be maid no not on your 100 bucks a pop lawn mower but when we are talking about being a john deer or any high end mower dealership yes they are great money to be maid

thank about u have a town of say 100'000 households granted not every one will own a mower,weed eater,generator,chainsaw,pressure washer,welder,log splitter,boat, ECT but some will own all of the above. that is allot of small ENG so yes they are great money to be had working on small Eng

[hAetWagon]

Wow, hey thanks...

[attack eagle]

LOL. military shave? Cockamamie BS.

I'd take the point or ten or 50 & keep my goatee.

I love light being thrown on the scam angle, I always figured it had a huge one. (snap on, laptop, etc)

Like when my friend went to trucking school, and the mandatory housing they paid for was 5-6 people in a run down hotel room, & sharing beds.

[hAetWagon]

Originally Posted by attack eagle

LOL. military shave? Cockamamie BS.

I'd take the point or ten or 50 & keep my goatee.

I love light being thrown on the scam angle, I always figured it had a huge one. (snap on, laptop, etc)

Like when my friend went to trucking school, and the mandatory housing they paid for was 5-6 people in a run down hotel room, & sharing beds.

Not shaving would get you thrown out. I figure that I'm there for more important reasons than keeping my Sabretooth Chops that looked all sexy on me... and they did.

I Bolded the above statement because this is happening here as well.
It's not mandatory by any means but Wyotech is charging students $475 a month for a one bedroom apartment and cramming 3 students to a room.The apartments go for $525.00
The check is cut to the school for each student and the surplus is kept.
The instructors and the equipment make the school.( or break it I'd imagine.)
The textbooks that we have are full of all kinds of dumbass typos incl misspellings.

Someone forgot to put blanks in place of fill in the blank questions in the back.

And my big burn so far is that the reason we have the laptops is to take exams and study. except that if you take the quizzes and answer them all correctly it doesn't always show 100% because whoever set them up weighs the incorrect answer. I've been working with the instructor to document this so far.

Attack Eagle, I don't get what you mean regarding Snapon tools being part of a scam, though.
1. The school is a business and I get this..sometimes it's just too much.
2. I get 55% off of Snapon tools while I'm in school which is 30% better than what my dad gets as a Journeyman Mechanic at his Plant.

All in all I regret nothing.
You get out what you put into anything and I'm giving it everything I've got.

I'm going to be very unbiased in this thread moving forward and just present facts. If I come out of this achieving all of my goals as I'm on track to do, with all of the highest honors and noone wants to touch me; you better believe this thread will be all over the place. But I don't expect that.
I still believe it is the best thing I've done so far.
And frankly the Housing Bs and everything else could have been avoided if those attending would have just done research beforehand.(I'm speaking of this instance at Wytotech)

[attack eagle]

Man, Me with a bunch of red/infected/bleeding/suppurating razor bumps is a LOT less professional than my 1/4" (or even 1/8th) long goatee. It is just one of those BS things there to pick on people/kick them out and keep their $. At least the military justifies it because of gas/oxygen mask seals...

IRL, Shops don;t care about facial hair, as long as it isn't a safety hazard (zztop'd) or disheveled. Mechanics don't talk to customers 99% of the time. Every shop i worked at or go to now, guys have the option of goatees or mustaches, or beards...


We have a Wyotech here... and I've heard the same complaints about the unprofessionalism (and sometimes ignorance) of the school's learning materials, staff, etc. and about them bending people over at every opportunity. It is sad that your experiences (despite you putting the best face on them) uphold the negative things I have been told by other students about how they generally operate. I thought It was just typical el paso.

ANyway though as long as YOU feel it is worth it and you are getting your money's worth that is what is important. I just have a bad attitude, I guess.








than I apologize... I understood there to be pressure to buy from snap-on (as opposed to blue point, mac, etc). 55% off snap on makes them jsut about the same price as other tools of equal quality.

Lemme tell you though, those $5000 tool boxes, $1500 toolsets etc? Scam + 1/2. They make Craftsman look like a bargain and it is in comparison. Do not buy that stuff.

[hAetWagon]

Originally Posted by attack eagle

Man, Me with a bunch of red/infected/bleeding/suppurating razor bumps is a LOT less professional than my 1/4" (or even 1/8th) long goatee. It is just one of those BS things there to pick on people/kick them out and keep their $. At least the military justifies it because of gas/oxygen mask seals...

IRL, Shops don;t care about facial hair, as long as it isn't a safety hazard (zztop'd) or disheveled. Mechanics don't talk to customers 99% of the time. Every shop i worked at or go to now, guys have the option of goatees or mustaches, or beards...


We have a Wyotech here... and I've heard the same complaints about the unprofessionalism (and sometimes ignorance) of the school's learning materials, staff, etc. and about them bending people over at every opportunity. It is sad that your experiences (despite you putting the best face on them) uphold the negative things I have been told by other students about how they generally operate. I thought It was just typical el paso.

ANyway though as long as YOU feel it is worth it and you are getting your money's worth that is what is important. I just have a bad attitude, I guess.








than I apologize... I understood there to be pressure to buy from snap-on (as opposed to blue point, mac, etc). 55% off snap on makes them jsut about the same price as other tools of equal quality.

Lemme tell you though, those $5000 tool boxes, $1500 toolsets etc? Scam + 1/2. They make Craftsman look like a bargain and it is in comparison. Do not buy that stuff.

That's a shame to hear that.
At this point I can't say anything is worth anything. The only way I'll know is when it's all said and done.

[hAetWagon]

I promised I was going to be as unbiased as possible and I'm about to wrap this thread up.

[UltraBlue71]

Good luck in School!

[devilmike82]

Having attended UTI and then becoming a Marine I can throw a little in here. We have a saying that if you're looking to go to college then join the Army. Not to say we aren't education oriented, but the operational pace per capita is much higher during an enlistment in the Marine Corps than elsewhere. (for all my army grunt bubbas in here please note I said per capita and we are a much smaller organization than the army.) I think you made the right choice and as long as you're learning that's great, but at the end of the day that piece of paper after you graduate from any school is going to speak volumes to your level of commitment to something and employers know that. The job experience, as with anything else, will come with time.

[jjjmm56]

I wish you luck, I was an instructor at MMI and about one third of the students were placed after grad. They also had bull$hit rules not only for the students but also for the teachers. I got out and went back to what I allways did, machine tool repair. This is an occupation that has no new people taking over for us older guys. With your machining background this is something you could also look into. Pay is great and there are pleanty of jobs to be had. We can't find any repair techs and been looking for almost a year. You might have to relocate to find work.