Pre-Internship Blog 1/7/25: I'm excited to start the first day of my internship tomorrow, and my goal by the end of this is to be much more experienced with everything car-related.  Hopefully in the future, if any problem comes up with my car I'll be experienced enough to work on it, only because I interned at Wolf's for a month of course. This will end up saving me money later down the road and I'll be so glad I got expierience with cars. My ultimate dream for the month would be to pick up things super fast and catch onto all the mechanic work. As the more I learn now, the more well-versed I will be. Ideally, I would like enough experience to be able to work on cars myself. A fear I have this month would be the mechanic work being a lot harder and more tedious than I expected, maybe even causing me to mess up a few times.

Start of Internship Blog 1/9/25: Something I'm surprised by at my internship site is the strong sense of independence as most of the mechanics work by themselves on their own projects. Obviously when further help is needed the rest of the shop will get involved. Everyone has their own tools and their own station (can be seen in the image to the left.) Another thing I learned which explains all the independent work is that it is commission-based pay here. This has its pros and cons as when problems arise it can get very stressful and can affect your pay for the day.

1/10/25: Zach is an employee that I've been working with. He has been in the car business for 8 years and is currently in school to become a master technician. He worked at the BMW dealership for 4 years and after COVID-19 hit, he came to Wolfs Foreign Cars. He has been working at Wolfs for 4 years and right now he is working as a lube tech. Lube techs are basically mechanics who do day-to-day oil changes and your typical maintenance. Zach has been helping me out and he has been teaching me what it's like to be a mechanic.

Week #2 Blog 1/13/25: How do I see myself growing or changing during the internship? Well, first, I have learned more about cars in the last 3 days here at Wolf’s than I have my entire life. Just by shadowing, I have been able to learn so much and the hands-on things I do from time to time are very educational. The hands-on learning is more of a learn-as-you-go type of thing. You might make a slight mistake, but then you adjust and learn. So far I’ve already grown so much in the mechanics area and in 3 days I’ve already learned plenty of tips and tricks that I will carry with me throughout the rest of my life.

1/14/25: A classic and valuable lesson from the Internship that I will take back to school is trial and error. Ironically, as much as we hear it, we often forget what it’s really about. This internship has really reminded me of that and the process can sometimes be very tedious and challenging. If anything, though, it makes the final product/reward so much more satisfying. I plan to apply this more thoroughly when I’m back in school, most specifically in math class. This will improve my academics drastically as I will never give up and I will persevere through challenges and come back at them with a different approach.

Final Project: 

My final project will consist of me performing a full service by myself, along with creating a tutorial for future interns. I will be making a step-by-step guide/walkthrough of a service for future interns here at Wolf’s. I believe this walkthrough will benefit the organization, and future interns, and possibly others outside of it all together. Getting specific, this would help Wolf’s by quickly educating and giving the interns an overview of what they are going to be doing here. In one short video/guide, I can show them the tips and tricks I learned over a month. This project will not only utilize my creative and editing skills, it will also develop more of my newfound mechanic and automotive skills. By walking people through the process on video, I will also be walking myself through it. It’ll help engrave these skills into my brain (Hopefully). Honestly, I will probably watch my own guide over in the future when a problem with my car comes up. The only thing I am not sure of at the moment is what car I will be doing this on. Right now, I am thinking of either Honda or Toyota.

 Week #3 Blog 1/21/25: Some things I am thankful for during my experience at internship so far: My mentor, the owner and the rest of the guys, the work that I get to do, and the cars I get to ride in. Last and most importantly, I'm thankful for the overall experience. I'm very grateful and stoked that I can experience this and I know not many schools give these opportunities to students. So far I have learned so much, I never would've imagined I would gain this much knowledge and expand my skillset this much. Everyone at the shop has been very nice and welcoming and they are more than happy to show me what they are working on. I've been around Zach pretty much the entire time and he has been happy to show me and teach me how to be a mechanic. I'm thankful for all of it.

1/23/25: I checked out the blog that was posted along with the mentor interview assignment. At first glance, the thing that stands out to me is the fact that he used Weebly instead. Another contrast is that all his blogs stand out individually, whereas I grouped mine with the week so two blogs are grouped together each week. Another thing I can't find on the page is the timesheet which I have at the bottom of my page. We share a lot of similarities though, the format is relatively the same you scroll down from oldest to most recent blogs. His title is very similar he has "Internship" with a background picture, and I have my name and "Internship" with a picture of my workplace as the backdrop. One thing I like is the fact that his text is very large and his pictures are too which makes everything easy to see and read. I will most likely take it as inspiration and apply it to my own site.

Week #4 Blog 1/27/25: How have I seen my role at the shop develop and change? First, I have gained more trust at the shop and don't require someone to always watch me when I do work. Now I'm more of an extra hand than anything as I will do the easy things while my mentor works on another thing. Ultimately this allows the cars to be done faster and saves my mentor time. Sometimes he will just hand me a wrench and direct me to whatever I need to do. He expects me to know how to do these things now and I do, I don't need help with everything like I did in the early weeks. This is all due to me applying myself as I could just sit around and not learn anything. My confidence has risen exponentially and now I have more of an idea of what a problem with a car looks and feels like.

1/31/25: Here is some advice I would give to a fellow junior if he or she was interested in becoming a mechanic. I think the most important advice is to start school early and get your certifications. This will speed up your process of becoming a full-fledged mechanic and without certifications, you will stay at the base level (lube tech) forever. Lube technicians ultimately get less pay, so save yourself the time and money, and go to school. You also want to start working hands-on as soon as possible and get experience early. Another thing is don't become complacent, always strive to learn more and advance in your mechanic career. Finally, always network yourself and take pride in your work, the mechanic world is smaller than you think and word gets around, it's on you whether it's good or not.

Week #5 Blog 2/3/25: Outside of HTHMA, I plan to start bringing my car to Wolf’s after this internship to get work done. This internship helped me build a connection I will probably use my entire life. Along with building a connection, I also learned so much about cars. I plan to do some work of my own at home when needed and I have some confidence behind me now. Even though I don’t plan on working at Wolf’s after my internship, I do plan on taking my car here and maybe even helping out and or working on it myself at the shop. As I have heard, people have done so in the past. I’m very grateful I’ve found a good and honest shop with skilled mechanics, as a lot of shops don’t have integrity.

2/5/25: Advice I would pass on to future interns here... Apply yourself, I can’t stress this enough as it’s the most important step. If you don’t apply yourself and you are afraid to get your hands dirty, then this is the wrong internship for you. If you do apply yourself, however, you will learn so much as all the work is hands-on, and this helps you pick up things so much faster. Another piece of advice is to network and build connections while you’re here, I built connections and I plan to use them even after the internship. While you are interning, you want to be an extra hand, not an extra burden, so make sure you work hard and pay attention. By the end of the internship, you should be doing things by yourself.