Once upon a time, in a busy auto repair shop, the owner was desperately searching for the perfect technician. He had received over 200 applications, but according to him, "nobody was qualified." The owner was waiting for a unicorn - a tech with 15 years of experience, ASE certifications up the wazoo, who never calls out sick, shows up early, stays late, never complains, causes no drama, is a strong diagnostician, has experience with all vehicle makes and models, maintains a good attitude, and possesses a strong work ethic, all while knowing how to turn lots of hours and help newbies with their work. The shop owner is still waiting. The end. I’m only half joking here. At Technician Find we're pretty darn good at generating applications for the shops we work with. We've been doing it for nearly 7 years and we've dialed in the system and know what works. Most of the time we are able to generate lots of applications very quickly for our clients and frankly it’s both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes shops see all of these applications coming in and decide to wait for that one unicorn to walk through the front door. And they chuck a bunch of resumes from techs who could have joined the team and done just fine, with the proper support and encouragement. While these unicorn techs may exist, the real question is, how long are you willing to wait to find one? Finding a Unicorn is like achieving your moonshot stretch goals. Really ambitious stretch goals take longer to achieve, they require more effort and usually more resources. Why would finding a truly outstanding tech be any different? Don't let the pursuit of a unicorn tech blind you to the potential right in front of you. Get clear on your shop culture and what your business goals are and reverse engineer what you need in a tech to get there. That's your baseline. Anything above that is gravy. If you follow this exercise, you'll hire faster. And spend less money doing it. Spoiler alert: the perfect employee doesn't exist.

So, I asked the Google AI platform Notebooklm to explain the benefits of the Technician Find service for shop owners. Out popped a nearly flawless podcast dialogue between two hosts. OMG!😱

Welcome to the first episode of the Blue Check Shops interview series, powered by Technician Find. Over the past six years, we've generated over 80,000 applications for 156 independent auto and diesel repair shops across the U. S. And I've noticed that the top shops that we work with, who were able to hire within a few weeks, do things differently. We would send a bunch of applications to one shop, and they'd hire in a few weeks. We'd send a bunch of applications to another shop, and they would hire in a month or two or not at all. My goal with this series is to pull back the curtain and share the secrets of these top shops so that other independent shops can gain from this wisdom, hire great team members faster, and retain them longer. Show Notes: In this episode of the Blue Check Shops interview series, @Chris Lawson talks with Technician Find Community member @Phil Webster, owner of Webster Tire and Auto Service in Teutopolis, Illinois. Phil shares his wisdom on how to quickly hire and retain great technicians. You can find the full interview in the Classroom via this link: Automotive Technician Hiring: Secrets of a Shop Owner Who Hires Techs Fast

I've been asked a lot lately about the best interview questions for techs (you can skip to the list of questions below). Like everything else, successful interviews begin with the proper mindset. Here's the mindset: I was on a podcast recently where a shop owner said that hiring a tech is like a marriage because you spend more waking hours with them than your spouse. Here's the episode if you want to check it out: https://www.skool.com/technicianfind/classroom/84a30045?md=835fd4bbc73c4c4f9471942baa1ff20b So, in an interview you want to get a feel for the skill level AND the values / personal interests of a potential employee. Once you have a good feel for what the tech is capable of professionally and what they want to accomplish in their personal life, you can make a strong case for selling your shop as the perfect fit. The opposite is also true. If they have personal and professional goals that you can't help them achieve, its best to end the conversation right there to save you both time and trouble. This is the only way you can decide if they will be a good fit for your culture in advance of hiring them into your business. 🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧 Here's a great list of questions that I've compiled over the years that will help you get a feel for who this person is sitting in front of you or speaking to you on the phone: 1. Can you tell me a bit more about your experience as a technician? 2. What do you hope to accomplish in your next position? 3. At our shop, we commonly work on _____. Are you used to working on that type of equipment/vehicles? 4. We use a ___ version ___ for diagnostics. Have you worked with that before? What’s your step-by-step approach to identifying a knocking in the engine of 2019 Toyota Highlander (or name another type of car your shop sees a lot)? [listen for a confident, coherent answer which will indicate the skill of the technician.] 5. Can you tell me about a time when you worked really well with a coworker to accomplish a task? 6. Are you comfortable helping out the team, or are you looking to put your time in and make hours? 7. All of the applicants are equally qualified, why should I choose you over the other applicants? 8. What is the value of your tools (minus toolbox)? 9. What is the most challenging job you have ever completed? 10. What are the values you bring to our shop? 11. What’s going on that has you checking out new opportunities at the moment? Note: This is a softer way of asking, why are you looking for a new shop? Once you know what the main problem the tech is looking to solve stay on this and show how your shop is the solution, assuming that there’s a good fit. 12. What type of schedule are you looking for? 13. What are you looking for in a shop environment? 14. Are you looking to train more? If so, how often? Training is important to technicians. This is your chance to tie in how much your shop trains or how easy it is for technicians to take time off of work to train. 15. What’s the ideal environment that inspires and motivates you to perform at your best? 16. Other than pay, what aspect of the shop is going to influence you to accept or decline a position? 17. Do you currently receive performance bonuses? 18. What pay are you looking to make at your next shop? 19. What excites you? What’s cool in your life right now? 20. Let’s start a whole new future right now. What do you want your future to look like? 21. What was your previous employer like? 22. Spend time with them and talk about their life. What’s missing? 23. If we were sitting down one year from now and you were to look back over the previous 12 months and all your personal and professional goals had been accomplished, what would that look like?

You guys are on fire this month! Shout out to Mark's Auto Service in Gillette, NJ. They have an Auto Tech in the door! AND Congrats to Techway Automotive. For their shop in Enterprise, AL they hired a General Service Technician and a Service Advisor!