True learning does not happen in a vacuum. Everything connects in some way to everything else, so new knowledge in one area should illuminate understanding elsewhere—even in areas that seem to be unrelated. Just ask Mike Miholics. He got a degree in Mathematics and Political Science to please his parents and wound up as a Production Supervisor at a speedometer needle manufacturing plant. It was an awful experience for him. It was also essential preparation for his dream job.

Let’s back up. After a year at the speedometer factory, Mike talked to his parents. He said to his parents: “I went to school to make you happy. And I hope you’re happy, I got my degree. But now, I’m gonna make myself happy and work on cars for a living.” With that, Mike went back to school, this time for automotive technology.

After a wild career veering from mom-and-pop shops to technician instruction, Miholics decided to specialize on his favorite product line: Nissan. He is proud of his speed and know-how at his dealer, which he attributes to his wide-ranging past experience. “People ask me how I get so many hours in a week,” Miholics says. “I tell them, I work smart. You know, as a production supervisor, I had to streamline everything. That’s what I went to school for. I didn’t want to do it all day, but now I can take all that, all the physics, all the geometry that I probably would only use on Jeopardy, and apply it. Angular momentum: How am I gonna break this free? What can I use to get this job done in a reasonable amount of time and not lose money? People don’t realize that you can use all that doing what I do, but…” he laughs. “It works for me!”

Master Technicians often discuss success in terms of dedication. “You have to want it. You get what you give. If you want to succeed, you have to be the best.” Well, speaking of dedication, here is Eric Redding. Eric drove 180 miles every day to attend his classes at UTI. Ninety miles there, 90 miles back. When Hoehn Infiniti of Carlsbad hired him, Eric’s daily commute went up to 200 miles a day.

Redding is nonchalant about these incredible sacrifices and attributes his dual Nissan/Infiniti Master Technician status to the moral support of his fiancée and their focused way of life. “She was always telling me, you can do this,” he says. “And we don’t have cable, we don’t sit around watching TV. I’m always reading, always studying, visiting Virtual Academy, or reading up for ASEs. We just do what we’re doing.”

The commitment and hard work pay dividends. “I’m definitely more confident,” Eric says. “I get more respect from the younger guys coming up and I’m happy to help them.” Still, burning up a fortune in gas wasn’t something Eric wanted to do long term—not with a new mortgage. When the time came to buy a house, price was not the only thing on Eric’s mind. “We bought when the market was low, so it’s a solid investment,” Eric says. “But we also pushed to find a good spot. Now,” Eric says proudly. “I literally work 4.5 miles away from my house!”

“I just love working on cars,” says Adam Pearce. “I love seeing the car shows, the races. We’d go down to the dirt track and watch ‘em race. Whenever someone needed a hand, we’d jump into the pit and help out.” Adam’s done some racing himself in the dirt track Bomber Division. “It’s exciting,” he says. “If you’ve never done it, it’s hard to explain.” So, career-wise, tech work was a no-brainer. But Adam’s enthusiasm didn’t necessarily translate into cold, hard ambition. Certification, specifically, was not on Adam’s radar.

Everything changed one day during a conversation with Bob Hayes, Adam’s friend and mentor. “Bob sat me down and showed me some of the ASE questions. He said, ‘Answer these.’ I answered them all right, and he said, ‘You can answer these already. Why don’t you just go and get your ASEs?’” Adam took a course and realized he was far more advanced than he’d ever assumed. “All of a sudden, certification wasn’t some crazy thing that was out of my reach,” says Adam. “I said, ‘This seems like a pretty good goal to strive for. I can do this.’ That was April of 2014. By the end of the year I was a Master Technician. It surprised me how quickly I could move myself up.”

Since certification, Adam’s been moved into the Team Leader area. And he’s frequently approached by other techs looking for guidance. Adam welcomes the interruption with pride. “It’s great,” he says. “I’m always happy to help someone help themselves. It’s a good feeling. I enjoy being a Master.”

From vacations to retirement, Florida is a place people want to be. But growing up in North Florida, Anthony Suarez could only think about getting out. “There’s nothing there,” he says. “There are pretty much just woods.” Escape came in the form of a 1991 240SX. “When I finally got that car, I had something to do,” Anthony says. Inspired by his car-racing grandfather, the self-taught technician began a lifelong pursuit of “cheap power,” moved to the city and got a job with Infiniti. He has not looked back.

Suarez wasted no time becoming a Master Technician. The training has made him a confident, more agile technician. “Anytime a new vehicle or feature comes out, you’re ready,” Suarez says. “If you have a working knowledge of the overall picture, then it’s just a matter of updating your thinking to understand how the new part fits into a picture you’re already familiar with.” That agility will be crucial during the inevitable changeover to electric cars. “No one will be able to stop it,” he says. “There are so many advantages to electric. Everybody’s gonna be on board eventually. There’s nothing the oil companies can do.”

Meanwhile, the longtime Nissan fan says there is one thing he would like to see from the company. “I’d like Nissan to make a cheaper, lighter sports car,” Anthony says. “Like an economy car with a lot of potential upgrades.” That is what appealed to Anthony about Nissan in the 90’s, especially with his 1991 240SX. “I would be excited about that again!”

Todd Neuman brings the usual concerns to his work at Walser Nissan Service. You know the drill. Make some money. Feed the family. But Neuman feels there is another consideration that often gets lost in the shuffle. “I try to remember the customer’s perspective,” he says. “Some of the guys I’ve worked with over the years are like: ‘Oh, the customer doesn’t know anything about cars.’ They say to them: ‘Don’t worry about it, you’re not the technician.’”

But to Todd, seeing things from the customer’s point of view is simply part of the job—and a critical part, at that. It all comes down to patience and transparency. “I really try to explain the technical situation well, and I try to make the customer understand it as best I can.” The result is a deeper level of customer satisfaction.

The rest of the job—namely, speed and accuracy—comes from familiarity, repetition and the excellent support a large company provides. Neuman came to Nissan after a year on the independent scene, and he has been with the company for almost six years now. “It was really hard to find information at an independent shop,” Neuman says. “Now, I have everything Nissan puts out at my fingertips. It’s a much better support system when I’m struggling to diagnose and get a customer’s car fixed.” Master Technician training is important, too. “Every time you take a class, there’s always some vehiclespecific tidbit. I figured I’d get as many tidbits as I can. It definitely helps get the hard diagnostic stuff done faster.”

Being thorough is a way of life for Jesse White. It is a basic part of his character, instilled by the guys who brought him up and helped mentor him in the business, going all the way back to his days changing oil. Careful attention to detail improves his technician work, his personal relationships and his number one hobby, which is…being a part-time aircraft pilot!

“Yeah, I’m a pilot in my spare time,” Jesse laughs. “I love to fly airplanes. And tech work has actually made me a better pilot. When you’re at 17,000 feet, going 280 knots, being thorough and having planned ahead really pays off!” He laughs again. “It’s all about getting where you want to go, safely and on time!”

White’s Master Technician instructors reinforced this conscientious approach. “They emphasized fixing things right the first time,” White says. “Rather than being quick on the trigger, going: ‘I know what this is, I know what that is,’ they make you stop and take a deeper look at what’s really best for you, your paycheck, the dealership and the customer. A little extra time pays off in the end.”

At home, Jesse’s family keeps a fleet of various trucks, cars and Harley Davidsons. “This job has been good to me,” Jesse says. “It’s opened a lot of doors. And I’m an enthusiast, for sure. But cars aren’t my passion. Aviation’s my passion. Put a Cessna next to a Ferrari; I’m gonna go check out the Cessna!” he laughs.

For Kevin Peterson, automotive technology “is a never-ending job…or a never-ending hobby; however you want to look at it.” He built a shop with a hoist at his house two years ago, and he uses that to work on his own personal projects. Suitably, he is a guy who relishes the heavy jobs. “It’s easier to visualize and see what you’re doing,” Kevin says. “And you can see what you’ve accomplished. I like it if they come in not functioning at all, and when they leave, they’re functioning.”

Peterson got into cars watching his father and uncle work on a series of 1962 Chevy Impalas. “That was their car,” he laughs. “Not the ’63, not the ’61; just the ‘62.” Peterson has been with Nissan for the last 16 years and praises their Master Technician training for being “flat-rate compatible. It’s really designed to help you maximize your time.”

Kevin is a Minnesota-transplant living in Missoula, Montana. Missoula is a special place, with a strange magnetic pull all its own. “You hear a lot of people who say: ‘Oh, I stopped there once, and I liked it, so I moved there,’” Peterson says. He himself headed to Missoula when his sister needed someone to watch her house. A couple years later, he bought the house, and he has been there ever since.

“It’s a combination of the mountains, the climate, and the people that live here,” Peterson says. “People don’t live here to make money; they live here to enjoy the outdoors. So it’s a very like-minded and friendly community. Whatever you’re into outdoors-wise, we’ve got everything you can think of to do.” When Peterson is not tending to his never-ending auto obsession, he plays hockey, skis or just “floats down the river.”

For Tom Warshefski, becoming a Master Technician was an easy decision. “It’s better pay,” he says. “And you can get a job anywhere you want. It’s just a phone call away.” Tom should know. For him, a phone call brought him from crisp, cool Vancouver to sun-baked Scottsdale, Arizona. But Tom’s story begins in the hilly wilderness of New Jersey, where he and his extended family did whatever they wanted—which was mostly racing dirt bikes. “I pretty much grew up a redneck, hillbilly out in the mud,” he says. “I was working on cars by the time I was eight. I could build a suspension by the time I was 13 or 14.”

Then Warshefski went to work in Vancouver. His sister moved to Arizona. His mother followed her down and started asking Tom to join them to reunite the family. Warshefski was not sure. Then, his favorite manager left for a Nissan dealer in Arizona. “I told him: ‘Make sure I have a job down there!’ Sure enough, they started making changes I didn’t like at the Honda dealer, so a year later I called him up and said, ‘You have that job for me?’ He said, ‘You’re kidding, right?’ I said: ‘Nope, I’m on the freeway right now.’” With a single phone call, Tom became a Nissan technician and his family was back together.

Tom has a great service track record. Maintaining this batting average is simple. “Double check your first diagnosis,” Tom says. “So you know you’re fixing the right part. And double check your repair at the end to make sure it doesn’t come back.” This advice carries him through monthslong stretches without a service return. “You don’t get paid the second time,” he laughs. “So get it right the first time!”

Jim Kay was sick of “Check Engine” lights. He was sick of diagnosing them for free. It was time to become a Master Technician. But Jim’s dealership already had three of them. They were not about to flip for another. Jim complained and leaned on his managers until they finally relented. So began Jim’s Master Technician training. Fortunately, his next two dealerships were pro-training. Within a couple of years, Jim had his certification. “The place where I work now is really great,” Jim says. “They’ve got me going to every class available.”

So what were all those “Check Engine” lights, anyway? Kay laughs: “I was dealing with a lot of EVAP diagnosis and Air Fuel Ratio Sensor diagnosis. That’s why you gotta have the training. Everything’s electrical on these cars now. With mechanical, you can hear the problem or you can see the problem. It’s not like that anymore. The guys who are the best repairing these cars are the guys who’ve had the Nissan training.”

What else besides training is important under the hood? Jim says knowing how to handle frustration. “I just go sit down; take a break somewhere,” he says. “Move on for a little bit, walk around a bit. When you come back and look at it, you’re like: ‘Why was this bothering me so much?’ Like the power steering lines. They’re a pain in the neck to get going. Seems like when you walk away and come back, they go right in!”

When Josh Mills was a boy, video games had come on the scene, but Josh found himself bored easily in rural North Carolina. Luckily for him, his dad steered him toward real-world activity, and his family was all about American cars. Josh developed a knack for building go-karts and soon he was helping out in the garage. He remembers his father’s Grand Am, Chevy LUV diesel and a Dodge Caravan. Josh’s brother-in-law owned a series of classics including Cobras and a 25th Anniversary Corvette. But it all came down to one particular Camaro. “My grandfather had a Camaro, blue with a white stripe. And he pretty much lived under the hood. That’s what really got me hooked. After that, I owned about seven Camaros, and after them, I got into motorcycles.”

Post-high school, Mills wanted to be a police officer, but the danger would have broken his mom’s heart. His passion for cars became a safe, and lucrative, profession. Mills floated through a series of other manufacturers, but his love for American cars notwithstanding, he feels most comfortable with Nissan. “It’s the product and the management,” Mills says. “Our service manager is by far the best boss I’ve ever had. Even the Nissan customers seem better!”

Now that he is a Master Technician, Josh plans to pursue more Nissan certifications. “I don’t want to settle. I want to go all the way. This is where I want to be. I eventually want to teach GT-R, LEAF and Diesel, if possible. I’m going all-in on this.”

Trent Hawks has seen the future, and it is electric. “Computers are here to stay, and they’re all controlled by electricity,” says Trent. “Anybody can read a scanner and replace a part. But to really diagnose anything, you’ve got to know electrical.” Though self-taught in electrical, Master Technician training deepened Trent’s understanding of the subject, which goes beyond the usual meters to the relatively ancient—but crucial—oscilloscope. “Our newest air flow sensors are reading in hertz instead of volts,” he says. “As air flow increases, the Hz increases. The days of back-probing an air flow sensor to check voltage at idle or at 2,500 rpm, that’s pretty much gone. You’re going to need CONSULT and the oscilloscope.”

Hawks enjoys challenges and relates: “It took me four years to get my Master Certification. I finished that six months ago.” Master Technician status makes it easier to get other certifications, a perk he enjoys. “So three months ago, I got my GT-R certification. I just got EV certification last week. Master training is definitely more involved, but once you do that, everything else is easy.” Plus, anytime there is new model training, Hawks is the first to go.

Off-duty, there are always friends and family needing work done, and he still gets a kick out of cars, but Trent tries to keep the wrench-turning to a minimum. “I get enough of that during my weekly workload,” he admits. So, off-off-duty, Trent drag races his 7,000 pound truck, which doubles as his daily tow vehicle. And he likes to take his RZR out into the woods for a round of trail riding and a bit of deer or squirrel hunting.

The first thing that is striking about Joshua Lambeth is his genial sense of calm. The second is that he sounds a bit like Matthew McConaughey. And third is that he calls automotive technology repair work “wrenchin’,” which is indeed the coolest term for automotive technician work.

Then he starts peeling off bits of personal philosophy, like: “The one thing nobody can take away is your knowledge,” and you realize you are basically talking to the optimistic twin brother of Rust Cohle from True Detective. “My patience was something that was definitely learned,” he chuckles. “And, you know, fine-tuned over the years.” In technician work, this patience saves time. Joshua says: “The trick is to separate distraction from the thing you’re there to do. Tune in on it,” he says. “Actually step back and don’t get worked up with all the people trying to rush you on stuff. Then you’ll get it done right the first time.”

Lambeth never loses sight of the reason he got into technician work. Literally. “I’m lookin’ at it right now,” he says. “It’s a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle.” When Lambeth was 14, he and his father purchased and restored two Beetles, a ’69 and a ‘71. He still has the ’69. He is also a certified scuba diver who has enjoyed spear fishing around the Gulf Coast— though these days, he spends much of his time with his daughters, 12 and 7. Lambeth says about his life: “It’s been an interesting ride so far, you know. I like it.”