Ask any sane man where he would like to raise his daughter and he will most definitely not answer, “Lake Havasu, Arizona.” Miles of beach and crazy college kids may make Havasu the perfect Spring Break destination, but when he had children, John Sette packed up his family and split for Iowa. “It’s a completely different lifestyle out here,” John chuckles. “I just wanted the best for my daughter. She’s 8. I have a son on the way. It’s a better education system here in the Midwest, too.”

For the last five years, Sette has been taking Master classes and working on the family farm. It is a busy life, but it is gratifying. “I have to commute 85 miles a day, and I go home and work on the farm,” he says. “But it’s really nice. If somebody’s driving down the road, you probably know who they are. And they all wave to you.” And if he ever has to move again, Sette will be ready. “I became a Master because I knew it was gonna guarantee me a job at any Nissan place I went to,” he says.

Jeremy Slaughter credits his father with helping him find the right career. Jeremy remembers how he would lay on the grass as a boy and watch his dad work on the family vehicles. Jeremy would hand over tools and do whatever he could to help—not an unusual memory for most auto technicians. His father was a general contractor and gave Jeremy opportunities in that field and at one point helped him land an electrical apprenticeship. But for Jeremy, it always came back to cars, and his father always supported that. “He believed in me,” Jeremy says. “And that’s made all the difference.”

Now a father himself, Slaughter places a similar confidence in his two little girls, ages 6 and 2. He believes children will rise to whatever challenges you offer them, given a little patience. Consider his primary hobby, motorized dirt bikes. When Slaughter goes out riding, he takes his oldest with him. “She’s had a dirt bike since she was 3 1/2,” he says. “She rides really well. Still got some training wheels on there, but we’ll be taking those off soon,” he laughs.

Ask 100 Master Technicians to offer up advice to novice technicians, and 99 of them will say the same thing: get your ASEs. Getting your ASEs shows management you care about your own education and advancement, which in turn gets them behind you. But Master Technician Juan Tejada is the exception. Make no mistake; he thinks ASEs are a good idea. “You need to always improve your understanding of the machine itself,” he says. “For the sake of diagnosis and everything.” But he thinks new technicians should wait—just a bit—before they start down that path.

“Get some type of experience first,” he says. “Say, like, two years. Your ASEs are a big deal when you’re looking for a job, or looking to switch brands. So be careful and avoid getting discouraged. When the time is right, after you’ve been around for a bit, you’ll take them and pass them.” The key is to not wait too long. Says Tejeda: “You’ll know when the time is right.”

Jace Benson lived near UTI. He passed the building every day, to and from his job at Chili’s. Jace did not know what kind of career he wanted, but he was sure he did not like working at Chili’s. He was not into tech and knew nothing about cars. He noticed the school and one day pulled in for a tour. At the end of the tour, he enrolled.

Benson could not tell you why he stopped that day. Seven years later, he still sounds shocked by what happened next. “I ended up doing really well,” he says. “It just clicked. I got a 4.0 and a scholarship. Within a few months, I got hired at the Nissan in Sacramento. I’ve been with Nissan ever since.” Benson continues: “You’ve definitely got to find your niche in life. What you’re good at and what you like to do are usually the same thing. I make good money now, but that’s secondary. I didn’t like my job when I was waiting on people, working at Chili’s. And now I like coming to work every day. Even if I made less money doing this, I’d still prefer it. I’m happy where I’m at.”

“Always remember your basics,” says Gerald Buras. “Make sure your battery cables are clean and tight. If you need a wiring diagram, go grab the wiring diagram. And don’t try to diagnose something without taking a look at it first!” On the day TechTalk reached Gerald, Council Bluffs, Iowa had expected a heavy overnight blizzard, but woke up instead to 4 or 5 inches of sloppy, unplowed snow clogging the roadways. Schools closed and many of his fellow technicians stayed home. But Gerald made it in to encounter little more than a few busted wipers.

Buras first got the tech bug back in the mid- 70s. His neighbors used to mod their midget racers on the front lawn. He has had a few different careers in tech since then. He ran a tune-up shop, rebuilt engines in Arizona, and has spent the last 20 years with Nissan. Buras has seen the industry evolve, but he never forgets his basics. “I’m an old service book guy,” Buras says. “Give me the book and I’ll find the section. Basic sensors and all that, I’m fine with, but beyond that I start to get aggravated. I still use a checkbook!”

For Rafael Cruz, technician work was a detour that grew into a rewarding career. As a boy, he was obsessed with cars and racing, but he lost interest over time. He went to college for computer science and was excited to pursue that career until a family situation forced him to get a kitchen job.

Cruz discovered an affinity for the work and wound up at an upscale French-Italian restaurant. Soon the tough restaurant hours wore on him. “I’d get home at 2 AM and have to be back when the sun came up,” he says. “I was averaging four hours of sleep every night.”

Tech became a stop-gap solution. After trade school, Rafael started at Nissan where he was immediately set up with additional training. “To be completely honest, in the beginning I took that for granted,” he says. “I wasn’t really studying, so I didn’t do well.” About three years ago, Rafael decided to make the training— and this career—count. Now he is a Master Technician and glad to work where he does. But some dreams die hard – Rafael plans to run his own food truck on weekends.

Cruz Hernandez started working on cars at a very young age. As a boy, he and his father rebuilt a GTO Judge over a period of years. By high school, cars were a full-time hobby. “Then I found out I was going to be a father,” Cruz says, “and I turned a hobby into a career.”

From that deep-seated passion comes a true commitment to excellence. “I really try to be the best,” Hernandez says. “Everything goes into that, into truly being the best technician I can be.” Master Technician status was always a given, and Hernandez began training the moment Nissan hired him. He got his certification in just over a year. He strongly recommends the training. “Anyone can R & R parts,” Hernandez says. “It takes training to diagnose and replace the correct part.”

Master Technician status is not a final goal, though; it is just one more checkpoint in a never-ending process. “Anything Nissan puts out there, I’m going to take it,” Cruz says. “Do not close your mind. Something may radically change the way you think and work.”

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