Team Automotive Blog

A successful interview requires more than just having the proper responses. They centre on posing the appropriate queries. As a Recruiter, good interview questions keep me motivated, involved, and interested in the candidate I am meeting. When I hear a question, I immediately analyse my response. I also consider what might have prompted the question and what it might reveal about the person who asked it. Was the questioner's inquiry thoughtful and perceptive, or could they have perhaps done more to prepare?

What are the messages in your questions?

The applicants I advise hiring are those who blatantly demonstrate their want to work at the business they are interviewing for; they are just as interested and dedicated to the interview process as I am. Even if being the smartest or most qualified applicant might certainly be an advantage, it's not always the case. Instead, attitude and a will to learn are the most important factors.

What is my most important piece of advice?

Don't forget to utilise the interview to your advantage. Remember, this is your chance to sell yourself and learn as much as you can so that you may base your choice of a job on what you hear.

My advice is to have at least five questions ready for the interview and to ask at least three of them. Here are a few sample questions that will demonstrate your readiness for the interview and give you information about the business and the interviewer:

1. What aspect of your work most inspires you? What about working here do you like the most?
If you receive a canned, "flat," or uninteresting response, that tells a lot. Take it as an indication that you're on the right track if you hear a passionate reaction that actually reflects your own beliefs, such as the company's approach toward diversity and inclusion or the company's devotion to employees and respect for the individual.

2. What is the organization's or department's current single largest challenge?
A good question, although the interviewer might want to play it safe with this one. Based on your research into the firm and the market, take a wild guess as to what the difficulty might be.

3. What qualifications and qualifications would be excellent for a candidate? Or, what do you believe to be the most critical characteristics for success in this position?
Ask this, and be ready for it to be turned back on you. This is your first chance to excel because it's clear that you've thought carefully about your suitability for the position.

4. What constitutes success in this role?
A thorough, responsible, and incredibly intelligent open question. By asking about employee treatment, internal procedures, and potential advancement chances, you unintentionally raise these issues. You will learn a lot from the response to this.

5. How does the business deal with failure?
Even while it could sound like a risky question, every business has occasionally had to deal with things not going as planned. You may learn a lot about the company culture from the response to this question. People who work in "steady state" businesses could act suspiciously. Pay attention to affirmative feedback, such as stories about change, agility, and flexibility.

6. Which management style do you employ?
A crucial question you may have considered before the interview whether your working style would mesh well with those of your future coworkers and company. Find out from what they say about their working style whether it fits your own.

7. What do you hope for me to get out of this position?
Ask this to get an idea of what will be required of you. What would you hope to see from this role in the first 30, 60, or 90 days? is a variant on a common theme. Or, if you're feeling braver, put it this way: "What would you like to see from me in the first 30, 60, or 90 days?" — I'm inclined to interpret that as proactive rather than arrogant.

8. How does this position fit into the overall strategy of the company?
Brilliant. Let's get right to work. If you didn't learn anything from the answer to the preceding question, this is an excellent fallback question.

9. How do I stack up against the other applicants you interviewed for this position?
It's a courageous question that acknowledges that no interview is a one-horse contest, even if you don't hear anything back. And if it is, you’re either great or it’s a red sign!

10. Who do you see as your main company rival, and why?
An excellent chance to highlight your competitive research. Be ready to respond and engage in conversation about the industry's more general tendencies.

Additional Questions: What are the next steps?
After everything is said and done, don't just walk away or settle for a canned "we'll be in touch." Find out what happens next, including who you could hear from and when.

In the automotive sector, female mechanics are a more and more common sight. It's past due. For many years, men have predominated in the field of car maintenance.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 130,174 females worked in the automobile repair and maintenance industry in 2018, making up 19,236 car mechanics (2.1 percent of all auto mechanics). In addition, females make up 9.7% of the 1,342,000 total workers in the vehicle maintenance and repair sector in the US.

Out of 837,000 mechanics in total, just 12,000 were female in 1999. Whiched equaled to 1.4%. Whereas in 2018 the total amount of female technicians equaled to 2.1%. 

But why is there still a shortage of women technicians in the automotive industry?

While working with your hands, building something from scratch, and the opportunity to be an entrepreneur are all great benefits for women in the auto industry, there are also some challenges that you think you may face.

Reading below may put your mind at ease if you are thinking of joining the automotive industry as a female.

1. Isolation feelings

One of the most difficult aspects is not having the camaraderie that comes from working with other females. Many female technicians are the only ones in their shop, with no peers to bounce ideas off or simply vent their frustrations to.

However, many colleagues will not isolate you for being a female. Fitting in a workshop and proving yourself happens with any new technician joining. Proving yourself is key as a new auto tech.

2. Male co-workers who are sceptical

Because there is no one type of male auto technician, their reactions to a female tech on their team will be diverse. Yes, some will doubt your ability to do the job, but many will be very supportive. Most people will not mind either way if you work to the best of your ability. 

3. Different working conditions

When things get tough, see if you can get some help from someone in the shop. Most workshops, stores, centers & dealerships are full of people with many years of experience, who will at some points have come up against the same issues. 

Working conditions as a technician can be tough at times, but when concurred, you won't find a better industry to grow and succeed within 

For more information on opportunities in your area or even for more advice on the industry and how to become a part of it, get in touch - we are always willing and eager to help. 

Global changes in the car sector are set to seriously alter the current dealership paradigm.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and dealers have typically had a mutually beneficial partnership. OEMs have relied on their dealer networks to sell and maintain their vehicles, while dealerships have relied on OEMs to supply the vehicles and parts they sell and to finance servicing while vehicles are still covered by warranties.

ACES trends are here to stay, and OEMs are progressively assuming control of aspects of the customer connection that used to belong to dealerships as they build capabilities like remote software upgrades and establish direct partnerships with their consumers through continuous subscription models. In contrast to operations like new car sales, which often generate minimal profit margins (less than 8%) and may even be loss leaders, dealerships typically receive a significant amount (over 40%) of their income from services and after-sales. The strong margins of the servicing revenue stream for dealerships, however, may potentially be reduced in this connected, direct-to-consumer environment, and OEMs and dealerships alike will need to review their partnerships and their business models in order to survive.

A shifting environment provides more revenue prospects for OEMs but fewer for dealerships using conventional methods.

Consumer expectations for the automotive sector are evolving. In addition to a move toward electric drivetrains, models of automobile ownership are starting to evolve as well. The car is now considered as a component of shared mobility services. Customers also increasingly regard their automobiles as products, similar to their smartphones, that they expect to be current and are prepared to pay more for or subscribe to a service that offers more benefits in the future.

As a result, OEMs are expanding their capabilities, which has several advantages:

• Reduced costs as a result of linked diagnostics, OTA software upgrades, and predictive maintenance
• As they avoid recalling vehicles and are able to stop mechanical deterioration through enhanced performance of software-controlled component, software upgrades have the potential to save OEMs up to $35 billion annually.
• OTA updates allow additional revenue streams from value-added subscription services.
• Owners may now get live traffic visualisation, video streaming, an internet browser, and OTA software updates via cellular data for $10 per month through Tesla's Premium Connectivity programme.
• For more than $200 per year, BMW's top-tier Linked Package Excellence includes all of their connected services, including voice control, remote map updates, and real-time news, traffic, and parking updates3
• Maximising the chances for developing direct relationships with customers, including innovation in the car-selling process and a more flexible method of providing the vehicle as a connected device.
• Customers can purchase or lease a new car through Hyundai's Click to Buy programme from the convenience of their own home.
• OEMs are testing with cutting-edge showroom designs; one such example is Ford's collaboration with Alibaba to provide a car vending machine to Guangzhou, China.
• When a problem can be resolved with software, like a flaw in its Dog Mode, Tesla is able to quickly correct it.

This is encouraging for the OEM, but less so for the dealership. These similar services represent talents that were formerly the retailer's purview:

• When a vehicle is serviced under warranty, the OEM pays the dealership to complete the work. The dealership decides which components and services (including labour) are necessary and, as a result, sets the price that the OEM must pay.
• Customers who want to enable an upgrade (made possible by software rather than upgrades to mechanical components) must go to a dealership that receives payment from the OEM to provide this service.
• For a while now, dealers have served as the public face of OEMs and have been in charge of building strong customer relationships throughout the sales and service lifecycle.Collectively, these elements cause revenue to shift from the dealership network to the OEM. There will probably be less opportunity for dealers to contact with customers and make a profit. The financial survival of dealerships is in jeopardy since such a big amount of valuable revenue has been lost.

Collectively, these elements cause revenue to shift from the dealership network to the OEM. There will probably be less opportunity for dealers to contact with customers and make a profit. The financial survival of dealerships is in jeopardy since such a big amount of valuable revenue has been lost.

Therefore, the conventional dealership must change, but why should OEMs care? Are dealerships still relevant in the car industry of the future? If so, how can OEMs guarantee that their dealerships are functional and profitable?

Dealerships won't be obligated to maintain mechanical parts, right?

There is still a long way to go before we can travel anywhere using only software. Mechanical component service will always be necessary because cars are made of physical parts, which will eventually break down. The dealership will very definitely still play a part in this scenario, even though this servicing may be carried out by independent dealerships and garages.

OEMs will have a vested interest in preventing dealerships from failing because these businesses still serve as the face of their brands and can offer a variety of services.

The following important questions will consequently need to be addressed by OEMs:

• What part does the network of our dealerships play in our continuing business operations?
• Is the distribution of our dealership network appropriate? Do we service the correct locations with the right dealerships? Should we, for instance, consider consolidating dealerships in remote areas?
• Are the experiences being provided by our dealerships appropriate? Is our floor space utilised to provide the experiences that customers most want to have there?
• In the realm of internet sales, how can we link certain dealerships to specific online sales? Should we pay dealers more for generating engagements than for generating sales? Should we penalise dealers for providing expensive but low-profit services like software updates?

Numerous of these difficulties are not exclusive to the auto industry. Retailers have recently been looking for creative ways to maintain the profitability of brick and mortar businesses due to declining foot traffic and a widespread shift towards internet shopping habits. Retailers are increasingly relying on in-store experiences to increase foot traffic and sales in their physical locations, including pop-up events and AR-enabled changing rooms. According to Westfield's How We Shop: The Next Decade report, by 2027, 75% of consumers anticipate that most retail space will be devoted to providing experiences, and 81% of them are willing to pay more for them. But it's still unclear whether "retailtainment" can be counted on to generate significant amounts of profit.

Dealerships will also evolve to become more experiential in character, focusing on offering services like test drives, VR experiences, and human touchpoints to both individual customers and users of shared services, albeit these pursuits may not be a direct source of income in and of themselves.

What part will the OEM play in assisting the modern dealership?

Therefore, OEMs must think about the value they place on tomorrow's dealerships and how they will be compensated for this. OEMs will undoubtedly take more responsibility for customer connections (just look at Tesla), but they might need to provide their dealerships more help to keep them from going out of business.

Increased brand engagement and customer loyalty will help the OEM without necessarily having an adverse effect on the dealership's bottom line. Therefore, OEMs should consider:

• What they can do to encourage dealers to send customers to their online showrooms
• How well revenue sharing for online sales attributable to certain dealerships might operate
• How dealerships could receive financial compensation for promoting high brand engagement through test drives and OEM service subscriptions
• How they can offer consulting services to guarantee that their network of dealerships has the necessary experience and training

The OEM-dealer connection's implicit KPIs will probably need to put more emphasis on experiences than on transactions, and OEMs should aim to be flexible with how this relationship changes over time.

OEMs must be ready to part with their hard-earned money in ways they have never had to in order for the dealership to thrive.

Well, the good news is we’re about to see a ‘short term’ drop in prices with the move to Winter Blend gas.

What is winter blend and why is it cheaper?

This blend has a higher combustion rate allowing it to ignite easier in colder temperatures. To allow for a quicker and higher combustion rate, fewer additives are used to make the gas which makes it less expensive to produce and less expensive to sell. The winter blend of gas is usually available for sale between September 15th and April 30th.

It usually takes a couple of weeks for the winter blend of gas to be moved to local gas stations and most gas stations won't start selling the winter blend of gas until their current summer blend of gas is gone. This could take a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Usually, the biggest drop in the gas price comes at the end of September through the beginning of October.

The good news is that we have seen the average price of a gallon of gas already drop to below $4 per gallon and with this switch over to the winter blend of gas, we could see the price drop to levels we haven't seen in months.

Will Gas prices continue to drop?

According to CBNC, the relief may be short-lived:

“The global energy market remains on edge, and there are a number of factors that could push prices higher in the coming months. 

Refiners are running full out to keep pace with demand. A hurricane or other event that brings refinery outages could push up gas prices since there aren’t alternatives readily available as Europe also looks for petroleum products.

The U.S.′ historic release of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will end this fall, taking some supply off the market. Additionally, the SPR will need to be refilled. A rebound in economic activity in China could also boost demand for petroleum products.”

Let’s hope they are wrong. Here at Team Automotive Staffing, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this for you.

When searching for a new job, hundreds of things are racing through your mind – but initially is Interview dress-code one of them?

Here at Team Automotive Staffing, we’re excited to show you the launch of our new website. Our team have a huge amount of experience recruiting across the US, covering all things Automotive.

Seemingly everyone is looking for Technicians – so why can’t anyone find any?

Well, if the weather, the beaches, the restaurants, and bars aren’t enough to consider Florida – there certainly are plenty more reasons why you should relocate to the sunshine state.