Automotive career opportunities for women are not just working under
the hood
Educating women about automotive maintenance and careers.
Automotive Careers
Automotive career opportunities are not limited to just working under
the hood. A variety of positions and career paths are available within the
industry, and women are becoming more and more involved and visible in these
opportunities. Below is a collection of career paths and positions in all
aspects of automotive, some of which you may not have considered.
Marketing
Marketing careers offer a wide array of opportunities spanning multiple
areas such as sales promotions, advertising, interactive media, relationship
marketing and database marketing. If you are interested in marketing opportunities,
you may also want to consider other related fields such as public relations,
cause marketing and corporate identity that may often be inter-related
to marketing roles and responsibilities.
Quick Lube (Store Level)
Quick lube store-level positions are exciting positions for energetic
and responsible individuals. Positions can range from lube technician and
mechanic positions, to customer-interfacing positions, to cashier responsibilities,
to store manager roles.
Quick Lube Field Operations Management
Field operations managers could expect to direct and manage overall daily
automotive operations for multiple service center locations or perhaps an
entire region. These positions require responsible individuals who can ensure
goals and key performance indicators are met for efficiency and economy
of operations while delivering profits to the company. Individuals should
have strengths in the areas of motivation and team building, customer service,
auditing results and in financial performance from the aspect of growing
the business and improving profitability.
Automotive Supply Stores
The automotive supply stores, whether retail, traditional or import specialist,
hold a vast amount of diversity in their job openings. There are management
positions, buyers, inventory control, counter personnel, delivery drivers,
and cashiers. If you are looking for lots of room for advancement a large
retail chain could be your answer, or if you like the more one-on-one and
get to know your customers, whether mechanics or walk-ins, the import specialist
store could be the place for you. Because of the range of opening, the
experience and education will vary, a solid start on a store career could
be a ASE Parts Certification.
Automotive Purchasing
Purchasing career opportunities may include areas such as managing purchasing
activities and third party supplier relationships, supplier sourcing, developing
proposal and bid packages, negotiating competitive agreements, and establishing
and auditing purchasing processes and practices.
Product Support/Management
Product management in the automotive aftermarket is a challenging field.
Your responsibilities would consist of managing your product lines from
the beginning of their life cycle to the end while maintaining line-fill,
product coverage strategies, and business initiatives. If you enjoy working
with operations, research, cataloging, purchasing, suppliers, marketing
and customers, product management would be your fit. A strong knowledge
of automotive products and business is a must.
Engineering
The automotive aftermarket industry has a vast array of engineering opportunities
within their manufacturing and distribution facilities. Whether your engineering
discipline is in mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, industrial, chemical
or ceramic, there is a job for you. Engineering positions can include product
design, material development, tooling design, testing, and manufacturing
process development to name a few.
Automotive Training (Store Level and Technical)
Automotive trainers execute
training programs to develop employee skills and impart technical,
organizational practices and procedures by utilizing various learning methods
(i.e., classroom, computer based and on-the-job). You could also investigate
training resources for appropriate application, and suggest emerging performance
issues for training application.
Professional Staff Training and Development
People in these positions assess staff training requirements and creates
programs to meet career development needs, plans and administer training
seminars (i.e., technical skills or employee relations issues), assess effectiveness
of training and contract with vendors for special training services. These
employees might also design and deliver management development training
programs, works with all levels of management to design individual development
plans, ensuring plans and programs are clearly aligned with company goals
and objectives, and build credible relationships with senior managers to
identify and address management development needs within sales, operations,
and corporate business areas.
Customer Service Representatives
Customer service roles are critical to
the success of organizations and require strong communication skills
and problem solving techniques. If you like dealing with people and find
resolving issues rewarding, this career path can include anything from working
within a call center environment, to performing Web-based complaint and
claim investigation, to the supervision of groups interfacing with end consumers
and external customers.
Information Technology
Information technology (IT) careers span a broad category of skill pools.
Most categories of jobs can be categorized within project management,
infrastructure services and support, IT applications development and support,
and IT line of business management. Career opportunities within IT may include
infrastructure support services, technical support, network or systems engineer,
network or systems architect, business analysis, portfolio management, customer
service management, data management, applications consultancy and application
services supervision.
Human Resources
Human resources (HR) careers are ideal if you enjoy working
with people. Responsibilities in HR careers include all aspects of
working with fellow employees, including employee orientations, maintenance
and formation of employee benefits, pension plans and maintenance of company
insurance policies. HR professionals also handle personnel files, assist
staff with HR-related matters and are in charge of payroll for the
company.
Inventory Management
Inventory management careers offer a wide range of disciplines, including
material manager, warehouse manager, scheduler, planner/expeditor and
production control. Inventory management offers analytical challenges,
job advancement and growth within most organizations. An understanding
of MRP systems and CPIM certification is a great foundation for a career
in inventory management. In addition, you will find inventory management
positions in all level of the automotive aftermarket, from manufacturers,
to distributors, to your local parts store.
Quality
Quality is comprised of many career opportunities, like quality manager,
quality engineer, quality inspector and quality lab tech. The quality
field is a growing area and a necessary one if you want to do business
in today's environment. Companies are being held to the highest of standards
and are expected to maintain many of the available certifications, like
QS9000, ISO14001 and ISOTS-16949.
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