My friend is down a Tech. He has a 3 bay shop with a very loyal following; foreign cars, no Domestic, no Japanese.
Located near Saratoga, NY. A sign out front says:
"Full time auto technician. No weekends, must have own tools and a drivers' license. New York Inspector a plus.
Will work with motivated apprentice."
518.885.1781
Decent auto techs are hard to find these days, I have told so many of my young relatives and their friends to put down the XBox, get off the couch, and learn to fix cars. Why cut grass in the hot sun or flip burgers when you can work on Porsches? Good luck to your friend.
Place I worked at hires 30 - 50 machinist apprentices every summer. Start at $24/hr go to college on their dime and end up with Papers and $30/hr. Told my friend who teaches BOCES Aircraft Maintenence to high schoolers, after 3 summers he said "Don't bother, these people aren't having it".
Lacks Urgency comes to mind. 
Is the shop air conditioned?
Do the utilize Maxxis or OE diagnostic equipment?
Has he posted it to LinkedIn?
What's the tenure of his service writers?
Is he active in BMWCCA, PCA, NASA or SCCA? Does he autocross, ice race, club race or do HPDE?
There's a shortage of techs nationwide, though NY state isn't nearly as bad as it is in flyover country. I deal with it everyday at work. The key to hiring a tech, especially one that isn't 5 years away from locking up his toolbox, is differentiating your shop and letting potential employers know the differentiation prior to their initial contact with you.
I know a few girls... they need work, they ain’t pretty though. It would be like throwing a hotdog down a hallway, if ya know what I mean.... wait, you said wRench. I’m sorry....
In reply to captdownshift :
Where I'm at now, we're losing a guy this week (planned move, he's changing careers) and the owner basically decided that he'd do the waiting oil changes and other quicky-piddly stuff so as to not distract us other two guys from cranking work out. It'd be nice to have a third hand but there are no bites.
In reply to Knurled. :
I literally have the same conversation about a half dozen times a day with shop owners.
Them: I can't find techs
Me: raise your labor rate
Them: I can't people in this town don't have money or won't pay anymore
Me: your customer base has 3 options, pay more so that you can attract and pay the best tech from your competition to join your team. Keep coming to you at the same rate but now have vehicle care that isn't to either of your standards (which if you opt to do, I'm during you as my client) or 3) or wait 2 weeks plus to get their vehicle in for service. In the last case the owner is building a backlog, not making anymore money and is likely losing customer base to the competition. It's amazing how they realize that they're able to raise their labor rates after that chat.
We hire entry level every day but people have no sense of urgency, I don’t get it. Most of my mechanics have it figured out but the oil change techs and apprentices just don’t have any drive.
In reply to captdownshift :
It's not always that simple, though. YGM since I don't feel comfortable discussing numbers publically. When I heard what one of my friends was paying his guys in an attempt to get/retain good help was shocking. And he still couldn't get it.
I will allow that where I am now, our hourly rate is $111, which is a little on the low side for the area.
Can't speak for others of my generation (28) but money just doesn't motivate me that much. I work with people who left higher paying jobs because they had enough of being worked to death. If I can go home after 8 hours I'll happily take lower pay. And I'll work harder because I know I won't have another 2 hours of work dumped on me after my shift is up.
Edit: about the OP, it sounds like a cool place, especially being a specialty shop and all. I don't live in NY, though.
Willing to train an apprentice .......
I will say that's pretty hard for young people to go from an environment with substantial breaks (summer break, long holiday breaks, spring break, etc) to an environment where you only get 2-3 weeks off a year.
When I talk with young people in the professional world, almost all of them have the same sentiments "I don't miss college, but I miss the college schedule." This might be why so much of our younger workforce is drawn to both the "gig economy" but also to service industries where schedules change, slow months allow time off, etc.
I feel like American employers work in one direction - we pay you well (or not), you get 3 weeks vacation, done. It'd be nice if it were the other way around - you get plenty of time off, but you only get the big buck as you work more. This is complicated by employer health insurance premiums, but that's another topic altogether.
I know a mechanic who primarily works on VW, Audi, Volvo, Saab and Porsche. He makes good money, but not great, but his employer also affords him a great deal of flexibility. He actually left for a few years to try his hand at his own business that was completely different from being a wrench, then came back to full time and part time occasionally. I think he has a deal going so that when work is slow, he'll willingly drop his hours so that other guys can keep stable paycheck. His wife is also a nurse, so that helps.
914Driver said:Willing to train an apprentice .......
They are going to earn it one way or another.
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