Topic: Career Talk

DIYers: Save time and money by learning the secrets of appliance repair

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - Academy Talk, Career Talk, Tech Talk

Ivey Refrigerator Repair copy
 
Let’s face it: appliance repairs are expensive due to the real costs of running a full-time, professional appliance repair business. That’s why so many folks are trying to save time and money by learning how to fix their own appliances. And how ’bout the supreme satisfaction that comes from kicking major appliance boot-ay? BOOYAH!

Appliantology.org is a powerful repair resource for DIYers. You’ve got professional appliance techs giving you personal help. But all too often, that help comes to a screeching halt when you gotta have basic electrical troubleshooting skills to finish the job, such as reading schematic diagrams and understanding the technology that you’re working on.

DIYers are a diverse group but, in my decades working with them online, I see that most DIYers share two characteristics: they have above average to great mechanical skills, but are weak on electrical skills.

With today’s increasingly computerized appliances, unless you have a minimum baseline of electrical troubleshooting skills, you’re just going to be flailing about blindly in a sea of technical symbols and words for all but the simplest repairs. Any electrical explanations or instructions offered to you will just sound like Chinese. You can see the problem here.

What’s a bruthah from anothah muthah to do?

Samurai to the rescue! The electrical and troubleshooting skills you need are very learnable and affordable at the Samurai Tech Academy.

The Fundamentals of Appliance Repair course would be an awesome boost to your ability to repair all kinds of things around the house. Basic electricity, electronics, gas, electric motor systems, and troubleshooting with schematics are all timeless skills with broad application that will give you valuable insight into the inner workings of numerous electro-mechanical systems in your home.

You can acquire these skills inexpensively and conveniently in our up-to-date, comprehensive, online Fundamentals of Appliance Repair training course. The course tuition will pay for itself after just one or two DIY repairs!

It’s an investment in the most valuable asset you have: YOU!

Other methods of technical training available today are DVD packages, in-person training, and correspondence courses. See how online learning compares with these other training methods.

Dance with me now:

  • Modern appliances are complicated electro-mechanical machines that are increasingly using single-board computers to control them.
  • Tech help at Appliantology.org can only take you so far if you don’t understand the underlying technology you’re dealing with and you can’t use schematics to troubleshoot and make basic electrical measurements.
  • The Fundamentals of Appliance Repair course teaches you all of the basics you need to ascend to a higher level of DIY ability.
  • The skills you learn in the course are timeless and have broad application.
  • You could even earn extra beer money on the side while you keep your regular job.
  • Better yet, do appliance repair full-time and earn up to $120K/year as a skilled appliance tech!

  • Complete the Free Sample Course to get a foretaste of the empowering wisdom that awaits you along with a discount coupon!

How to Choose the Best Appliance Repair School

Posted on January 7, 2015 by - Academy Talk, Career Talk

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Training is THE hot topic in the appliance repair trade these days. Experienced techs want to up their troubleshooting game and keep up with the newer models, and many new folks are looking for training in a skilled trade so they can get a job or start a business. Manufacturers and multi-truck operations have an ongoing virtual manhunt for skilled appliance repair techs. But they just don’t exist because new technicians are not entering the trade at the same rate as old servicers are retiring.

Here are some important questions you should ask about any technician training program you are considering investing your time and money in.

  • Is the material up-to-date, especially regarding computerized control boards?
  • Are the courses self-paced?
  • Is the educational style engaging and varied?
  • Is there a sequential order of instruction?
  • Are there quizzes or other forms of evaluation to make sure you are learning the concepts?
  • Is there a way to ask questions during the course as well as down the road?
  • Do you learn key troubleshooting skills using tech sheets and schematics?
  • Does the school offer a meaningful certification from a verifiable master in the trade?

 

How can you tell if the school you are considering is up-to-date? Besides asking for the production date of the materials used in the class, you can ask questions such as:

– Do you teach using schematics to troubleshoot an appliance?
– Do you teach the technology used in current front-load washers and refrigerators, such as inverter-driven variable-speed motors?

And how do you choose between the various styles of appliance repair school that are out there? There are four basic types—

1. online training courses
2. in-person training schools
3. DVD and manual sets
4. correspondence courses

— and each has their strengths and weaknesses. The newest kid on the block, online training courses, was the format we found to be superior when we decided to create our training academy.

The Samurai Tech Academy Advantage…

vs. In-person training

Among the many advantages that the online Samurai Tech Academy has over in-person group training is that the STA allows students to go as fast or slow as they like, since the courses are self-paced. If a student needs more time to master a topic, they can go back and redo the lesson as much they want. The STA can be done whenever, wherever, no matter if you’re on the move or working from your house. In-person training obviously doesn’t have such flexibility, and all the information has to be crammed into a very short period of time, making material retention difficult. Also, there are travel costs and time taken out from productive work days to attend the in-person training.

vs. DVDs and Manual sets

The online format allows us to keep the Samurai Tech Academy courses current and up to date with the latest technologies used in today’s appliances and doesn’t flood our students with costly textbooks or DVDs, which can quickly get outdated. No one wants to pay for manuals or other materials that are so out of date that they’re not even useful.

Many DVD-based programs do not have a specific sequence of instruction or testing, leaving it up to the student to figure it out. On the other hand, all the courses at the STA are carefully structured and organized to promote learning and material absorption.

Each course is broken up into small, digestible units, which are themselves made up of individual lessons. Our multimedia lessons use videos, text, diagrams, and audio to give an immersive, varied learning experience to help students better grasp the material. The lessons all end in quizzes so students can test and apply what they just learned and to further aid in retaining the information and determine any topics that need further review.

vs. Correspondence Courses

Some training courses out there still use only written materials and rely on instructor grading of materials. The STA’s online format allows for dynamic, up-to-date instruction and automatic grading of quizzes, so you determine your own pace.

Other Benefits


Interactive Help

If a student has questions, I’ve got answers, and the online Student Forums are where that happens. It’s like a class discussion, but time-independent! Also, we hold weekly LIVE Office Hours for Academy students.

Cutting-edge Education from an Expert

As you can see by checking out my YouTube channel, I enjoy showing others how to hone their craft.

I’ve also realized something that needs to be emphasized in the appliance repair community: that being an excellent technician requires more than disassembly and parts-changing skills. You need a fundamental understanding of the electrical and mechanical workings of each machine, as well as the ability to use the technical information for any appliance (such as the schematic diagram) to formulate a troubleshooting strategy.

This is critically important if you want to deal with today’s modern appliances with confidence and profitably. I know that this is a weakness with many techs out there, which is why I put so much emphasis on teaching this skill in the Academy courses.

There are loads of resources online that tell you all you need to know about disassembly and parts-changing. These resources are either free or nearly free. You don’t need to pay for a course on this.

Spend your training money where it really counts on a program that will teach you to be a troubleshooting master. That’s exactly what we offer at the Samurai Tech Academy at MasterSamuraiTech.com.

Complete the Free Sample Course to get a foretaste of the empowering wisdom that awaits you!

 

Will the demand for Appliance Repair Techs increase in the near future?

Posted on November 4, 2014 by - Business Talk, Career Talk, Tech Talk

PCB_Testing_400The short answer is “yes!” according to the Bureau of Labor. We discussed their projection that the demand for appliance repair technicians will grow by 21% over the next decade in an earlier Blog Post.

It’s an important question for anyone looking to invest time and money in training. You want to make sure there’s a good chance of getting a job or running your own business once you’ve geared up.

Besides the overall growth trend that the BoL is predicting, we also think there will be another important shift in the trade due to the changes in appliances happening right now.

Due to a number of factors, especially the government Energy Star requirements, appliances are becoming increasingly “electronified.”

We think the increasing computerization and complexity of appliances will only create more opportunities for skilled technicians to have a steady work flow with lots of interesting and profitable work. This will weed out the people who don’t want to learn new technologies and change with the times from the people who do keep up with technology and continue to learn and hone their skills. That second group of techs will find that they have plenty of work.

It was recognizing this trend, along with noting the lack of convenient training available in these critical skills, that inspired us to create the Samurai Tech Academy.

The Fundamentals of Appliance Repair course at the Samurai Tech Academy provides an excellent technical foundation giving you the basic skills you need to build on and understand the present and future technologies coming out in appliances, and how to profit from that knowledge.

 

Then take the Advanced Schematic Analysis and Troubleshooting training course to get advanced instruction on troubleshooting appliances with multiple electronic control boards.

 

Great News: Positive Job Outlook for Appliance Repair Techs!

Posted on July 25, 2014 by - Career Talk

Appliance Repair is one of the best jobs not requiring a college degree, according to an article at CareerCast.com.

 

This comes as no surprise to us – for quite some time now we’ve seen the skilled trades frequently described as being a smart career choice in an economy that apparently will be dipping in and out of recession for the foreseeable future.

I have a few thoughts about the article that I wanted to pass along.

First of all, I encourage you to ignore the statistics at the beginning of the article about how much more money people make who have a college degree. While these numbers may be accurate on the face of it, they don’t really mean much once you dig deeper.

For example, these stats don’t separate out income made by those who get a degree in a traditionally high-paying field that requires a specific college credential, such as medicine, law, and engineering, from those who get a more general degree such as liberal arts or business. There are huge income disparities among these two different sets of grads.

These stats also don’t factor in the increasing debt burden taken on by college students and how that will affect their net income for much of their adult lives. Tuition has risen about 275% since 1970, yet real wages for a graduate with a bachelor’s degree have risen only 10%.

We are big proponents of continuing education, but think the smart options are through self study and online learning. The internet has given us many exciting options for continuing education, such as the Samurai Tech Academy!

This article says that the median income of an appliance tech is $43,460, and there’s a projected hiring increase of 21% by 2022. These are Bureau of Labor Statistics, so they do not include self-employed techs, only those employed by other companies. And remember – the “median” income means that about half of the techs earn more than $43k!

 

That’s another great thing about being an appliance repair tech – while there are lots of jobs out there for you, it’s also a great way to be self-employed if that is your goal!

Articles like this only reinforce our excitement that we are able to offer such a valuable opportunity for people to get started in the appliance repair trade. And with the level of instruction we provide here along with ongoing support at Appliantology, we expect that Samurai Tech Academy graduates will be among the top income earners in the field.

Click here to read the article.