You've always dreamed of getting into the car industry, but you don't know where to start. Jalopnik readers have found the ten greatest car-related jobs you should kill to get.
Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
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Photo Credit: Top Gear
10.) Supercar engine builder
Suggested By: Reptar
Why it's so good: Factory work for most automakers is fairly grueling in the loud conditions, and fast pace of the line. Exotic car manufacturers, by contrast, invest heavily in clean, orderly, more slow-paced factories, like the OCD wonderland at McLaren. Getting to assemble engines all day in there would be quiet, calm, and something you could enjoy.
Photo Credit: GF Williams/Jalopnik
9.) Classic car restorer
Suggested By: ReggieDunlop
Why it's so good: You get to spend your whole day with complete dream cars, bringing them back to original condition or better. Well, you don't get to spend all day, as you're self employed. This means you're going to have to deal with asshole customers, guys who leave their car at your shop for months and never return your calls, and take the stress of staying profitable with your own business.
For people like Walt Johnsen, who do nothing but work on coachbuilt cars from 1925 to 1941, it's all worth it.
Photo Credit: ASR Photos
8.) CEO of GM
Suggested By: Irving Washington
Why it's so good: What other job in the world lets you run the biggest company in the world into the ground and retire with a humongous paycheck? Irving Washington gives us the answer:
Maybe Akerson will change the expectations, but it appears to me that one could comfortably preside over mediocre to poor financial results for years, become the subject of a hilarious documentary about incompetence, get fired by the White House, and even engage in criminal conspiracies, and still reliably get very rich.
Photo Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
7.) F1 safety car driver
Suggested By: west-coaster
Why it's so good: Actually driving in Formula One is quite stressful. You never know when your wheels will explode, you have to work out all the time, and you spend most of your day doing fitness training, not gallivanting with groupies.
That's why you should get Bernd Mayländer's job wailing on an SLS AMG with open pipes around a track as F1's safety car driver. You still get to fly around the world for free, but you're only on track for a few laps at a time, leaving you fresh for the evening's festivities.
Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images
6.) Skunkworks engineer
Suggested By: agjios
Why it's so good: Being an engineer in the massive bureaucracy that defines most car companies can be extremely degrading, with years going into refining unheralded, out-of-sight parts. Working at a skunkworks division, like BMW M, AMG, or SRT allows you to make visible progress to a car design, and what you're doing is making some of the fastest, coolest cars in the world.
Photo Credit: FurLined
5.) Car designer
Suggested By: magman007
Why it's so good: The starting pay is bad and you will spend your entire career fighting with corporate drones who want to economize your designs into something less radical and expensive to produce.
It will all be worth it to see your work used by millions of people, making their lives better with good design.
Photo Credit: GM via Dean's Garage
4.) Automotive journalist
Suggested By: Kiwi_Commander
Why it's so good: Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't possibly borrow the Aston Martin Virage this weekend. No, not even if you drop it off at my house, I simply don't have time. Call me back when the new Vanquish comes out, I think I'll be available then.
Photo Credit: Drive
3.) F1 team technical director
Suggested By: SennaMP4
Why it's so good: For the engineers out there, this is as good as it gets. You run a team of the most brilliant minds in aerodynamics and car design, plucked from the best universities with your sponsor's money. You yourself design the most technically advanced automobiles the world has ever seen and they actually pay you to do it.
Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
2.) Supercar test driver
Suggested By: SennaMP4
Why it's so good: There are not many slots open as a test driver for companies like Pagani, Koenigsegg, Ferrari, or Lamborghini. You have to train for years, going to specific schools and working your way up studying car design and telemetry.
And after all that, you get to drive the greatest cars ever built before anyone else, and your entire job is to make them even better to drive. Again, they actually pay people to do this?
Photo Credit: Travis Okulski/Jalopnik
1.) Racecar driver
Suggested By: BiTurbo228
Why it's so good: In spite of the stress, the rigorous schedules, the constant fight for sponsorship, the media relations, the physical training, and the life-threatening risk you take every time you step into the cockpit, this is the one that everyone dreams of.
You get the money, the fame and, above all, the thrill of victory.