Rachel Blair’s background made her a perfect candidate for Kia’s Veterans Technician Apprenticeship Program.
Her family farmed tobacco and cotton. As a young girl, she repaired lawn mowers and small tractors and attended car shows with her father. She did her first engine rebuild at age 17 on a $400 car her mom bought her. A local parts store was so impressed by Blair’s frequent visits that it hired her; she eventually became store manager.
Blair joined the U.S. Army National Guard and trained as a combat medic. She also learned to drive big trucks and trained as a diesel technician.
After leaving the armed services in 2010, Blair became a truck driver. But long stints on the road — and away from her young son — persuaded her to find another career. She heard about Kia’s Veterans Technician Apprenticeship Program and applied.
“Getting the experience necessary to become a master automotive technician with Kia, getting paid to learn on the job and receiving the training necessary to accomplish that would be a huge fulfillment of a personal goal,” Blair said. “It’s something I have always wanted to do but didn’t have the opportunities to do it. This Kia program is giving that to me.”
Blair works at Jim Marsh Kia in Las Vegas as a lube tech. She said her training as a medic comes in handy as a technician.
“The experience of remaining calm and considering symptoms and their causes with a sense of precision and urgency are traits I can bring to the automotive world,” she said.
And while Blair has some automotive repair knowledge, she stays humble.
“I have spent a lot of time in the trades,” she said. “The people who come in and act like they know everything from the beginning sometimes make the senior technicians less willing to teach them. It’s good to come in saying, ‘Hey, I do know something but I don’t know your processes yet. How do you all want things done?’
“You have to come in with a mind like a blank slate,” Blair said. “That’s the only way you will encourage people around you to invest in you.”
For Andrew Acevedo, the expensive installation of a lift kit on his Jeep Wrangler convinced him to take over more of his own car repairs and maintenance.
“I started out small with oil changes, and then I broke a U-joint,” said Acevedo, who served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in 2019. “I fixed that, too.”
At his base, Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, there was a “hobby garage” where soldiers could rent tools and a lift.
When Acevedo’s tour with a task force in Italy was over, he came home to find many friends were fixing cars. He did the same, eventually finding work at a Ford dealership and some independent garages.
A program coordinator saw his resume on a job recruiting website and emailed Acevedo.
“I looked into it on their website and discovered it would be very beneficial to me because they would give me a lot of training that I normally wouldn’t have received if I followed another pathway into the business,” he said. “They gave me an offer and I accepted. I just wish that more veterans were aware of this program.”
Acevedo works at Yonkers Kia in New York. Like Blair, he said that his background comes in handy. He took part in NATO exercises, working with troops from other countries, he said.
“Everyone was there as part of the same team,” Acevedo said. “That translates back into the service bay. I learned the importance of getting along with my co-workers — help them out when they need you. They will be there and do anything to help you in return. I learned that from my past jobs, but I have seen that here at Yonkers Kia too.”
For Andrew Acevedo, the expensive installation of a lift kit on his Jeep Wrangler convinced him to take over more of his own car repairs and maintenance.