Under the hood and on top of her game

During her first automotive maintenance class, Brittany Schultz fell in love with taking a look under the hood. That she was the only woman in her class didn’t faze her a bit.

“I still have not met another female mechanic. I have heard they exist,” Schultz said. “I was the first girl to graduate my school with an automotive major.”

Schultz, a 23-year-old Hoover resident, has worked as a mechanic for about two years, including nearly a year at her current shop, Christian Brothers Automotive on Southpark Drive. She didn’t grow up working on cars, and her first class in auto maintenance was like speaking a foreign language.

“Because I knew nothing about it — I mean, I did not know how to change my own oil, knew nothing — there were a lot of stupid questions I had to ask before I had a general concept of where things even were, how things worked,” Schultz said. “So everything was brand new; everything was a blank slate, no foundation. And that was really challenging because the classes were framed as though, ‘You already know what an alternator is, let me break down the parts and tell you why it works.’ Whereas I had never heard that word before; I don’t know where it is in the car; I don’t know how it fits in with everything else.”

Being smaller than her classmates sometimes meant she had to watch in frustration as they did things she couldn’t do.

“For me, to figure out how to use my energy the right way or the smart way or to get as much leverage as I can was another thing that I had no previous idea about,” Schultz said.

But none of that stopped her from her enjoyment of finding and solving the problem of each car she sees.

“This is an issue; you have to eliminate the possible causes, determine the right cause, fix it, and it’s very rewarding to have the process completed,” Schultz said. “This is something that challenges me constantly, and I always have to learn.”

Schultz also found her own niche of work that is detail-oriented rather than strength-oriented, and she learned to do it well. She said some of her favorite tasks are electrical systems work, vehicle computers and rebuilding automatic transmissions.

“I wouldn’t ever be probably the best at heavy line work, like engine removals, and that kind of thing. But I knew I was smart enough to get into electrical systems, and I knew that I could figure that out,” Schultz said.

After graduating, Schultz had to clear a few extra hurdles as a female mechanic before she got her first job. Christian Brothers, which she joined in summer 2016, is the second shop she has worked at.

“I’ve had shops tell me that they would not hire a woman, that they would not have a woman in their shop, whereas here [at Christian Brothers] it was very different and very welcoming and very understanding,” Schultz said.

As part of a four-mechanic team, Schultz said she is able to rely on older, more experienced mechanics when she has questions about a repair or needs occasional heavy lifting. Being a woman in the Christian Brothers garage isn’t a problem, she said. 

“If there’s any questions to be asked, if there’s any tools that need to be borrowed, if there’s anything at all, the guys have really taken care of me,” she said.

Occasionally customers will assume she isn’t a mechanic due to her gender, but Schultz said being a female mechanic also has its upsides. When women come in for car repairs, sometimes they feel more comfortable talking to Schultz than her male co-workers, particularly if they don’t have much automotive knowledge.

Although her parents were initially hesitant about her career path, Schultz said they’ve been supportive as they’ve seen her succeed, and her father has even mentioned rebuilding a classic car together.

Schultz is working on her master mechanic certification from the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, which she plans to complete this year. As she gets more experience, Schultz said she would like to eventually move up to become a service manager or own her own shop. Her parents have joked about her creating a shop staffed entirely with female mechanics.

At the end of each day on the job, Schultz said she likes feeling tired from a full day’s work and knowing that cars are on the road because of her.

“I like the physical reward of problem solving, figuring it out, watching that get fixed and it driving away,” Schultz said.

She’d like to meet another female mechanic, too. “I think this can be a very great career to choose, especially now where the automotive business is at and where automotive technology is heading. Because it is no longer just a nuts-and-bolts game or a heavy-lifting thing anymore. There are many more computers in vehicles, and there is a need for what women can have to offer,” Schultz said.