Brandon Steckler began his career in Northampton County Community College in Bethlehem, PA. There, he was a student of GM’s Automotive Service Educational program. In 2001, he graduated top of his class and earned the GM Leadership award for his efforts.

He later began working as a technician at a Saturn dealership in Reading, PA where he quickly attained Master Technician status. He later transitioned to working with Hondas where he aggressively worked to attain another Mater Technician status.

Always having a passion for a full understanding of system/component functionality, he rapidly earned a reputation for deciphering strange failures at an efficient pace and became known as an information specialist amongst the staff and peers at the dealership. In search of new challenges, he once again transitioned away from the dealership and to the independent world, where he specializes in diagnostics and drivability.

Today, he is a working technician at a large facility near the NE side of Philadelphia, PA. Along with beta testing for Automotive Test Solutions, he writes for MotorAGE Magazine, teaches for CARQUEST Technical Institute as well as WORLDPAC, INC. and develops curriculum/submits case studies for other training companies. Brandon contributes weekly to Facebook Automotive Chat groups and truly enjoys helping others to attain a level of understanding that will serve them well throughout their careers.

Professional Accomplishments

• GM ASEP certified Technician
• SATURN certified Master Technician
• Honda Factory Certified Master Technician
• Diagnostic technician in multiple shop locations
• Training instructor
• Training Curriculum Development

Certifications

• ASE CMAT A1- A9
• ASE C1 Service Consultant
• ASE L1, L2, L3 Advanced Level Specialist

Personal Mission Statement

To help maintain or improve the level of professionalism amongst today’s diagnosticians and to help grow the number of competent diagnosticians of tomorrow.

Key Talking Points:

• Mentor: Jim Morton
• Aspires to be an instructor of the caliber of John Thorton
  • Enjoys being an instructor and answering questions. Considers himself a ‘bridge gaper’ with relaying information in a relatable way for students to understand.
• Trainer for CTI (Carquest Technical Institute) and WTI ( WorldPac Technical Institute)
• “Knowledge begets new knowledge”
  • When you share knowledge together you can make new discoveries
• Always seeking new challenges with work
  • Worked at over 10 different shops and learned from all of them even the not so good experiences  
  • Described as “information specialist” because enjoys branching out to different makes and models of vehicles
  • Learned a lot in the early days by reading case studies
• 1.5 hour commute to work one way
  • Still keeps fire and motivation because uses that time to think and collect thoughts
• His first article for Motorage is still his favorite piece
  • Toughest challenge- Minivan with start problem that kept occurring
  • Put pride aside and wrote about the difficulties he faced
• Training techs
  • Daytime training- leaving work for training, shouldn’t cost tech money to do so
  • Techs need to constantly be training to keep up with the changing industry
• Advice
  • Try your best, ask questions, make mistakes and learn from it
  • Don’t be afraid of not knowing something, career is up to you

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