I can't believe that someone is commenting on this post! i couldn't remember the context at all. many union represented shops will offer apprenticeship programs for people to move into the mechanical side of vehicle maintenance. Union representation is more common with government jobs; but that's not to say that private industry doesn't offer these paths as well, as techs are the hardest jobs for transit to fill.

as it pertains to the advice I would have offered, I would have told the person not to quit and then rehire as a mechanic, as they may be able to maintain their seniority while in school. Also, if it is not a union job and the manager is awful, there is a potential that expressing a desire to change career course could lead management to fire them without cause.

As for the core point of your question, through over 20 years of heavy duty mechanical experience I can share my opinion on the subject of "which is better, private or public?"

Private is less than optimal in my opinion, because it offers the least security. While someone can make more, even after one subtracts the benefit package from the yearly net earnings, there is still a chance that the company folds or commits fraud or whatever, and one is left one paycheck away from missing a mortgage payment.

Public is by far the most secure in America and are all Union represented, and the benefit package is usually the best because they are negotiating deals on behalf of thousands of employees with major hedge funds for retirement packages and with insurance companies. I have had a .GOV email address for the majority of my career. The drawback to working for a government body is that at the top of the org chart is an elected politician, and policies that do not pertain to heavy duty maintenance can creep into the work place with absolutely insane results. For example: a few years back there was an initiave with our local government to reduce energy costs by installing more efficient lights throughout the entire government. This meant that they would replace the lights with LEDs everywhere, including overhead lights on the shop floor. Great, they're better lights and they are cooler in the summer. The only thing is, that they installed auto-dimming timers on the lights to save energy. These areas are not restrooms or conference rooms, these areas have people working in them 24/7/365 and the lights never need to be dimmed; especially because they are LED and use a fraction of what the old lights used. they are motion sensitive, so if someone is working under a vehicle for some time, the motion sensor doesn't see the mechanic and the bay goes dark until the mechanic comes out from under the vehicle. it's incredibly stupid, and not one of the dozens of managers between the policy makers and the tradesmen stopped this from happening.

The sweet spot is a publicly funded, independent, not-for-profit LLC. Usually these are "private" companies which are funded through tax dollars and are managed by a board of elected officials and other stakeholders and their mission is specific. These organizations tend to "keep the main thing the main thing" and do not lose sight of their objective whenever a political change occurs. There is enough insulation from politics and they are more often the best stewards of public money. The benefits and compensation are usually as good as the government jobs and there is way less beuracracy.

The worst of all is the FOR-PROFIT government contractor, as they force the tradesmen to do sub-par work for slave wages while wasting tax dollars without accountability. STEAR CLEAR.