Username wrote:[Inappropriateterm removed[/i]] after month I either get rejected, or offered min wage. Neither are acceptable to me.
When you say you worked in a cycle shop, do you mean as a mechanic? I'd love to do that myself. How do did you even get your foot in the door?
The mechanics I know both got Cytech certified whilst doing other jobs (one was a delivery driver). One of them knew some folks who ran a bike shop and when their mechanic moved on, he got the job. The other one did stuff like Dr. Bike sessions, and volunteering for a local racing club to build experience, network, and reputation. He was teaching Bikeability, so his time for such things was perhaps a little more flexible than many people's, but alot of the stuff he did was on weekends. He eventually landed a job working for a shop that sponsored another local racing team. The rumour was that their mechanic didn't turn up for a race, & he helped them out (I never verified this). In both cases, it took a couple of years of development work before they landed jobs.
I also met someone who got a job working at community bike hub. He started by volunteering, but also put alot of work into growing it as an organisation, so he was one of the first to be hired when it made enough money to have paid staff. That one was years in the development, though, and likely the equivalent of a full time unpaid job leading up to it.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom