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Job Description

Overview

Crash Champions is the largest founder-led multi-shop operator of high-quality collision repair service in the U.S., offering a hands-on apprenticeship program for aspiring collision repair technicians. The program provides paid training and mentorship, aiming to develop skills for a career in the collision repair industry.

Responsibilities

  • Learn the industry standard of the manufacturer’s original specification with high quality controls.
  • Create a complete repair plan, vehicle disassembly and reassembly, plastic bumper repair, and minor panel dent repair.
  • Repair more complex dents by working and reshaping sheet metal, application of body filler, and advancing to two-sided plastic repair, larger panel damage.
  • Learn the basics of structural damage identification and how to access repair procedures.
  • Properly set-up and anchor structural repairs, as well as three-dimensional measuring of the vehicle structure.
  • Learn the various methods of welding/joining materials and tools.
  • Fine tune body filler and metal repairs, with the addition of stud-gun and other metal straightening tools and techniques, cutting and replacing small structural components.
  • Proper set-up and techniques for MIG welding on steel vehicles, to complete the I-CAR Weld Certification.

Requirements

  • 18 years of age.
  • Ability to work full-time, 40 hours a week.
  • Lift up to 50 pounds.
  • Ability to stand for long periods of time.
  • Have a valid driver's license.
  • Regularly position or move self to fix and repair over and under vehicles.
  • Ability to effectively communicate and take direction from superiors.
  • Ability to read and understand a work order.
  • High School Diploma/GED preferred.

Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • Group Life Insurance
  • Disability Insurance
  • 401k
  • PTO

Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental
Vision
Group Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
401k
PTO
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How this job compares in Countryside, IL

Pay in context

At roughly $20/hr, this posting comes in about 41% below the $33/hr median for welding jobs across Illinois, where the middle half runs $28–$40/hr across 240 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 3% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. That gap is worth raising directly — in a market this size there is normally room to negotiate toward the median, particularly if you already hold the certifications the posting asks for.

The local market in Countryside, IL

This is the only active welding job we're currently tracking in Countryside, IL, which makes it worth moving on quickly — there is no local competing offer to weigh it against. Across Illinois as a whole we're tracking 331 other active welding openings from 199 employers. Browse welding jobs across Illinois.

Crash Champions currently has 7 other openings live in Illinois, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in Illinois at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are Gerber Collision & Glass (17), S&C Electric Company (11), and Venteon (9). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within Illinois, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Chicago at $38/hr, Downers Grove at $36/hr, and Addison at $36/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

What you'll be running

This posting calls for MIG. MIG (GMAW) feeds a continuous wire electrode through a shielding-gas nozzle. It lays down metal fast and is forgiving on clean material, which is why it dominates production and light fabrication work.

See all apprentice welder openings if you want to compare this against similar roles.

Similar openings near Countryside, IL

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Automotive Body Technician Apprentice figures were last recalculated when this page was built.