im currently a 3rd year apprentice mechanic at ford.. i do enjoy the work, pay is very average.. or even crap. But i enjoy working with cars, schools payed for and iv learnt a crap load. My advice will be.. if you want to go mainstream you go with a dealership or something like that.. if you want to specialize you go straight to the root.. performance.
I wasnt fortunate enough to go performance.. so i started from the bottem and will be at the top soon enough