"Are they going to decide whether you're good at fixing cars?" Lily asked. Ethan considered the question. "They're going to decide whether this shop is a good fit for the work they need done."
She frowned. "That's different?" "A little. A person can be good at something and still not have everything a bigger job requires."
Lily looked toward the broken lift. "Could you learn?" "Some of it, yes." "Then tell them that," she said, as if the matter were settled. Ethan laughed and kissed the top of her head. "I intend to, bug."
Naomi arrived on time with Olivia Park from compliance and a fleet maintenance analyst named David Chen. None of them came in a luxury sedan; they arrived in an ordinary company crossover marked only by a small fleet decal. Ethan greeted them in the lot, apologized for the faded sign, and immediately offered to show them the limitations of the building. Naomi, who had met many applicants who began with exaggerated claims, took note of the unusual starting point.
They began with safety. Olivia asked about the disabled lift, the method Ethan used to prevent accidental operation, the age of his current certifications, the handling of hazardous waste, and whether customers had access to active work areas. Ethan answered without rushing, then retrieved documentation when she requested it. When she asked how the shop would accommodate Lily's occasional presence, he explained that her desk was separated from the service floor and that she was not allowed near moving vehicles or powered equipment without him and appropriate safety boundaries.
David examined repair records for three local businesses that had consented to being used as references. He selected cases at random and compared the customer complaint, diagnostic steps, parts installed, and follow-up results. The work orders were plain, sometimes written on inexpensive paper that Ethan later scanned, but the detail was unusually strong. David noticed that Ethan recorded what he had ruled out, not merely what he had replaced.
"Why write down tests that came back normal?" David asked. "Because the next person shouldn't have to charge the customer to repeat them," Ethan said. "And because a normal result helps narrow the problem. If I only record the winning answer, it looks as though I guessed correctly from the beginning. That's not useful for anyone."
Naomi watched him explain a recurring electrical fault to David using a simple hand-drawn diagram. There was no sales performance in it, only clarity, and Ethan did not seem to know that his method of explaining a fault was itself a valuable skill. Naomi had spent years dealing with repair invoices that said REPLACE UNIT and little else. An honest account of failed hypotheses could prevent the same diagnostic hours from being spent at three different facilities.