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I still say to take the money you saved and take an auto-mechanic course for newer cars... then work with VW club members to learn the VW stuff on the side.
Then... work at a McAuto joint and put the word out. In order to reach the top there are lower rungs of the ladder to climb. Life is not white and black... there are many shades of grey.
Sometimes making a career out of your hobby is not good. Takes the fun out of it. My first car was a '65 Beetle in '71 when I was 16. Then I bought a Citroen, then a '60 MGA then I got married and had "normal" cars for 30 yrs. that I could only do limited work on because they are too complicated. A year ago my wife gave me a '73 Beetle (in boxes) as a gift and I have had a great time ever since. They are really very simple and with these guys help on this site you can do anything.
We have a VW shop in town - I tried to get the owner to let me "apprentice" for him, but he wasn't interested. He seems to stay busy enough around here, lotsa bugs around town...
I, too, am in the computer field, lost my high-paying job to H1Bs and off-shoring, and am now back in entry-level/"dead-end" work. I can understand.
I starting to take autobody classes at the tech school, but had to quit to support the family.
I love working on my bug, but don't have any time. Plus, I'm downright scared to do some things. Like adjusting valves.
I dont want to work on newer cars... I understand the "neccesity" of being able to do that to make real money, but as I've stated.. im not really into making money, I just want to learn from someone before all the knowledgeable people are dead, or not interested in teaching. It'd be nice to make min wage while learning, but beggars cant be choosers.
Valve adjustments are tricky to perform (akward?), but you can check your work with a gauge pretty easily before you run the engine, and after a quick run, you can always shut it down and check it again to make sure everything stayed adjusted. When we did valves last year it took about three tries to get them right... but its something you're going to have to do if you want to be a vw guy 
biggie: Just don't try and check the adjustment on the valves with the engine hot. VW (and even Muir!) has always recommended that valves be checked and adjusted with the engine dead cold. I even remember from years ago that the dealer I bought my '65 from (Cotton Goff in Buena Park) had these large specially manufactured blowers that they could use to cool the engine down quickly.
As for the actual adjustment procedure, I learned it from the original Muir manual I bought in 1976. If you read it out loud or have someone read it out loud to you, it is really a very simple and basic procedure. If it took 3 times then maybe something was wrong in the procedure you were using??
Clancy
I've read the procedure as posted on a vw site, and it seemed easy enough (not sure how to turn engine TDC).
Really would be nice if I could talk my VW guy into letting me watch him adjust the valves just once, or better yet watch ME while I do it...
Nic-
We're in town this week.
So far have seen an orange 72 Karman Ghia convertible and a red 76 Thing.
patty: havent seen the thing?? must be from out of town. the karman ghia i think lives somewhere out in Thunder Beach, as I've seen it before.
Clancy: no, i think the procedure just started out half assed, and then by the third time we realised we had to be more precise. it wasnt dead cold by the third run, thats for sure. 
vw 1971: yeah once you're sure about where your timing notches are, it should be easy enough to do in the future
Wow. 2007.
Last night I just finished installing the 2020cc engine that I built with my own hands using all the bells and whistles. Installed new guages, electric fuel pump, disc brakes, new bushings bearings and seals, OH MY!
Big difference 4 years makes. Still not too happy with my job but it *has* afforded me the ability to fund an expensive hobby in my own shop with my own tools
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