ZTC

Hi, everyone my name is chris and im a (hopeful) scikotic in the dfw area mansfield in particular
im really starting to get into electronics and cars especially car audio and im pushing towards a career in car installation but i have no idea on where to start off from so could anyof you guys/ girls hook me up with some tips or something or any schools in texas that offer courses for this.
any responses are appreciated


P.S. I dont have enough posts to post in general discussion thats why im in here

stevosnewtc

Hey wassup man I was also going to do the samething heres what I found so far theres many more to go to just keep looking through car mags...but anyways theres one in El Paso Texas elpasospeed.com-they do all the body kits etc.. But the best Ive found so far that will get your certification is Mobile Dynamics. You might do a google search. I believe they have a facility in pheonix, and they are really nice and will send you a packet for all the classes, plus the tuition isn't really that bad. Also really think about this career bro nowadays everyone is using the internet and DIY's to do that installation stuff. Really pick a back-up just in case. For me I own a insurance shop and when time comes Im going to open up and car audio shop. Also try to "intern" at your local shop to get more experience.Hope this helps, pm me if you have any ?'s

jwaj2002

yea don't get into the body shop business either unless you've done it 20 years you won't get a job, same goes for car audio whether you know your stuff or not you can't get a job unless you've done it several years, most places want a person that will work for nothing, not cause trouble, and do decent work, machining is a good choice so is welding for a backup, because there are always jobs for both that offer amazing benifits

stevosnewtc

Ya man I do agree with you, unless you have the money to do this as a side job then its really hard to get into. But if you have the disire and extra money to support yourself, then go for it, but always have a back-up just in case;)Oh also get your car out there and market yourself. Go to the school, start hooking up your ride get to the big shows and look for the little guy with the camera. Show him what you've got, and get yourself featured. Once you have a name its a heck of alot easier to get started. Thats what I did with my previous rides. It just so happens he took pics for a famous mag.If I were out looking for a rep. shop to do my system Im looking for mag. spots and trophies, but thats just me though lol!Best of luck though.

violent_b

look into a car audio installation school first. they will get you the basic knowledge and hopefully a foot in the door to a stereo shop. look at starting at a Best Buy or Circuit City, since they are more willing to hire installers with less experience. they are the best bet to get a ton of experience on working on a mutitude of vehicles. you won't do much custom but the experience is what you need to springboard to a custom shop.

scionofPCFL

This is not a wise career choice. The pay is not so great, and is not moving too well. 10 or 15 years ago it looked good because there weren't enough people doing it so the pay was decent. Now, it's 10 or 15 buck an hour job at the top portion, until you get into the upper echelon were you're still going to max out at about $50k/year w/o owning the shop. I'm sure $50k sounds great to a 15 year old, but you wouldn't be making that (or the equivelant) until you're in your mid-30's, and $50k isn't much when you're trying to raise a family, save for your child's education, pay a mortgage ($1500/mo), and save for retirement.

HOWEVER, if I were your guidance counselor, I'd suggest you take your interests and parlay that into something that would be an excellent career move; namely Engineering. Electrical Engineering would be an excellent career move, and you could move into the top of a fairly small but extremely lucrative career field. Audio engineering is extremely complex, but imagine how much fun it would be to work on products that won't be available for 5 or more years? In a million dollar lab with the latest and greatest of technology....all for you to play with!

BTW, you know those cats you see on Pimp My Ride and what not? They make like 30-40k/year and they're working on rides that cost upwards of 200 g's. The field is largely labor intensive and is highly trainable...which always translates into lower wages down the road as more people move into the field to work and agree to lower wages.

It should be noted tho, that this would be an excellent way to earn a few bucks while working part time and going to school.

violent_b

Interesting... so under this theory being a teacher is not a wise choice either. I don't mean to come off sounding like an a$$ so please don't take it that way. Doing something you love and getting paid, no matter how much it is, is its own reward. Yes, you won't get rich doing car audio unless you have a touch for custom and know how to make that work to your advantage, but how many people can truely say they are doing something they love?

I've been in the car audio field since I was 16. I love it and to see how it has changed is amazing. the need for installers that can understand the complex vehicles of today is out there. Yes, you can easily train someone to glass a box or make a trim panel but can you easily train someone to integrate an audio system in a new BMW or even new GM's and understand how it works? As the vehicles get harder to work on you will see a decline in the amount of installers out there, thus increasing wages (it may take a while) to the people that have the knowledge to work on the cars.

We do it for the love of car audio, not the love of a big paycheck. (but a big paycheck doesn't hurt)

scionofPCFL

My point is this:
When you depend on your hands for a living, it is best to plan on a) owning your own setup some day, or b) eventually pricing yourself out of a job when your experience gets to a point where nobody can afford to pay you what you're worth.

Doing something you love is great, and getting paid is even better. I was meerly offering a suggestion to take something you love and get paid a lot more dough and have a a lot more security and flexibility. That's all.

And yeah, I don't feel that teaching is a great career move either. Not so much because of the pay, but because of the crap they have to deal with on a regular basis.

violent_b

agreed. Here in Florida at least our cost of living is low so the low wages installers get isn't so bad compared to other areas of the nation. what ever happened to the cost of living raise anyway?????

scionofPCFL

come again? Maybe in your neck of the woods, but PC is out of countrol. Look at this lovely 130k house:



I do alright, and this is the type of house that's in my price range!


Learning to be a top notch installer is a great idea, but it can't be your goal to retire as one. It's a great spring board into other avenues while constantly looking for a new opportunity to exploit your skills to move into a higher tax bracket. There are a lot of valuble skills you can learn doing it, but they'd have to be applied elsewhere down the road.

Look at this way, in the 60's becoming an electrician was a great career move. And today, it's not a bad way to earn a paycheck, but there is little room for financial growth today, and they are unionized.

violent_b

wow, that's a nice "vintage" house. $130k, what a deal. lol! I feel you, I don't know how people can sell their homes to get something bigger and afford it. everytime I think about moving I look at the prices of the homes now and I'm perfectly happy where I am at for now.

ZTC

thanks for all the responses sorry it took me so long i had to get my posts up until i could actually post in here but anyway thanks for all the responses everyone.
yeh after what yall have said and some serious thought ( for a 15 yr old) i think i just want to be one of those people like i see on here that know a ____ load about cars and can do anything so i guess i was going to the extreme with a car audio career i guess im asking the wrong question.
i just want to know how you people on here know so much about cars

lol sorry for that long emo post

stevosnewtc

whats uo man hey dont give up just yet why not do 2 careers, i realized with enough money from the first career i can also do the second you know, always keep with your dream(wow im going emo too), and do what all of us do start in the threads and start reading, and reading and you guessed it read some more..and soon enough youll know about the scion then go to other forums might take awhile bet hey your 15 lol peace out

Max

I am an engineer, make decent money, and I love it. A lot. Honest.

jwaj2002

I'm a porter and I hate my job, $8 an hour doesn't go far enough

scionofPCFL

If I were in your shoes, I would start hanging around people that do this on the side. Watch and learn. When you get your car, start playing. Buy a deck to install, learn how to do it, then do it. Later on, add some speakers, and then later add an amp. Get the basics first, so when you go on to read about circuits and whatnot, they'll actually make a little sense. Most of those things come with manuals and such. Unless you are exceptionaly bright, reading about electronics and such is not a good way to learn about them. Quite frankly, it gets a bit confusing. If you aren't doing at the same time as reading, it's extremely difficult to grasp (at least for me).

But there's more to Car Audio than just electronics, there's also building stuff. So learn how to build stuff. Go on the internet and search for how-to's on how to build simple wooden boxes that are plumb and square, then move on to more difficult stuff with wood, then move on to organic shapes with fiberglass.

I guess the moral of the story is to just do it. I have a buddy from college that didn't know a lick about cars, bought a Mustang, and then started tearing it apart. Now, he had some help at work when he got himself into trouble, like the day he took his tranny apart, but he just got into it and started tearing it apart. When he got stuck he'd ask someone at work, or on one of the many forums.

Like I said earlier, this would be a great part-time gig to get setup in. I'm not sure of the level of expertise your local Best-Buy or Circuit City might want, but that wouldn't be a bad spot to earn while you learn. or If you have a small stereo shop in the area, see if you can't get on just sweeping floors and whatnot so you can learn all of this.

brownKIDDnate

hey im a porter too, $8.50 + piece work, and i love my job. its not the best i can get but im happy here

etli

Stay in school, go to college.

Get a degree in engineering. - if you want to work with sound, just specialize in audio engineering.

NOTE: you'll probably need to go to particular colleges that emphasize specialization. Most of the "name-brand" colleges don't offer the more specialized college degrees although some of them allow you to design your own cirriculum.

You probably want to avoid getting a degree in pure "Design" (Product Design, Automotive Design, Architectural Design, etc.) The competition is FIERCE and the jobs are few and far between. My sister finished a Product Design Degree back in 2004 and since then, she hasn't held onto a design job for more than 4 months. Design is very subjective and the market for the skill is volatile.

The only exception to that is computer graphic design with a specialty in computer animation. Although that's only hot recently due to the increase in popularity of video games.


I learn about cars by reading stuff on this website and doing stuff to my car. There's no substitute for experience.

"Here, grab this battery by the terminals!"
"Have you replaced your blinker fluid lately?"
"Don't forget to check your muffler bearings on a regular basis"

ZTC

thanks for all the great advise yall but yeh if i can ima take the advise about best buy im gonna go try and apply there but i doubt ill even get it though but its a start!
in the mean time im just gonna catch up with some local scikotics and catch some tips from them but anyway thanks for all the advise again yall

jwaj2002

and when you watch people, make sure its people that know what they are doing