by geolemon » Sun Sep 03, 2006 4:11 pm
In many cases, you can get your feet wet with an installer position at somewhere like Circuit City or Best Buy, once you've gotten your feet wet working on your car, your family and friends cars - they often hire lesser experienced people. The same goes for smaller shops, sometimes struggling ones - they are looking to hire at a lower rate, and that means lower experience levels. Very often, shops have one or two "go-to" guys, who serve as a mentor to a few other installers, who are junior level guys.
If you are looking for formal education - I'd caution that at those schools also, you'll be at somewhat of a disadvantage, if you haven't already at least gotten your feet wet doing installs in friends and family cars. Most students, you'll find, are going to have some level of experience already.
In a similar situation, early in my college years (mid 90's) I went through two years of an Electrical Engineering program, frustrated finding myself struggling, not for lack of intelligence or interest and motivation, but rather because everyone else had a 'head start' - people who had naturally been tinkering with electronics, and building Heathkits, and playing with electronic experimenter kits since they were 8 or 9 years old - and that wasn't me.
I'd venture to say that the closest dedicated mobile electronics school to you in PA is Mobile Dynamics, up in Toronto, Ontario. It's about a 2 hour drive from me here in Buffalo, NY... and I'm about 1.5 hour away from Erie, PA as a point of reference.
In many cases, you can get your feet wet with an installer position at somewhere like Circuit City or Best Buy, once you've gotten your feet wet working on your car, your family and friends cars - they often hire lesser experienced people. The same goes for smaller shops, sometimes struggling ones - they are looking to hire at a lower rate, and that means lower experience levels. Very often, shops have one or two "go-to" guys, who serve as a mentor to a few other installers, who are junior level guys.
If you are looking for formal education - I'd caution that at those schools also, you'll be at somewhat of a disadvantage, if you haven't already at least gotten your feet wet doing installs in friends and family cars. Most students, you'll find, are going to have some level of experience already.
In a similar situation, early in my college years (mid 90's) I went through two years of an Electrical Engineering program, frustrated finding myself struggling, not for lack of intelligence or interest and motivation, but rather because everyone else had a 'head start' - people who had naturally been tinkering with electronics, and building Heathkits, and playing with electronic experimenter kits since they were 8 or 9 years old - and that wasn't me.
I'd venture to say that the closest dedicated mobile electronics school to you in PA is Mobile Dynamics, up in Toronto, Ontario. It's about a 2 hour drive from me here in Buffalo, NY... and I'm about 1.5 hour away from Erie, PA as a point of reference.