Need advice.

my buddy gets paid like $14.00 a hour at bestbuy to install but he has taken tons of certs and whatnot to really stand out in his line of work....honestly its not that great of a line of work to get into...most places dont pay crap and 99% of all small shoops fail

Best advice....have a bunch of rich friends that are into car audio so you can do all their systems.

You can come to Louisiana and I'll put you through Car Audio training school...and teach you the tricks of the trade...plenty of hands on experience in customization and competition setups...plus reasonable tuition fees...

i was in your shoes years ago. heres how i did it.

i looked up car audio schools around the us. there are a few. i chose install institute becasue it was in fla and not to expensive.

i am glad i chose goingto school because it will put you far ahead of many installers as far as basic electrical and install theory. it will give you your mecp basic certs as well as a beginners knowledge of what and how to use a relay, resistors, diodes, and many other applications. also, many install shops will pay higher initially becasue of the schooling they will not havet o put you through.

after school i started as a pt installer at bestbuy making 14 an hr. my buddy started with no school or certs at 9 an hr that same week...now i have worked my way through the leadership chain and im now master certified. i made well over 22 an hr at bestbuy. privite shops do not pay nearly as well as the corp jobs do, buuut privite shops do cooler stuff. i was in the position to hire and train installers for a long time. schooling is awesome, and i enjoyed hiring installers from school more then not. hands on exp for a newb is not important as the knowledge of how it works. school will not tell you how to install a deck into a 89 sunbird or put a remte start into a 2010 silverado. it will give you basic knowledge in a school environment..hands down i say go to a school. mobile dynamics in phx az is goos as well as install institute in daytona. there is a school in oaklahoma and another in texas i think. call all of them get materials from each and do you homework.

that being said i own my on biz now and its is the only real way to make career type money in this field. working at bestbuy is an option but you can only go so far and it gets boring. i have been in biz for abnout 3 yrs now and it is getting harder and harder to stay aflot. like mentioned above most shops fail becasue the owner wants to be the installer and that isnt the case. the owner has to be the owner most of the time and will have to hire to get more work done. its a tough biz but fun and very lucrative in the right place at the right time.

also, as far as all the custom install stuff, that is a very small percentage of what you are going to do in your daily work. custom work is time consuming, never the same twice, and takes a long time to get good at. so be prepaired for days full of deck and satallite installs at first until you get good at this. box building ist to bad but glass work doesnt come buy to often...people dont have the money to spend on it anymore.

also, not matter how many installs you have done for your buddies you are not experienced. until you work in a professional shop doing things CORRECTLY and safely many many times a day you are not experienced. i have worked on over 8000 cars and i learn new stuff daily...ok mabye weekly just prepare yourself and be humble becasue the second you think you know it all your will screw something up.

also, be prepared to buy your own tools. 1000s of dollars in tools over the years. you will need them.