I was wondering if anyone of you could help me. I am located in the chicagoland area and wanted to get into installing home theaters and home automation as a career. I just dont know where to start. Is there some sort of classes I need to take or maybe some online courses. Or could I just start working for a company that does this type of work. Any help would be greatly appreciated

CEDIA, graduate, get credits, get clients.

best way to start out is contract yourself out to specialty shops, but before you do this I would go and do work in your own home, get a little idea of some fun things that can happen during a retro installation. You may also want to see some other "big box" stores about doing "custom installations for them as a contractor. They should feed you some simple jobs that will give you good experience. Best advice, is dont bite off more then you can chew.

All Aspects is hiring, and isnt too far from you :-)

I worked for Circuit City for 2.5 years doing delivery. When I finally got tired of hurting my back, I made the jump to Custom AV. I pretty much put my resume together and hit all of the fairly local Custom Home theater companies that had a store front. Out of the 5 or 6 places I went to, I only got one response from the first place I went to. I think I was at the right place at the right time. I was so "green" to custom AV. I was lucky that, at the time, I had two awesome guys that taught me the foundations to doing this type of work. Luckily they picked me out of 3 guys to stay. I have since moved on to better things and haven't looked back. I've been at it for almost 4 years and couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Long story short, visit local shops and see if they are hiring and hope they have good installers that will show you the ropes. That helped me out tremendously.

Good luck, Tom

I would have to tell you that this industry is actually part constuction trade and part AV technical work. You really have to be able to understand the constuction process almo as much as you understand the ever evolving idiosyncracies of the AV world. Start off small, become a sponge for knowledge, and don't bite off more than you can chew. You sound excitede and enthusiastic about this venture That's good, drive can be 95% of a succes story . But know this......"EXPERIENCE" is the most relevant factor in this industry. And that can't be learned,, only acquired. Good luck to you

Tweeter is always hiring, and they train you.