I'm looking for some info...

I worked at a mom and pop store in a smallish town in MN during the housing boom. (around 7 years total) During that time I got a lot of experience programming URC/RTI remotes, performing audio and video calibrations, and programming macros on that little sony remote.

Fast forward another 7 years, and I'm looking to get back into the field.

I was thinking about education for flexibility when it comes to employment, but I also was considering just throwing together a resume and taking whatever I can get to get back into the field.

I have 4k saved up for this endeavor. Any good schools out there to get me where I want to go? Or should I just hit the job market and take what I can get?

Hit the job market.

IT / Networking education would be an immediate priority if I were interviewing people.

Where in Minnesota?

Find the closest mental facility and voluntarily commit yourself.

Plus one to the it education.
This could take you in multiple directions and make you much more valuable in more than one field

Plus 2 to IT education.

Our field has changed a lot since you were in it. Everything we do is now networked based and requires knowledge of robust networks.

Mankato. South of the twin cities.

Also, for IT schools, is there anything specific I should look for? I've already got an associates, so I'm looking more for certifications than anything else.

Lexiphanic, in addition gaining as much IT knowledge as possible, you should look into getting your Power Limited for the state of MN. Reach out the the Department of Labor and see if any of your old hours could apply towards the requirements. If you get through all that, make sure you take a prep class before the test!

+ on the IT knowledge.

Take a look at your local community college to see if they offer any of the Cisco CCNA certs. You want routing and switching which is broken down into 4 courses. It's a big time commitment but little $. You can take the classes and skip the cert testing as it means nothing for our industry. When I did my classes I was with a bunch people who needed the cert to climb their career ladder or validate for the next pay level. Here's the course description for class "A" at my local CC which would IMHO start you off better than CEDIA industry training...

Introduction to the architecture, structure, functions, components, and models of the Internet and other computer networks. The principles and structure of IP addressing and the fundamentals of Ethernet concepts, media, and operations are introduced to provide a foundation for the curriculum. Students will be able to build simple LANs, perform basic configurations for routers and switches, and implement IP addressing schemes

I do want to say that if you go through the CCNA coursework, please for the love of god do the cert. With some experience, a CCNA is one of the most beneficial certs in the entire field of IT. It's not something that you can cram, it is a huge amount of material.

However, I would say you really don't need CCNA unless the companies you are looking to work for need a network admin (such as an MSP who does AV). Network+ is much more attainable and is what I consider to be the extent of what's needed currently in the AV field.

(I personally have A+, Net+, Security+, CCNA, CWNA, and ITIL certs - the only ones that I would recommend an AV installer to have {unless they want to be a hardcore programmer} would be A+ and Network+)

If You decide to take another leave of absence, the network certs will be valuable.

The certs will also give you some chops to deal with the A/V customer's "IT guy". These IT guys have nothing but disdain for us. I'm crossing swords more and more with these guys. They'll treat the home as some sort of enterprise combat zone that they have free reign over. They won't hesitate to move IP addresses, insert VLANs and generally muck up everything -- then they blame me and my junk equipment when everything collapses. They also use the same test regimen as the cable guys --- pull up a web page, show the customer, then split. Sometime later, the music and TV's stop working and I get a call.

I'll check my local schools for any IT certs they have. Although can't anyone that has set up a few routers do this: "Students will be able to build simple LANs, perform basic configurations for routers and switches, and implement IP addressing schemes"

My dad's been working IT at the local state school forever, and I've helped him out enough to have a good grasp of all of that.

If they are using the usual consumer grade kit, probably the worst of the potential mess is overlapping channels and unfortunate DHCP pools. The real issues start when the IT guy introduces a managed switch.

I don't want to paint them as all bad. As in any technical area, there are good and bad practitioners. It is important that only one "expert" is mucking with things. If there is an IT guy on the project I'll provide a very specific list of my requirements and make very clear to everyone that networking is the IT guy's domain from here on.

Sometimes the IT guy will refer customers to me.