REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

mugentsx · 08-25-2010, 11:47 AM

applied to the program recently, and thinking is this program worth going to?

I hope to find a job within this area. anybody working in this field want to chime in?

mickz · 09-04-2010, 11:43 PM

What kind of job are you looking for in this area?

You pretty much get trained to be a technician but most worthwhile companies will do anything low voltage.

I've taken it and know the instructors quite well if there's anything else you want to ask.

nhlali20 · 01-20-2015, 04:47 PM

I was wondering the starting salary of this program+with experience & will there be jobs for this program like i mean not every house has an alarm.

Soundy · 01-20-2015, 04:52 PM

Everyone and their dog installs alarms, alarms are a pain in the ass, especially in residential.

punkwax · 01-20-2015, 04:55 PM

Great industry to get in IMO for techs. A good TQ'd alarm/systems technician can earn great pay, company vehicle, phone, laptop etc.

You might have to pull cable in a hot attic to get there, but believe me, if you're a hard working, honest technician, you could basically pick the company you want to work for if you've made a name for yourself (Small industry). I've been in the industry for quite some time and every growing security company is looking for good techs.

And there is plenty of business out there to address nhlali20's comment. Security companies do more than alarms. Surveillance, access control, some get into structured cabling, multi-room audio or theatre systems, built in vac etc. Anything low voltage.

Soundy · 01-20-2015, 05:05 PM

Just be aware, there are lots of "security" companies who hire mostly clowns to do their grunt labour and work them into the ground... so if you have half a clue, you'll end up being very, very frustrated very quickly. Lot of them are just looking for the best margins they can get, so they want you to slap stuff in as quick as possible... then when things fuck up three months later and the company is taking forever to respond to customer service calls, you're the one who gets yelled at when you're finally dispatched to fix things.

Moral of the story: when you're looking for somewhere to work, do your homework... ESPECIALLY in this industry, since the regulations are so vague. Electricians, plumbers, etc. all have tons of regulations and qualifications you have to pass before you can do the work... low-voltage, not so much.

punkwax · 01-20-2015, 05:09 PM

Looking for a change of scenery, Soundy? PM me.

I keed. I keed.

MindBomber · 01-20-2015, 05:38 PM

I'm not a low voltage tech but on the high end work sites where i work they seem to be both well-respected and to do pretty interesting installs, especially where there's significant audio systems. My $0.02.

Soundy · 01-20-2015, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MindBomber

I'm not a low voltage tech but on the high end work sites where i work they seem to be both well-respected and to do pretty interesting installs, especially where there's significant audio systems. My $0.02.

Most of our work now in CCTV is mid- to high-end installs, and our customers love us. We also work alongside a networking outfit and a couple of A/V companies that do some seriously skookum stuff for one of those customers. There are definitely some good outfits doing this stuff... but there are a lot of trunk slammers floating about, some of them under some pretty recognizable names, doing hack jobs that I've had to clean up later.

Our biggest customer right now, we got largely because their previous provider - also a well-known name - totally slacked off on service and simply weren't interested in meeting their needs as they moved into other areas.

Another former customer (major national company) is now being serviced (so to speak) by our competitor, and the sites themselves all hate it because of the terrible service and shitty installs, but they came to some kind of sweetheart deal at the higher levels (we've had to "clean up" after them a few times after their techs fucked up other systems that we still handle).

Meanwhile, one of that customer's competitors has been shifting all their work from our competitor to us, specifically because they love our work.

alex.w *// · 01-20-2015, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MindBomber

I'm not a low voltage tech but on the high end work sites where i work they seem to be both well-respected and to do pretty interesting installs, especially where there's significant audio systems. My $0.02.

What system?

You a custom integrator?

The thing about this job, you can branch out into so many different areas