Why is it so hard to find installers?

it is that bad ----

Im here in the Chicago Area ... have had Ads on here .... Zero Responses....

Ads in papers-- worthless ....

NO Idea ---

No catch.....They are hired employees, no weekends, 401K, paid holidays and sick time, rarely work over 40 hours, even a decent medical plan. You use your own car but we pay mileage.  really the only difference between the guy making 40k more is he lucked into a dealership that likes him and request him to be thier guy. It is a combination of salary and commision so hustling does make you more. I could care less about MECP, i couldn't pass the test myself!

Sounds good, doesn't it? So why can't i get guys to apply that know anything?

Man I don't know I may sell my shop and move to maryland....I interveiwed about 20 guys this fall, I hired zero. In my area everybody is an installer, its amazing the crap some of these morons do to cars. I just hired a guy that used to install for me awhile ago, he's only part time but he does decent work which is impossible to find here. Most installers  up here make from 6.85 to 10 and hour which is not enough to support a family. I now if I offered 36k a year to start someone out I would have everybody and there brother in telling me they were a "master installer", they would be lined up for a mile....... I wish you luck as I feel the pain of being short handed, good luck. 36k man I haven't had a pay check in a year hmmmmm.

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wkndracr wrote:

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Where I work we do a combination of dealer and retail. we cant seem to find anybody good as well. The company is pretty large as we also do radio and instrument cluster remanufacturing for major OEM's, therefore we also get good medical,dental 401k with matching, even a pension, and we use company vehicles. problem is, someone who is old enough to have the experience also needs more than what they're starting installers at. I started when i was 19 13 years ago at $6.50/hr, now I'm salaried at a little more than 50k. I doubt i could go to another shop and start at 50k, not that i would leave anyway. I would tend to say anybody who is really good is already comfortable where they are, and not looking for new jobs.

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In my area toronto canada, i know of 2 shops (not custom) that went tits up in the past three years. But on the flip side, i know of a shop that has been doing work for about 20 years or so. having said that, that one is a family owed and opperated shop and they dont really do custom work either, just all kinds of car electrial work. 
There are alot of people who like to do car audio, people dont think of it as a carrer.
where does it take you after words?

Just a Quick question.... What kind of shop would be better to make some doh, a custom high end, or just a everyday fix it up shop?

The guy i said earlier that was unhappy with 46k was from Best buys when we hired him. He was a manager at a very high output store. He left us......for 3 days, and is back. He found the grass isn't always greener on the other side. He averaged 30 hours a week for 46k, hmmm, thats almost 30 bucks an hour he walked away from.

I had another guy(who posts here) email me. I told him the whole picture, good money, benefits, etc., but the catch is a lot of driving(which we pay you by the mile). He lives out in the sticks and said he was only willing to travel 20 miles! Where he is that won't even get him near a town with a friggin Burger King and he wants to do alarms? Heck, he lives 75 miles from our nearest office. I got guys that do a couple hundred miles a day, (which sucks) but you get paid well for it.

It's a balancing act, one month you have less work-more workers, the next month more work-less workers...

One thing that keeps beginners away is low starting pay and the high prices of tools.  When I first started at Circuit City for $8 an hour ~5 years ago I spent over $1000 in tools in my first month alone.  Even after installing for three years I still had tools that I wanted to buy, but couldn't afford.

The work isn't too bad, if you know what you are doing, but can be extremely frustrating at times.  The hours generally suck (late nights, weekends, etc).  The pay is low, and the contining financial commitment never seems to go away.  Sometimes I felt that I spent more money to be an installer then I made, there are just way too many specialized tools to ever own them all.....

So, when I graduated college I took the installation and troubleshooting skills I learned as an installer and got a electronics technician job paying over $60K and a company vehicle.  Now I need less tools, I don't work in cramped areas, and I make a lot more then I would of if I was still installing.

Installing is a great place to gain experiance, but not something that many people are cut out to do for life.  It just sucks that there is such a high up front cost to get involved.

Evolution-UK wrote:

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Don't suppose any of you guys, who come from the warmer states, fancy taking on a 36year old with 12 years experience in car audio, security, tracking and cellular?
It would mean i have to move from Scotland but i am sure the better weather would seriously tempt me! :)

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YES! I would!!!!

$20 an hour!!! I wish I could make that managing where I work. If I could find anything installing for that kind of money I'd be all over it. I actually had an interview with a shop just outside of where I live because alot of my customers go in his shop for performance stuff and the lead installer liked my work. I know for some of you that have more experience and knowledge it doesn't sound like much, but it's nice to have veterens in the biz complement my workmanship. The boss is going to give me a shot starting March but says I have to go to Mobile Dynamics within the year. That dosen't bother me because he's paying for it but my question is: Is Mobile Dynamics worth the money? or Is it just for the certificate? Either way I am at least getting a foot farther in the biz.