Hi All,

I am loking for some advice and I am hoping to tap into the expertise on this forum.

Basically I am looking to change career within the security industry. I am 33 and have been in and around the security industry for about 15 years. I started in wholesale and have moved through a number of positions that have incorporated mainly sales and technical support roles. For the last few years I have been employed in a managerial position for a leading manufacturer.

I am now completely bored and in need of a new challenge and have decided to free myself from the office and start a career in installation. I have a sound understanding of how equipment and systems work have a decent level of fault finding knowledge from my tech support days but have very little installation experience. I have worked mainly in the door entry and access control sectors.

My question is, can anybody reccomend a course or an organisation that would be suitable for the transistion into installation. Are there any recognised qualifications? I am looking for a course that would give an overview of installation practises that would give me a solid foundation to pursure installation positions.

I am fully aware that this career change will mean initially taking on more junior roles, this doesn't scare me.

Any advice would really be appreciated.

All the best

Dan

Hi Dan,and welcome to the forum.

In my experience the best installation engineers have achieved the status through years of hands on learning.

There are no hard and fast rules on becoming competent,and I think most others on here will agree that most,if not all,courses available don't really prepare you for the practical side of installation work.

As long as you have the apptitude for the task that helps,its the experience though that puts you in good stead.

I've had guys with me that although they were very keen to learn just didn't have the practical ability-and dare I say it,common sense!.

Good luck though mate in your adventure.

Edited October 23, 201213 yr by Rulland

Did you work for Steve , Dan?

At your age, getting into this game will be difficult without any hand on experience.

Suggestion, take the Electrical courses available at your local learning centres and become a fully fledged "sparks". Then you have a couple of things to offer.