good certification or degree to get for repairing/building computers

[garyshows]

hey all i am 16 and not currently attending any school i'm going to get my ged soon Tuesday is my scheduled date but now that i have that figured out ill need to be looking into colleges and i want to go into computers i have built 4 computers already and i have repaired some as well (not being in school gives me a lot of free time) so i was wondering what certification or degree should i get to better my self i have a dream of eventually opening my own computer repair shop but i would like to have a degree or certificate so people can trust me

 

[joex444]

Honestly, this sounds like such a good job but there's literally no market for it. Anyone who has a computer that they need repaired goes to Best Buy for repair and you don't want to work for Best Buy. After that, they'll ask the technically inclined member of the family for advice, and 9/10 times they just reinstall Windows for them for free or tell them to buy a new computer at Best Buy. By all means, a CS degree is very useful but if you're looking at a PC repair program I would advise you to look into it very carefully as the program will probably cost you more than you'll ever get out of the certification.

 

[USAFRet]

The actual question is:

Are you going to college or not?
College = starting and finishing at a 2 year school
or
Starting at a 4 year school
or
Starting at a 2 year school and transferring to a 4 year school
or
working as an intern/helper at some local PC repair shop. No, not even GeekSquad. Your uncle's landscapers brothers computer shop.
That guy.

NotCollege = winging it, in a pool full of people that have a degree of some sort. You would need to be exceptional for that. And be able to prove that.


What, precisely, do you want to do?

 

[COLGeek]

For PC repair, start with A+ Certification.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompTIA

 

[sammy sung]

I'm going to be 26 in May. Dropped out of high school in 11th grade and got a minimum wage job as receptionist/techie in training for barely over minimum wage at a local repair shop. Worked for the owner for roughly two years and went from making $7.75/hr to $22.50/hr while pretty much running the business for him entirely. Fast forward a bit, I met a friend locally that was very do it yourself and liked to refurbish laptops & old gaming consoles. We pinched our pennies, rented a space and went into business for ourselves.

Now my bi-weekly take home is roughly $25-35/hr depending on the time of year(this is our slow time crawling out of the holiday season in tandem with the weather). My suggestion to you is to learn how to fix all manner of things computers/phones/tablets on your own time, if you can do so diligently. Go to school for two years for some applied form of business degree.

My greatest advice is to learn how to make yourself remain billable at all times. Whether you're working part time, minimum wage for someone that owns a repair shop, or you're working out of home trying to kick start this the hard way. If you're sitting back with your feet up, you're wasting time.

But to realistically answer your question, an A+ cert would be the first and in my opinion the only route to go if you truly plan to work for yourself. It's just something nice to hang in the lobby. My partner and I both have ours on display. As long as your clients don't realize they're almost worthless, you're golden lol.