I Just passed all 10 of my IDA exams!!!!!!

[Coatingsarecrack]

HOW MANY OF YOU KNEW WHAT MECP was?.

Me! Sold car audio for about 10 years late 90’s and early 2000’s in the great NW. Had MECP installers who were hacks and mostly concerned about their pay. Had guys who were self taught doing some of the most amazing custom installs....



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[dcjredline]

Me! Sold car audio for about 10 years late 90’s and early 2000’s in the great NW. Had MECP installers who were hacks and mostly concerned about their pay. Had guys who were self taught doing some of the most amazing custom installs....



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Yup, my point exactly. Sad but very real.

 

[JWilliams.RadiantDetail]

HOW MANY OF YOU KNEW WHAT MECP was?.

When I became a teen (45 now) I was super die hard into car audio. I've installed my own stuff, killed multiple alternators, send numerous batteries to an early grave. And I don't know what MECP was before you posted it, honestly I don't even think I'd heard of it and just forgot. I guess I knew some sort of certification existed for car audio installation. I just never thought about it.

 

[Billy Baldone]

I agree that most people don’t care, or don’t know. But, like the ASE certification, the hope is that it one day matters to everyday people. You need to start somewhere

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Congratulations Billy. rops:

Myself, I am an IDA Certified Detailer & New Zealand IDA Chapter Board Member down here & would like to carry out the Skills Validated Testing at some stage too. Unfortunately we don’t have an RT down here to do the testing so it means travelling, which in turn means - expense.

I think the World over there will always be scepticism around the IDA & it’s purpose. There will always be that discussion about “what the IDA will do for me?” - “how will it make me money?” & “my customers don’t know & don’t care” & recently at the NZ Detailers Conference we had a rather passionate divide in the room when the IDA was discussed. The next day we had Jason Rose for a day full of training & we asked if he could give a talk about the IDA & what it’s about.

Turns out that the ones whom were dead set against the IDA & it’s ideals not only had nothing to add to their disapproval but have since become members ...

To me it’s not so much “what’s the IDA going to do for me” it’s more “what can I do for detailing & the IDA”. If we all strive to help each other in the industry for the industry, then we all reap the rewards.

Well done Billy, I’m stoked for you my friend, I look forward to your post about getting that Skills Validated patch. rops:


Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:

 

[SWETM]

Congrats Billy!

 

[cyclops]

How cool is that! Congrats, very green with envy. :dblthumb2:

 

[Eldorado2k]

Congratulations Billy.
As far as the naysayers that exist out there with a negative opinion of the IDA... Well the fact is their opinions shouldn’t even matter because their opinions are based on speculation and not actual experience.

1 of the popular beliefs among the naysayers is that the IDA won’t make them any more money than they can already make.. But those kind of thoughts usually exist in the minds of closed minded people who are so stubborn in their ways that they refuse to accept any possibility of learning new things and taking advantage of positive opportunities that the future may have in store.

Here’s my personal opinion of how obtaining a certification can indeed lead to increased profits vs. a detailer who believes it won’t make any difference at all.. The key is to look at things with a positive outlook instead of a negative 1.

For me, I have a couple of certificates that I happen to take great pride in earning.
The 1st one was instructed by Jason Rose, who you’ll have the pleasure of meeting and learning from soon.

My other certificate was for completion of Meguiars Advanced Paint Care Clinic, instructed by Michael Stoops.

Still to this day I take great pride in having these experiences under my belt because they allowed me to not only learn from some of the best, but also get to know them well enough to consider them friends.

Great pride, shown by how I chose to have my certificates laminated and put them inside a portfolio I made to show potential customers actual photos of my work that they can see and feel.

Pride leads to confidence, and that confidence might be the difference between a novice detailer vs. a detailer who never hesitates to take on new challenges or high end details because your experience and knowledge from having learned proper techniques 1st hand from the most respected names in the world of auto detailing has stepped your game up in ways you never even thought were possible...

That’s just 1 example of how earning your IDA Certification will matter... It will matter to You! It can change your mentality in great ways moving forward. That’s why I say congratulations! May Great things come your way.

 

[Every_detail]

Here is my take on the subject. Back in 1996 when I got out of the Marines I decided to go to one of the best Mobile Electronics (and one of very few at the time) schools out there and while there I would get my MECP (Mobile Electronics Certification Program) cert. The school was RITOP Rich Infferrara (SP) team of professionals. Just look him up in the car audio space, he is known as the godfather of car audio. Anyway back to the subject.

After graduating second in my class and missing only 1 question on the test I go out into the world to be the best installer out there. LOL

2 problems I have with a certificate like that are these

1. If the customer base has no clue what that is it means VERY little to them. HOW MANY OF YOU KNEW WHAT MECP was? ASE is much bigger and has a bunch of marketing that I doubt IDA ever will and MECP ever did.
2. (And this isnt to say anything nasty about the OP cause I have no clue how good of a detailer you are, I have never met you) Just passing the MECP tests (Cause you could take the test without actually going to a school such as I did) says absolutely nothing about how you actually practice your chosen craft.

The reason for #2 is because I worked in the field for over 15 years and saw many MANY certified installers that HACKED THE CRAP out of the cars they were doing. Customers didnt care as long as the price was CHEAP. lol.

IMO and ONLY IMO when I am shopping for someone to do some work for me certificates have VERY little clout in my decision making. The person / people doing the work and their reputation from real life experience means much more to me.

I went to RITOP in 2004! It was a cool experience.


I agree with this also. Just because some is IDA certified doesn't mean they always have the real world experience of someone that is not IDA certified and has 15 years under their belt.

most of the time its all just for bragging rights. IMO