i went to school up in north jersey, thats what gave me my one up, most shops like they said really dont car about the BASIC MECP cert. if you have the advance MECP cert, your more likly to get the job, basic is just book work, and half its not even on the test, i used my car as my portfolio, just be honest with what you can do if you get an interview, i told my now boss (i just got the job yesterday) im not comfortable doing remote starts and alarms right now, because time is money, itll take me say 6 hours to do a remote start + alarm when itll take an exp. installer 3 hours, dont lie to them, and be like oh i can do alarms like cake, when you really cant, cuz thell put you on the spot and say okay, i have one lined up right now, then your fucked, im mainly doing custom work, h/u, subs, amps, and speakers, because thats what i excell at, MECP is good to have but itll only get you so far, unless you have masters, renew is every two years i think, also my boss said to me my wiring wasent the cleanest, i told him why(cuz i had a show to get ready for) which was infact true, so they also want it to be clean, not some pile of wires where it works, but looks like shit