Complaint Review: ComputerTraining.com

I mistakenly ran across this ripoff report I wrote a few years ago while browsing through an old email account of mine for something completely unrelated.

Anyways, I thought I would update and the latest news is that I have been self-employed since 2009 and making ends meet. 95% of my customers call me out on a fix as it breaks basis and its always virus removal, data recovery, laptop repair, or something to that effect. Some of my clients such as Liberty Tax (Ferndale, Harper Woods and Detroit), Real Estate in the Pointes, Precision Comfort Heating and Cooling, etc have never required me to come close to touching anything "read out of a book" at computertraining.com

In a way, I'm slightly thankful I attended because I guess it got the ball rolling with my interest in IT; but I am always finding myself sorely dissapointed that the only IT I really do consists of managing my own company's three little servers (RRAS, IIS, FTP, Exhange, Sharepoint and SQL Server).

On a more comical note... before I decided to venture out and find out what I could so for myself I applied at serveral computer companies. I had 3 of them actually laugh right there in front of me when I told them I graduated from computertraining.com, which was slightly embarrasing, haha.

My best advice to everyone out there is this: don't trust in those "get educated quick" schemes. They're all the same and I know you all have seen the commercials. It's not just computertaining.com, it's all of em'. If you want to make something of yourself, either get the material and learn it yourself or go to a well known and established school or univerisity. I had a friend back in high school that graduated from a technological university... he's doing quite well now to say the least.

Why spend $25,000 to be read to from a book?? Here's a better idea... get the books and self-teach yourself. Save a little $$$ and get certified when you're ready. All in all it all boils down to your mind and what you can handle. With the internet and all of the resources out there, why pay someone else to do something you can do yourself. By the way, I'm still not certified; didn't even see the real need to. I'm happy where I am and you can make just as much if not more money working a different part in computer field. I have a lot of happy customers as well: http://mayercomputersolutions.tech.officelive.com/reviews.aspx (Haven't renewed my domain yet, thus the officelive parent domain)

I hope everyone else out there that attended the Southfield location is doing well, and hopefully you all found something that worked out for you. Good luck!


Rob

RMayerCC

rob.may3r@gmail.com

I passed the classes, got MCP Certified, and now I have not one, but TWO loans to pay off. I don't have a job in the IT field but am studying to get my A+, followed by my Network+ and Security+, then back to Microsoft certs.

I am in a financial quandry at this point. My one loan is through Sallie Mae and they automatically debit money from my checking account every month. That's fine. Over the course of the 176 month or so loan period I will have payed back about $26,000.

What I am NOT doing is paying SLM Financial another $26,000. I have a 5 month old daughter and a full time job, as well as other bills to pay each month. My time is divided between working 45+ hours a week, taking care of my daughter, and studying to further myself along in my IT training. This whole situation is stressing me out.

ComputerTraining takes advantage of people who are eager to get a fast track to a solid career. They make the classes sound like the best thing in the world and I got shmoozed over by the admissions people. Never ever ever again will I make a mistake like this.

Well, about a year later, I would like to retract my previous complaint against computertraining.com. It was really my fault that I wasn't as active with the class as I should have been. After studying on my own time and learning the material, I now see that I could have accomplished this a long time ago. Alice, the instructor at the Southfield location was a great teacher and was very well prepared. There is no reason why you should get nothing from this course unless you just don't pay attention.
So now I've got the knowledge, but I'm still not certified because I chose to let time get away from me and my vouchers expired. I've been to serveral job interviews and even if I answer all of their questions right, and I have the knowledge to do the job, I'm denied because I'm not certified. But, I guess we all learn from our mistakes!
I'm looking at a part time job stocking shelves to pay for my certs, and then I will be able to start my IT career. To bad I didn't take things seriously in school or else I could be well off right now.
So my best tip to anyone that attends computertraining.com: PAY ATTENTION and learn as much as you can. This stuff does pay off, you just have to work for it!

I don't agree with everything said. I agree with the fact that $24,500 is way to much to pay for this course and that the teacher did plow through the material skipping over chapters. However, I was able to get a new job with a $20,000 pay increase and stock options thanks to the career specialists with the company.

My advice to you is to visit Microsoft.com and find out what courses you want to take to get your MCSE. Then, just buy the material. Once you have that, come back here in about 2 years after you have your MCSE.

Rob and the others,

I also filed a rip-off report when I first heard about Computertraining.com as well. In fact it's listed in the search results as "read first; perspective from someone in IT."

Keep in mind, that I *did not* enroll in computertraining.com. I did go through the "online tests" and the original interview/information seminar. I also did my homework and researched the school prior to going to the seminar. It seems like had you done the same, you may not be in this type of situation.

As for your problems, I don't believe you're going to have any luck getting out of your loan. You've signed an agreement/contract to pay back the money and that's what you'll have to do.

Onto the school/training itself...

Have any of you worked in IT or with computers prior to enrolling in computertraining.com? Did any of you research to see what an MCSE is? Did you check other "salary guides" and such to find other comparisons?

In IT, EXPERIENCE is king. It's not having a degree, and it's not having a bunch of certifications. it's showing that you have experience.

So no, you're not going to come out of computertraining.com with an MCSE and land a job making $60K, it's just not going to happen. If I'm the owner of a company, and you come to me with no experience, I'm not going to hire you to run my network.

Now, let's say that I'm an IT person looking to hire and we're in the same situation. I'm still not going to hire you for anything above an entry-level position. Why? Because you have no experience. Once you get a year or two of experience AND THEN couple that with an MCSE, that's when you can command some more respect and a higher salary.

Also, keep in mind that *on average* people take 1-2 years to earn their MCSE, not 6 months. To earn an MCSE in 6 months requires either A) lots of prior experience or B) lots of time and dedication to work your a** off.

Did you seriously think you could earn an MCSE by attending 2-hour or 4-hour classes twice or three times a week? Not a chance in hell. At that pace, you would need to be spending an awful lot of time doing work at home or coming in to their lab (if offered) during non-class hours. Maybe your instructor "skipped some of the coursework" because it's impossible to go through all of the material in those 6 months. And maybe the instructor expected you to learn and study on your own time as well.

Whether you only earn an MCP by passing one exam, or earn your MCSE by passing all of them, it's still not going to put you in any better of a position to land a job. If you passed 270, that would set you up for a decent support job/helpdesk role where you could continue to study for your MCSE.

By the time you earned your MCSE, you'd have at least a year of experience under your belt as well and that would set you up well for a $45-50K job. I don't know where CT.com comes up with their $60K+, but there's no way you're going to earn that with an MCSE only.

Alright, enough of that, let me respond to some of your comments specifically.

"First of all, computertaining.com is the biggest mistake you will ever make! I spent 6 months in this so-called 'course' and did not benefit at all."
- While this may be true for you, it's not true for everyone. If you're willing to work hard at it, you can earn a well respected certification. Why didn't you benefit? Did you not pass any exams? Did you not put forth the effort? Bottom line is that the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. So what does that show of you..

"Our class basically consisted of our instructor reading to us out of a book that I could have just purchased online or from Microsoft anyway!"
- You're right. The Microsoft Press books for all of the MCSE exams can be bought from Amazon for under $300. Had you have done your research a little more prior enrolling in classes, you might have found this out.

"You don't even get any degree from the school, just certifications. A lot of good jobs require a degree these days. My graduation certificate was actually printed off an inkjet printer!"
- All you received was a certificate of attendance. Hard to use that to get a job. especially any that have duties for an MCSE. And that's not entirely true. To work in IT does not require a degree. I don't have a degree and I know many people that don't have a degree. I do have several industry recognized certifications though, and I also have experience because I accepted an entry-level position when I first started.

"Oh, and before I show some of the emails from my classmates, I just wanted to add that the highest graduate in my class, who also obtained all of his certifications is now working for the Geek Squad at Best Buy. Can you believe that!?"
- IT is not an easy field to get into and the Michigan economy is horrible. I think he probably could have gotten something better if he looked harder (if he truly received his MCSE), but he's at least getting some good troubleshooting experience. Unfortunately though, when he tries to get into the corporate world, he'll probably still only qualify for an entry-level support role. The Geek Squad experience won't help him a lot, except maybe to earn a Tier 2 or 3 support position. Also, Geek Squad does not require any certifications. They would like you to have an A+, but it is not a requirement.

"Hey Rob,
I agree with you 100%. It was a HUGE waste of money. I have no job to show for it and a fat bill every month. I get turned down for stupid call center jobs because of a lack of 'Real Job' experience. I must have went to 15 interviews to be turned down for all of them due to lack of experience because some one else had more experience. Well how the hell do I get experience if no one is willing to hire me even for the most mundane tasks.

Rick "
- Rick, what type of positions were you interviewing for? And what exams did you pass? Did you receive your MCSE? If you're interviewing for network administrator positions, and you don't have your MCSE, forget it. Try and find a helpdesk/network support job first. Even if you did get your MCSE, you're going to have a tough time landing a job as an Admin with no prior experience. I can not emphasize it enough, experience is key.

'Rob,
I agree with u 100%, it is definately a shady con business for sure. The reason they don't want people who have a ton of computer experience is because they realize it is a rip off. They take advantage of the people who don't realize what jobs IT has to offer and in demand and the cost of the certificaiton tests

Chris"
- Chris, you're right. I asked the lady conducting the seminar who their target audience was and she told me "mostly career changers." That means it's mostly people with no IT background, no prior IT experience, but they want to get into computers. It's unfortunate, because they normally don't know what they're getting themselves into. The MCSE is not an easy certification to get. It takes a lot of hard work. Again, this is something that needs to be researched prior to enrolling.

"I also think it's stupid that we did ISA2004 as an elective when Exchange2003 and many other more useful certs could have been done."
- Nick, you said you already have passed several of the exams. Good job and good luck in finishing the rest. I disagree with this statement, however. You can not say that one is more important than the other here. While it's true that most organizations will have an Exchange server of an ISA server, that's mostly because they don't have a trained security professional to manage the ISA server.

I think that's about it. Although I will leave some recommendations since you asked for help, Rob.

As for legal advice and such to help with the loans, I don't have any. I don't know that you will find any either. You're stuck with that loan and your best bet is to, obviously, make the payments.

I don't think you stated whether or not you've passed any of the exams, but here's a suggestion. If you haven't already, focus on the 270 (administering Windows XP). This will set you up as an MCP qualified to support XP Pro and should line you up for an entry-level support role. After that, take a look at the CompTIA Network+ and Security+. These are both good vendor-neutral certifications that will show you have a base level of knowledge (and I believe you can use them for credit in the MCSE specialization tracks). Once you've got those and have found a decent job, then go back to working on your MCSE. That's 1 route.

The other option, since you've already completed the 6-month course, would be to go study your a** off, work hard, and get your MCSE.

Best of luck to all of you.

Hey Charles did you get special perks for being so loyal to CTC?Because I too attended the Southfield location and I got nothing out of it.And before you say oh well you didn't put in the effort and time,buddy I got my MCSA before I graduated and also finished with a 98% grade.And here I sit graduated since February with no real job in the I.T field.I have had 1 contract,a 2 month gig testing websites.Clearly not what I went to school for.And oh by the way employers respect a 4 year degree way more than 6 month power course.I could have spent 15,000 less and went and got an associates degree in CIS which would have taught me UNIX and CISCO as well and probably would have landed me a job by now.But I too got fooled by the false advertisements and swindling admissions directors.That was the biggest mistake I've made to date.So now I'm enrolled in Henry Ford Community College for my associates degree to learn way more than I could have ever learned at CTC,and hopefully they can get me a job through their career services,something the folks at ComputerTraining.com failed to do. Which they promised to do.Their promise is that 80% of all graduates have to be placed in the field within 6 months of completion.Hmmm July and they still haven't placed me in the field yet.So I would definitely not recommend this to anyone.You can buy the Self Paced Training Kits from Borders or Amazon and with videos like CBT Nuggets or TestOUT you can learn what I paid 25k for.Combine that with VM Ware or Virtual P.C for hands-on practice and you're ready for the exam.And you can do it at your own pace, without worry.So all you people that were lucky enough to get jobs after leaving there and want to back them,go ahead do it.But don't try to fool me or anyone else in to believing that you never once thought it was a rip-off because until you got a job you probably feel the same way I do right now.They aren't interested in training people.All they care about is how much money they make per class.For the record I am going to look in to reporting them to the State of Michigan.My anger runs deep toward them and I intend to expose the scam as much as I can.That school has caused me so many financial problems its not even funny.I have an almost $500 a month loan payment and for what 3 pieces of paper saying I graduated from there and I'm Microsoft Certified as a Systems Administrator on Server 2003.Give me a break.I still have no job so how I have bettered my salary?Good for you and the job you landed.But understand things from my point of view.I put in the effort.I studied,I practiced and even went for extra help.I didn't just do the minimum,I actually know what I am doing.So there are people that went there and put in 100% and still have nothing to show for it.My advice to people reading this don't do it.Go to a college and get a degree it is more respected and you learn more.This is at best a quick fix and most of the time does'nt work.

Hello Robert and Ripoffreport,

I found this write-up both comical and interesting at the same time. I am the student that Robert refers to as the "highest graduate". My name is chuck, and I completed the course and all of its required certifications in 5 months time.

It is true that I had to take a job at Best Buy in order to get some real experience in the "IT field". I formerly worked as a Landscaper for nearly 10 years, 4 part time and 6 full time. I worked at Best Buy for roughly 4 months after getting certified and interviewing many many times with a huge variety of employers in the Southfield area.

I too just like Robert was very frustrated with the job situation in MICHIGAN. I however kept a positive attitude and worked just as hard at finding a job as I did at the coursework that was presented to myself. My HARD WORK AND SELF MOTIVATION payed off and I now have a great job installing a variety of Backup, Storage, and Security solutions for a local firm. My salary is around 40k and will increase by roughly 50% next year. I travel all around the United States for both training and installation of these systems.

So yes I had to suck it up for a little while and work at Best Buy however I now have the type of job I imagined I would have and was promised by Computertraining.com. I was a little more realistic about the "salary predictions" that they throw around a little too liberally during school introduction. You have to remember that the girls at the front are SALESPEOPLE, and ALL sales people have QUOTAS.

If you read the fine print, it takes an MCSE AND a few years experience to achieve that type of salary. You have neither so WHY WOULD YOU EXPECT TO MAKE THAT KIND OF MONEY?

On to the comical part Robert,

Your attendance and attention span were more than pathetic in class. I sat behind both you(Robert) and Clarke for the better part of 6 months. These two spent 90% of the class either downloading garbage from Kazaa on their laptops or playing Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, and various other games.

Why the h**l would you pay 125$ an hour to play games on your laptop i'm just curious. He never completed his homework with any accuracy, and never read his books. He would click through his homework and score a 20% without even reading the questions(Most homework was multiple choice on Mastermind). You would sit at your desk with a dumbfounded look any time you were asked a question and now you come on here pissing and moaning about not having a job making 50k a year?

You never attempted a single exam to my knowledge.

You never read your chapters or were prepared for class.

You never paid attention during lectures and were a general disruption to those around you.

You never asked a single question.

You brought a negative and self-pitying attitude on the days you would bother to show up at class.

I'm sorry but I don't feel one bit of pity for you. Computertraining.com offers an excellent course that requires some serious STUDYING AND HARD WORK. They aren't in the business of handing out paychecks. I think they'd have a few more academies if all you had to do was pay 24k and sit on your a*s for 6 months to get a great job.

Did you expect a fairy godmother to tap you on the head and then you'd made 50k a year once you "graduated"?

Computertraining.com is an excellent training center. The facilities are way above par and all of the instructors are EXPERTS in their fields. All instructors carry at minimum an MCSE ,MCT, and many years of experience in the field. You can't just recieve approval from Microsoft overnight, Computertraining.com has been in business for 22 years.

*************

I can say that I do feel bad for Nick and Rick. Both of these guys worked hard and attempted their tests and passed many of them. I really hope you guys keep your heads up and finish out your work. There are lots of jobs out there once you complete your MCSE and a get a little experience. If you don't have the experience you have to suck it up and take a job at Best Buy or some other entry level crap to get a little experience.

*************

Getting a job in Michigan requires a lot of hard work right now. You will find it much harder to even get an interview without your MCSE than with it. I can get interviews all over the country with my MCSE, and once I get the experience I can get a JOB at nearly any Microsoft shop in the country.

*************

I Also 100% agree with Nick that the course-ware should have included Exchange 2003 training and not ISA 2004 training. However passing the Exchange 2003 test is probably 5x harder than passing ISA 2004 which is unfortunately the reason they teach ISA.

*************

Computertraining.com is a great school if you are willing to work hard at it. Nothing in life is free. Don't consider the course if you can't attend 100% of classes and dedicate at least 10 hours a week outside of class for reading and homework. You also will need at least an extra 10 hours to study/prepare/take each of the individual certification tests.

If you have the time and drive it is well worth it. Completing this course-ware will give you an edge over the competition even more so than a 4 year degree.

Technical jobs require technical training and that is just what Computertraining.com offers.

I hope my comments shed some light on Computertraining.com and a little more insight into what the program really takes.