Experiences at College of Automotive Management

I don't know about getting hired to work at College of Automotive Management, but I can speak about being a student there. This place is an absolute scam. They tell you that after you take their 4-5 week, intensive course in Finance and Insurance Management, you'll be able to go out and get a job as a Finance Manager at an Auto Dealership. I was wary of this from the start - I mean, they tell you that after you go to school there for a month you'll be able to go out and get a job that starts at $50-60K+ (and that's the low end). I did a lot of research, and I managed to convince myself that it was legitimate, so I ended up biting - hook, line, and sinker. It cost about $8,000, but what's $8K when you'll be making $60K a year to start, right? I am very marketable as an employee; I have a Bachelor's degree, I'm bilingual, and I pick up new skills really quickly. However, I had never worked selling cars before. I asked the "admissions representative" if I would be able to get a job as a Finance Manager without having worked as a car salesman first, and of course, she said "yes". She would have said anything to get the commission for signing me up (I didn't know this at the time, but the Admissions Reps work on commission! If I had known this, it would have been a red flag). To make a long story short, I excelled in the course, I learned everything quickly and knew it backward and forward. But, when I got out, I never even came close to getting a job in Finance. The "College" has a job placement department, and they pretty much guarantee "placement". That sounded good at first, too, until I was placed in my first job. The job title was "Loan Officer", but the job was basically a telemarketing position, cold calling people and trying to get them to refinance their mortgage or take out a home equity loan. It paid commission only - no base pay. So, after working my butt off for a week without being paid a cent, I decided to go back to the "College" to find better "job placement". They acted like they had given me some great opportunity and I had blown it or something. I was insulted that, after paying $8,000 to take their course, they would place me in a telemarketing job, and a telemarketing job with no base pay, at that. The closest I ever came to becoming a finance manager was in the next position, which was Automotive Sales. I accepted this position only after several months of being sent on interviews and being turned down for Finance positions because I didn't have any experience. I tried my best with the Sales job, but I hated it. You don't even have to finish High School to sell cars; they'll take any one, as long as they have a beating heart, and give them a job in sales. I did the best I could, but it was terrible. There was never any talk of promoting me to the Finance Department or anything like that, because, out in the real world, your little diploma from the "College" of Automotive Management doesn't mean jack. If anything, it means "there's a sucker born every day" when the interviewer sees it on your resume. I even had an interviewer comment on the course, and ask me how much it cost me. Then he said something like "It's really too bad that this school is telling you that you'll get a Finance position after taking their course, when in reality you have to work your way up by working in sales for 2-3 years before you'll get a position in my department". By that point it was too late for me to get my money back; I had already completed the course. I just hoped that this was an isolated opinion, but it was par for the course. I was deliberately mislead and ripped off by the College of Automotive Management. The best piece of advice I have for job seekers who are looking into career training schools is "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". I can only speak for the "College", but I think that many technical schools are scams....