Experiences at College of Automotive Management

I agree. This place was bull****. Let me start off to a few years ago in 2005 where I was having a lot of financial problems and I've seen an ad in some kind of job newspaper about the College of Automotive Management. It said that it only takes 5 weeks to complete the course and graduate for the extensive study program and there were a list of great careers especially Finance Manager where they were making over $100,000 a year. This was an offer that I could not refuse and I decided to go for it. I've submitted an application online and a counselor contacted me the next day. She called me to come in and I did right after work. I was so amazed on what she was telling me about how students were graduating from the course and making sick money, more than $10,000 a month starting off and showing us videos of graduates who attended the course and turned their lifestyle around. The 5 weeks course costed me almost $13,000 which I was not approved for any loans. So they made me put down $6,500 as a down payment for a private loan and paying $300 a month after I graduate. I was so excited about attending this course and couldn't wait to make that kind of money. I've attended the college and worked my a$$ off like I've never did before. I looked like an idiot during the video presentation where I memorized all that bull****. And the last week of the course before I graduated, they sent me to the job placement department where they asked me what top three jobs did I want to become. My answers were F&I Manager, Special Finance Manager, and Internet Manager because they were all high paying jobs. Then they asked me what I'm I going to do to get there. They were pretty much telling me that I have to get a position in sales and work my way up. Afterwards, they only gave me job openings to sales and internet sales which that sh*t is like telemarketing with no base pay. I've applied and got hired at so many different dealerships like nothing in SALES only. After being hired, they tell me that I have no hourly pay or salary and I was discouraged and dissappointed like H*LL. What the F*CK did I just get myself into. I just kept applying and got jobs from Toyota, Cadillac, Nissan all in sales with no base pay salary. I finally got called by Long Beach BMW for Internet Sales Assistant. They paid me $12.50 an hour and commissions on by appointments coming in. So I was only making about $2,000 a month. The job was hella tough and I felt like an idiot because it was pretty much a telemarketing job and you must have a lot of knowledge about the products. After two days of working for internet sales they switched me to fleet department as a fleet sales assistant which was similar but a lot easier with same pay and no commission. The job wasn't so bad and my friends were really impressed to see a 21 years old kid working at BMW, wearing a suit with the jacket. I was too embarassed to let my personal friends know about how much they were only paying me after all those bragging about going to that college and how much money I was going to get paid. So then on, long story after that being arrested after working there for only 3 weeks and lost that job. I came back about trying to get job selling cars and it sucked. You feel lower than dirt doing that kind of work. So I was on and off with the dealership working in sales having no hopes in get into Financing. Right now I'm working in a factory getting paid only $8.70 an hour and I'm currently attending the University of Phoenix online trying to obtain my Business Degrees. I really don't want that College of Automotive Management to be a scam but it is. It's true whether I want to believe it or not. It's a waste of time and money. But it's true about how much money they making in the automotive industry doing financing and sales. They do make more than $10,000 a month depending on how many sales you make. But it's hard. College of Automotive Management SUCKS A$$...

This place is a scam. I started in September 04 and like most of the other saps, still havent been hired as Finance manager. It's all sales and most likely the only job you'll end up with is selling cars-how hard can that be?

The best thing about the place is the fast talking sales lady they had who suckers people into their program. She's always upbeat and never says anthing negative about the program or the car industry. In her own words "this is a recession proof industry"

You'll end up owing the bank thousands and thousands. Your loan will readjust automatically (to a higher rate of course). They'll tell you "Oh that's a very good rate" and then you'll be enslaved to the bank the rest of your life and have a no job with no future.

The instructors I had were very professional but when I went back to review a second time (about 8 months later )neither of the first two were around and I wound up with some unproffessional oaf and tha last guy who did the video taped interviews was for the birds. You can tell he came straight out of the car sales industry itself. P-U!!

The best part of all is that as you graduate you'll give a farewell video putting all the lines you memorized so the rest of the incoming students can see you make an idiot of yourself. This program is way too fast paced. Do yourself a favor and dont bother keeping your appointment....

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....