Woz U

I am a disabled veteran and worked for Woz-U in 2017 in admissions. I was hired to 'vet' those interested in the new Cyber Security program given my degree and background in the field. I had never sold education or worked for a 'school' prior to this job. We trained for a few weeks before making calls to enroll and I was under the impression that I basically was working for the one and only Woz. I was stoked! I met my one person team, the cyber security team lead was Javi and he was great at his job but didn't know anything about CS outside of what I was able to briefly teach him. The environment started out really cooperative, my team supervisor was Calvin. They're were 4 teams all together and out of the supervisors, Calvin was most lively which vibed well with me. The first few months were great, I got to talk to cool people on the phone about cyber security and learn about what their goals were. Now, I really like connecting with people so I would be on a single call for hours and Calvin liked that I could keep future students engaged for hours. I sold them what I thought would be an instructor lead taylored program with lots of hands-on elements that are absolutely crucial to understanding that field. I had a solid group of students to start the first ever CS class and that is when I noticed all was NOT as it seemed. Red flags starting popping up when students reached out to ME for help. I only enrolled people into class, there are mentors and professors they're supposed to reach out to but when those folks do not respond, I am the only other person they had contact with besides finance. It was during this time that I discovered the mentors were actually NEWLY graduated FULL STACK WEB DEVELOPERS. They were NOT trained in CS and actually referenced Google and Youtube to help the students. I was not happy but also couldn't say much as a lowly admissions representative. My students did NOT have a CS teacher, all of their lessons were actually recorded when I was told, and told the students, they were live lectures. All of my students eventually dropped out due to the lack of substance in the program and lack of support from the providers. I failed these people for the sake of a company that didn't care about them, or me for that matter. The environment changed after about 6 months. People were getting fired, there was constant pressure to work late and on weekends without extra pay to make the numbers they wanted so yes, they had us calling folks at 8am on a Saturday morning to convince them to go in debt 10k+ for a program that doesn't even have a complete curriculum. Also, STEVE WOZNIAK DOES NOT DO ANYTHING WITHIN THIS COMPANY BESIDES PR WORK. The Woz, as we called him, did come to our campus a few times for photos and to look around. He has NO hand in creating the curriculum and is being paid for the use of his name. If they tell you otherwise THEY ARE LYING. Do NOT let this company fool you like they did to me.The last straw was when Calvin used my military injuries againt me purposefully and knowingly triggered my PTSD by screaming at me in a small locked room for saying something to him in a way he didn't care for. I filed a report and discovered many had been filed against him for similar doings. HR did nothing besides tell me there wasn't anything they could do. Everything I thought I knew about this place was a lie. I still have guilt 3 years later for causing folks stress over this place. Good luck if you try to drop this place, they will still attempt to get tuition out of you and I only know this because my then students were still trying to get this place off their back after months of dropping. Only the worst of people can thrive in that environment, there is no other way to climb that ladder unless you're kissing ass, making them money and backstabbing where necessary. The physical and mental turmoil I went through at this place as been so great that at the age of 35, the VA has deemed me unable to work (unemployable) due to the extent my ptsd was triggered and this place doesn't give a damn. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STAY AWAY FROM WOZ-U/SCI SOUTHERN CAREERS INSTITUTE. If I was your admissions rep, please know I had only the best intentions for your future and I am SO sorry for the stress this place caused you!