director of admissions

financial planner

instructor

service coordinator

paralegal

CDI-College

I was there for almost 6 months when they let me go without warning, literally suspended my computer access during an open house. At my age and level of experience, that was an absolutely  unprofessional way to dismiss someone. Reason given was that I was not producing, even though I had just enrolled another student earlier that day. 

The push is really and only into your daily calls (not texts  or emails you send) and same month enrollments and starts. I had 6 enrollments in the 6 months I was there and they were spread out until 2024 (some of the programs were not offered earlier) but that didn't matter. 

From my 15 person group that started in March, six have left right after training, two left in April-May, one in August and one is still there. I was the only one let go. 

If you love sales, you will find yourself right at home and I mean it in the good way.  You can really make money if you enroll continuously. I thought I was good enough with building relationships and really listening to your prospective students. Turns out, that was secondary. 

The challenge was also in the training, or more lack thereof.  National training is some sort of an idea of sales training, but there is very little training when it comes to what each province has regarding their own programs, requirements, outcomes and/or student financial help. 

You are also required to have personally developed referrals every day and they come from your current leads or students. If you don't have any leads, you are digging through abandoned leads, where most people hang up after you tell them where you are calling from. You don't get leads from the school, regardless of what they tell you.

Overall, I had fun working there and I felt challenged as it was a  new industry for me. I enjoyed working with students, seeing their excitement of going back to school and helping them narrow down the program that was the best for them. I was really good at it. I just wasn't good at pushing people to start NOW, just because I had targets to meet. Plus, I think that 6 months is not enough time to give someone - I was getting better and better and I know I would have exceled... maybe it was a personal thing, I don't know.

There is continuous hiring in this company, lots of turnaround, lots of people leaving as they don't like how they are being treated. Also, the benefits are not great and they kick in after six months, not after your 3-month probation period.

I should have trusted my gut and run in the opposite direction after that interview, but I gave it a chance because I wanted to continue working with students... Absolutely not worth it. Worst career decision I have ever made.
My colleagues are kind, but that is the only good thing about working here. 
Management is unstructured, unprofessional, and hypocritical.  95% of the time - and I am not exaggerating this number at all - the person in charge schedules meetings then fails to attend them without notice or is late for approximately 40 minutes - an hour. Yet, they like to remind others to be professional and know how to prioritize tasks. I don't understand how that person is in the management position they are in, but that is just unacceptable and I don't think I will learn anything from working with them. They don't respect your time or your expertise; don't even bother thinking about professional growth. 
Don't let the mentions of promotions blind you. Why do you think they promote so frequently? High turnover rate, that's why. Even the students know about that and think it's ridiculous, it's no secret. The company manages so poorly and cannot retain talents, so the majority of talented staff leave after realizing how bad it is, and as a result, they keep promoting to get someone to do the job. The promotions themselves don't even come with any actual growth; because there is no resource to do anything so that staff members start spending their own pocket money on necessary work items, which management promised to reimburse but never really does. The same with overtime - they do not want to pay you for overtime or give you time in lieu unless you fight very hard for that pay. Which you are not supposed to, by the way.
Your time is limited. If you decide to waste it at this place, know that every day you do so is a day you lose the opportunity to learn, grow, and contribute your expertise to another workplace out there that really has a purpose and cares about you. The more time you waste, the more you fall behind your peers in terms of professional growth. Don't do that to yourself! I wanted to try and see if I could last a year, but I don't think I can do this anymore.

In the hiring process, I asked three simple questions:
1) Is this a sales-based position?
2) Is there a lot of cold calling?
3) What is the office culture like?

I was told it was mostly administrative work, some sales, and not a lot of cold-callings. Boy, was that the biggest lie I've been told in an interview... There was no answer about company culture as there isn't any. 

Managers employ high-pressure tactics on their team members, insisting that each sales staff "run it like it's their own franchise" despite constant micromanaging, ever-changing metric goals, unethical sales tactics etc. Managers lie to their staff constantly. Make sure you get everything in writing. They will sweep as much under the rug as they can.

Hiring is done en masse, same with firing. You will find out if you make probation 1 week prior to passing, as stated in your employment contract. 95% of staff do not make it. 

Warm leads are non-existent, despite what is indicated in the interview. Fresh ADOAs are expected to make a minimum of 100 cold calls a day. Management claims to have thousands of untouched leads, however, leads have been called to the point of severe harassment. You will only receive warm leads after successfully nailing down 10 cold call interviews. By the way, warm leads are Facebook Advertisement clicks. You're about to speak to a lot of confused senior citizens. 

Leads that are converted into students are now the responsibility of their ADOA up until 6 months post-graduation. ADOAs will not see the commission cheque from their sales until the student has been enrolled for 61 days into their program. As there are no ADOAs who have lasted longer than a year, prepare to work/grovel for zero rewards.

Avoid this place at all costs. 

Being an instructor at CDI is challenging and not in a good way. CDI is always updating their curriculum and the way it is delivered, and yet they neglect to communicate these changes to instructors, which results in lots of "surprises" for the instructors and stress for the students. For example, students needed to view some videos for their assignments but we were told these videos were "no longer available because the supplier is no longer supporting that version". The curriculum platforms are not consistent which makes teaching ridiculously challenging and the LMS platform crashes a lot, or doesn't load properly, and is very frustrating for the students. As a new instructor, I wasn't offered any training on all of the different platforms and "versions" that CDI uses. I just had to figure it out on my own through "trial and error".

Most CDI instructors are part-time so you will be expected to do course prep and some marketing on your own time, and you don't qualify for health benefits. And they tell you that you will get a certain hourly rate, but they actually deduct vacation and holiday pay from your hourly rate, so you are actually paying for your own vacation & holiday pay and make less than promised. The campuses don't have the resources they need (i.e. a shredder for confidential documents). Our Campus Director often pays for things the staff needed or marketing needs out of his own pay. In my personal opinion, I feel the CEO is more interested in making a profit than investing in its instructors or students.

If you see the ad to work there avoid at all costs.  First the interview process lasted over a month.  They do this to determine your level of commitment to the position but frankly it's a total waste of time they had determined if they were going to hire you before you walked in the door.  This place is rife with unproffesionalism. The northern regional management has no education that would qualify them to manage and develop personnel unless you count acting classes.  There are conflicts of interest that abound from campus to campus. They have spouses getting special treatment due to their partners positions.  They have leadership that give special treatment based on friendship outside of work.  If you're not on this gravy train pointing out these, frankly unethical and corrupt behaviours, put you on a hit list and it won't be long before your let go.  Do document everything and know that they will try to remove you before you do so.  Beyond that if you can live with the fact that you target the most vulnerable segment of the population to coerce them into paying enormous sums for an education that isn't worth the paper that its printed on then you may fit in.  Once saddled with this debit  a large percentage of these students get part time or minimum wage Jobs and if they are totally incapable of getting a job CDI inflates their placement numbers by hiring them.   If your in sales stick to a place that is committed to professional development with options for growth because this place isn't it.

This place is absolutely about numbers. You are just another number in a company. It has a culture of hire and fire! Hire large number of people and fire them in large number. Lot of leads being provided to you are useless so you will be spending lot of time just making calls and most people are pretty much angry because other employees keep calling them every single week for past one year. This is so much harassing - It will also install this software called TERRAMIND which will track everything that you will work on - Even personal emails and notes will be screenshot and that too silently - and it will all be used to micro-manage you - In fact they will be building a case against you(happened with my colleague) using all that data being collected on YOU - It is like those movies where boss is trying to collect dirt on you and use that as a leverage at later date if you don't exit quietly or create some kind of trouble. 

One thing I appreciate though was good training provided - However very killer work environment but if you are a pure sales guy like I am who is all about hitting targets !!!! This is a good job for you. But it will be a job not a career!!!! so keep your plans in place once you land this job because it may not be long term for sure. Hope this helps you evaluate other offers that you might be considering and make wise decision. 

•Met and exceeded monthly, quarterly and annual starts, referrals, targets and objectives, as per tenure expectations
•Maintained a conversion rate on all types of inquiries from lead to interview, interview to enrollment and enrollment to start as determined by Admissions Management and Company directives
•Created and achieve annual sales budgets 
•Achieved a minimum sit rate number during each quarter as determined and set by Admissions Management
•Generated of referrals is a significant component of start business.
•Participated in Campus outreach projects
•Accountable for business growth through following up on leads and delivering information to prospective students in a timely manner
•Partnered with Student Finance and the Education departments to ensure accurate and complete packaging
•Received inquiry calls from all potential students interested in knowing or receiving information about the programs, including entrance requirements, curricula and College standards
•Complied with governmental regulations and standards of accreditation as they relate to enrolling students
•Assessed suitability in accordance with College sales approach and standards
•Identified potential problems, which may interfere with or be a barrier to a student's successful entrance into or completion of a program

CDI Richmond is the most unorganized and unpleasant campus to work at. The campus seems to be run with the least number of staff as possible. I was hired as a Financial administrator with the expectation to complete duties related to campus finance. In actual, I had to also do work that belongs to student services, employment specialist, receptionist which I did not sign up nor paid for. Privacy and protection of information is non existent. Financial Administrator had to use communal printer shared with the whole office AND students. Often times sensitive and confidential information accidentally given or picked up by different people due to printer sharing. There is no secure shredding available in campus and you are expected to manually tear your confidential papers by hands before throwing it into the recycling bin. Upper management expects you to do a job well done with very little support. There seems to be confusion about job accountability as at one point nobody in campus was able to order office supplies, and we were left with absolutely no paper for a week. Overall, not a good place to work especially for the salary they paid versus the work they want you to do.

Like many have already posted, there is a great sense of job INsecurity at this place.  Management constantly reminds you if if enough students do not enroll that layoffs will happen.  In the years I was at CDI (4) this was constant.  A revolving door of staff.  Managers have power trips and a large majority are a nightmare to work with. 

Because of this fear and pressure myself and many were overworked and severely underpaid. I was constantly provided a workload that was impossible to complete in 8 hours.  It is common for people to eat lhnch at their desk/classroom or skip lunch entirely and STILL complete work during evenings and weekends (unpaid).  

People start working here thinking it will be amazing working at a post secondary institute. Trust me, for the same pay (or less) than an assistant manager at a fast food chain I would rather work there and have way less stress/take at home.

Pros: The students.  Many instructors stay much longer before quitting because educating is a passion and the learners are wonderful.  Another pro may be your coworkers (not all levels of management), but because this place is a revolving door people usually quit or get let go so often that it is emotionally exhausting.

Cons: Literally everything else especially the management team at all levels.  

Honestly dont do it. This company is the worst place Iève ever worked for. When i got the interview, they told me I could work from home, they told me I can make 100k a year, they sold alot of empty promises and I was shocked to see that none of those promises were met. They tel you, you are the assistant director of admissions- just to find out that all you are doing is cold calling uninterested people to sign up for college. You have to do a min. of 100 calls per day. Once you are done with training they expect you to have a student enrolled in the first two weeks. The programs are way too expensive, the people who are looking forward to go do not have the knowledge to pass the admissions test, the environment is not encouraging or motivating, most of the leads are dead- people who block the college from calling because you can literally call the same people three times a day without breaking protocol (which we all did just to met the calling quota). The expectations were so unrealistic. The management  was incredibly ignorant and had no perspective on how to succeed. They just up and fired me one day no explanation or professionalism. The turnover rate is also extremely high and from what i explained above- Im sure you can imagine why. Good luck

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Director of admissions 15 salaries reported	$49,233 per year
Financial planner 18 salaries reported	$41,806 per year
Instructor 18 salaries reported	$33.14 per hour
Service coordinator 10 salaries reported	$42,250 per year
Paralegal 17 salaries reported	$28.65 per hour

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