I signed up with TechSkills for their medical coding associate course of study. I knew I was in trouble after I'd signed up and some of what my mentor was saying didn't seem to make sense with regard to the subject and the market / what I was hearing from those outside of TechSkills and finding online, vs what the mentor was suggesting.
Each time I pressed for back-up to the info, it was suggested to me that maybe I wasn't really ready to study with them and perhaps I should talk to the director. Of course if I'd cxld I wouldn't have recvd a full refund and in the end I stayed. But while the mentor fussed that I did so much independently and seemed to not require the assistance others did, more often than not, when I did have questions, they were dismissed as to be addressed at a later time or not important to passing and getting a job in
The field, or I was asked to get with the mentor when they weren't busy with other students (and by my asking questions the mentor appeared to not know answers to, I seemed to make an enemy, and getting ANYthing done became much more difficult).
I spent a lot of time backing up, verifying and using outside sources in the industry to get the expert input and direction I'd actually chosen to pay TechSkills for rather than just studying on my own.
In the end, what suggestions the mentor did offer, a simple search on the web proved contradictory to what the experts in the respective fields recommended. Also, the first and only industry contact I received from the mentor, didn't seem to have a clue who this mentor was or sound like they'd
Ever done anything with the mentor. This even though the mentor had presented the relationship with the contact as strong and long-standing with regular cooperation between them.
I'm pretty good at doing things on my own, but what really pushed me over, in so much as any faith in any weight that having completed a TechSkills program (with an A) might carry in a new career search, was getting emails and voice mails (many of which I've saved) asking me to re-send info misplaced or not recalled anymore, or to call to remind the mentor of something, or to make an appointment in order to set something up... And then when I'd follow up, it was implied that I was the one requesting the
Activity or even demanding the attention over the mentor's students.
In addition to defending my actions/follow-ups as at the mentor's request, I always wanted to remind the mentor that I was also one of the mentor's "students" and am in debt thousands for that very poor decision.
Needless to say, on the occasions that calls or requests were initiated by me, the return email would simply overlook the subject matter questions, or I'd be asked to get back to the mentor when they had more time or returned from vacation time they were about to leave for etc (leading into another of
The previously described senario) etc.
I did complete the program, but am choosing to back it up with other courses and will not list TechSkills on my resume or use them in my job search for positions in this field, as the many miscommunications and confused responses of the mentor, while I was there, left me with a complete lack of faith that any verification calls that might be handled by this mentor would be handled well or knowledgably or, that said, professionally.
I would not recommend TechSkills so long as things stay as they are. When you pay or go into debt thousands and commit months of your life to something, you expect to get more than a stack of books and written worksheets and tests (the equiv of which I've found for free on the web through different sources, free lists of nec. Books for study, and the web-based lectures equiv in the form of seminars/recorded lectures on their own for the cost of just the lectures etc).
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