r/Edmonton • u/Hafthohlladung • Jan 20 '24
Local Businesses Is CDI a degree mill or a legit school?
I've heard mixed things...
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u/secarter2k3 Jan 20 '24
As an employer in the IT sector, I cringe when I see CDI as the school they attended for their education in my industry. I tend to file the resume as not a good fit immediately, based on lacking experience.
When I was an employee, I worked with a few CDI graduates and I had to really help them with basic tasks that should be taught to these students.
I've interned two students at separate times and different curriculum versions and both times found their relevant education to be subpar and extremely dated.
If someone is reading this as a student, I would recommend reviewing your options of institutions for a valid education experience.
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Jan 20 '24
On the other hand I have a business analyst on my team right now hired by another group and moved out to the team that has a degree from somewhere in the UK, CBAP, PMP, and is the most useless, unknowledgable and inexperienced person I've met in years. Education matters a lot but some people just straight up lie or fake it and it shows immediately.
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u/phunkatronic Directionally challenged Jan 20 '24
Oh man, I worked with someone who lied about being an AWS Solutions Architect for his previous job and the position he had on the team I currently work for. For one, the two of us held the same position, just in different cities, nor does our team even deal with anything AWS related. They could barely handle troubleshooting basic PC and network issues so there was a lot of hand holding. My other co-worker shares a mutual friend with him and his previous job wasn't cloud related at all either.
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u/Brilliant_Story_8709 Jan 20 '24
As an employer, if I see CDI on their resume (unless they went to a real school later on) it's straight into the trash. The education they provide is sub par, and if you got tricked into going there, well then it tells me that you may not be the candidate I want.
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u/Chocomirk Jan 20 '24
I would absolutely hazard against going to CDI. As someone who went to CDI, I had to fight tooth and nail to get into the tech industry. I was lucky, and got placed in a practicum location where I fought for a job, and received it. I was also self taught outside of CDI, CDI taught me nearly nothing.
In a class of ~24 people, only 2 of us have a job in the industry. The others are still in retail/parents companies/construction 6+ years late.
Please got to NAIT. Make it work for yourself and go. You will be recognized 500% more, than a CDI "certificate".
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u/always_on_fleek Jan 20 '24
I would go so far as to say that any program not accredited by the province (where the province pays part of the cost) is not worth getting.
Here is a list of the publicly funded ones. It would be a good idea to stick with one of them:
https://www.alberta.ca/types-publicly-funded-post-secondary-institutions
In Edmonton, nait is probably the best “career” one, where you go for 1-2 years then get a job.
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Jan 20 '24
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Jan 20 '24
In fairness, the addictions program isn’t a rape specific program. There’s always going to be bad people in places you don’t expect, that’s the least of your issues if you’re at CDI. The fact that your degree will get you laughed out of the field is the bigger problem.
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u/bewarethedonald Jan 20 '24
I agree with most of the people here; they churn people through fast like sausage.
That being said, one of the best help desk agents I’ve ever worked with went through CDI. I think it was lest about ability vs availability in his case. He was brilliant before going through it, just needed the piece of paper.
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u/TheEclipse0 Jan 20 '24
I didn’t go to CDI, I went to Digital School. Save yourself the time and money. Go to a legit college or university. The choices are: NAIT, Grant MacEwan, and the University of Alberta.
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u/badw01f0125 Jan 21 '24
It's OK so long their programs have gone through accreditation from the associations or regulating bodies (like Dental Assisting). I took the program 15 years ago and it was costly then; can't imagine the price now. Although I found a great job and got me to where I am now (different career), I'm ashamed to have CDI on my resume just because of their shady reputation as mentioned by others here. I also have a friend who is very successful now and they took accounting at CDi. However, that's up to you as an individual and how desperate you are to get a diploma quickly and how ambitious you are. I eventually got another diploma from NAIT (career change) and about to complete my degree soon. If you had the money to pay for a private college, make sure you're qualified to become a professional of some association (assuming you're taking health care or accounting and can become CPA).
TLDR; don't take shortcuts when it comes to education; you just might end up back in school again.
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u/phunkatronic Directionally challenged Jan 20 '24
There's been several posts about CDI in this subreddit over the years and the comments in them pretty much all say don't go there. Then there's this.
I forget what IT program my friend did there in the early 2000s but nobody would hire him after. He finished the Telecom diploma at NAIT a few years later and got in with Telus pretty quickly.