Pro tip: the $400 online rigging course I bought was a slideshow of stuff the free handbook already covers
Dropped $400 on a rigging cert course last fall because the site promised 40 hours of hands-on video and a practice test bank. What I actually got was 12 hours of some guy reading slides about sling angles, plus stock photos of cranes that clearly came off a free image site. The load chart examples were all from the mid 90s and the answers didn't match the charts in half the questions. I emailed support twice about a broken module and got one reply asking if I had cleared my browser cache. Meanwhile the free OSHA rigging handbook on my phone covered every single thing the course did, and better. I'm out the money, but worse, my boss had already put a couple new guys on that course too before I found any of this out. If you're looking for real seat time and a mentor, skip the online stuff and ask around your local union hall instead. Anyone got a course that actually helped, or am I just done paying for slideshows?
Man that stings, especially the part about your boss already signing up the new guys before you caught on. I got burned on a different online course a few years back, not rigging but welding cert prep, and it was the same deal: stock footage, outdated charts, and a support email that might as well have been a black hole. What really got me was when I pulled up the free manufacturer load charts and realized they explained the whole thing better than the guy narrating the slides. Local union hall is the right call, the old timers there will actually walk you through a real lift instead of charging you to watch a PowerPoint.