Want to belive so badly they are going to help, BUT...
I, like so many in todays market, have been affected by layoffs and the bad IT market. I have been looking for work for about 4 months now and have been drained by my search.
All the sudden one day I got this email from BHA asking me to fill out a questionnaire. Which I did and it said they would contact me if I was selected. Guess what I got an email back the next day asking me to call to setup a meeting. Wanting to do everything I could to find a new job, I setup the first meeting with them.
I meet with a VP in a very nice office in Houston, TX. First he was 15 mins late for the meeting (had another meeting run late, which I find this unprofessional (always be on time!). He looked over my resume and said it looked outstanding and after an extremely BRIEF overview of what I have been doing in my career, he went into what BHA could do for me. He gave me the song and dance about 1000 resumes a week, 10% are asked to come into the first meeting (which is the one I was at) and from there 5% were asked to come to the next meeting and finally from there 2% were ASKED to become clients. Giving me the impression that it would be a privilege for them to take me as a client. Oh, they also asked me how much my wife made. I found this to be an odd question, what difference does it make in my job search how much my wife makes. Guess what I was asked to come back for another meeting and this one was to include my wife.
At the time I felt like they were a company that took great pride in their recruiting of new clients and they would really help me. The next meeting (which I just had today) I was to bring my wife (once again making me feel like they wanted to really know about me, but I also knew in this meeting is where they would ask for $). I did my "homework" and my wife did hers. Once again another step in making me feel like they cared about me and wanted to know about me.
The second meeting lasted for a little over 2 hours. Once again I meet with the same VP, and once again he was 15 mins late (still very unprofessional, in my opinion). My wife and I knew there would be a song and dance, but though heck it doesn't hurt to go in and see what they have to offer. BHA did not promise me a job, but they did say the normal time frame to place someone is 1 to 3 months. He wrote the pie chart that showed the different areas/percentages of "where" the jobs are. Only 10% are through ads and such (online and newspapers) and that this was the 10/90 area. Meaning that only 10 percent of the jobs where there, but that 90 percent of the people only looked there. The area that BHA lived in is the 2/75 area. Meaning that 75 percent of there jobs where here and that only 2 percent of the people had access to them. These are the "HIDDEN" jobs. Jobs that aren't posted. Which, companies I have worked for are required by their HR to post all job openings for legal reasons. Oh and BHA does hate HR, the VP even stated that.
So after a very long 2 hours, it came down to the big decision. Did BHA believe I was a client they wanted to take on? He asked my wife if she believed in what I could offer, then asked me basically why they should take me on as a client. He then paused for about 5 seconds (thinking really hard and long); we sat there waiting for his answer. Then he shook my hand and said welcome aboard. WOW, they wanted me, they really wanted me. They could help me find a job, I'd be back in the work force, I'd be making money again, and my stress and money issues would go away.
After welcoming me aboard, my wife and I had to take a little break. When we got back into his office he had the contracts and a pen sitting out on the edge of the desk ready for me to sign. I only needed to put down a little over $7000 dollars and the other $3000 wouldn't be due until 1 year after I was in a new position. I was excited, but told him I needed to think about it and figure out where to come up with the money. Then before he could reply I said, "I'm sure you can understand that?" Oh yes not a problem. He'd hold my spot until Friday at noon, but to hurry as they only take some many clients each week.
Well my wife and I talk in great detail about it. We did feel like it was a song and dance, but really believed they could help me. After all they had the magical "Hidden" contact list and would help me get interviews. I was already to go and make my payment tomorrow. I even looked at www.bbb.com, a couple of complaints but nothing too bad. Besides they have almost placed 1,000, 000 people. About an hour ago, I decided to just look on the web and see if I could find anyone outside of BHA that had any comments about the company. Imagine my surprise when I came across this web site. WOW!!!
After reading just about every post my wife and I have decided to NOT use BHA services. Maybe they could help me, but there are just too many people that have bad dealing with them and my gut tells me not to do it.
Thank you all for taking time to post and I hope that my post helps others take a moment to think it completely through before they sign.
Michael
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
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