I contracted with Robele Career Solutions (RCS) in July to provide me with career counseling services. The services to be provided by RCS included an assessment and evaluation of my career history; development and implementation of a marketing strategy for me as a candidate within my targeted industries; networking opportunities with decision makers in companies within my targeted industries as well as with RCS alumni; and ongoing career counseling support and advice. For these services, I paid RCS an initial $3500 retainer fee in July and an additional $2000 at the time of the market launch of my job search campaign in August. During my initial meetings with RCS I was advised that a typical campaign would generally be successful in three to four months.
However, my campaign progressed significantly more slowly than I hoped or expected on the basis of the promises made to me by RCS and in October I communicated my concerns to Mr. Lonnie Lauer, Senior Vice President at RCS. I spoke with Mr. Lauer regarding these misgivings and although he encouraged me to continue with my campaign, no positive benefits accrued to me. Certainly, the services provided to me which can be quantified as an updated rsum and a mailing to 44 companies were not worth $5500. Finally, I recently learned that RCS closed for business as of 5:00 PM on Monday, January 11, which means that it will be unable to make good on any of these promised services.
In respect of this latter point, it seems that the owner of RCS, David Schwartz, was also the owner of the now bankrupt Executive Career Resource Group, based out of Princeton, NJ, which possibly indicates a pattern of deception or fraudulent business practices.
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