After reading all of the reports on this Web site concerning Bernard Haldane, I regret not being aware of the consumer complaints before I signed up with them in 1998. I was given the same dog and pony show as everyone else and should have smelled a rat back then, especially when I saw how clean the VP, Jack Law's desk was. It was obvious that this guy didn't do any work. The pitch about how Dr. Haldane was given some award by Harry Truman (oh, please) should have been a dead giveaway. They took me for a cool $5K and I have precious little to show for it... A few "psychological tests, " a lousy resume that gets no results, and a mock interview on videotape (totally useless.) Oh yeah, not to mention the great job search engine they gave me on disk, which I soon learned was available for free on the internet. The result of their career counseling is that 3 years later I still have not realized the career change I was counting on them to assist me with.
I have to relate one story about their service... After making some marked-up changes to my resume I was told that the new version would be e-mailed to me in a couple of weeks. Well, nearly 3 weeks later I decided to call my "counselor" and ask her where the resume was. The next day guess what showed up? My original resume which had not been updated at all! Now that's service for you. It would have taken me 20 minutes to make the changes myself on my wordprocessor but they insist that it be marked up on a hard copy. And their Sterling Hightower job listings? Ha, what a joke. I get better leads from Monster.com.
I am extremely annoyed though, not only at Haldane, but also at the Washington Post who continues to run Haldane's ads every Sunday in the Employment section. This, in my opinion, is inexcusable, and I intend to tell them so. I also plan to write to the Virginia Attorney General's Office. Although I doubt that I will ever see my money again, I see no reason to hold back. There are enough people that have fallen victim to these scam artists. Do yourself a favor. Buy a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute and read the section in the back about career counselors. The "things to avoid" checklist reads like it was written as a description of Bernard Haldane.
-jk-
Click here to all the others who have been victimized by Bernard Haldane Associates
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