I first became aware of Stanley Barber at a career fair in early 2005 in Santa Clara. After talking to them at their booth they said they could certainly help me find a Project Management position and that they would review my resume and contact me.
After receiving a call later that week, I went in for an initial consultation with their Managing Partner (Al Chiara). I was told that with my skills and expertise, they would have no problem finding me a position. I was asked to come back for a second session, this time with my wife so that we could go over the contract and agree to a contract price.
My wife and I returned the week after and after going over the contract were a little dubious. We raised the point that we wanting some concrete figures to be mentioned, as in, guaranteeing that they will find us jobs at a certain salary level ($115,000) and within a certain time period (3 months).'No problems' was the reponse and an addition to the contract was signed by both myself and the Managing Partner, with the guaranteed elements (salary and time period) to me and all other services extending to my wife. For this we paid $6200.
Straight after signing my wife and I went to work completing the four phases of Stanley Barber's so called 'Executive Coaching' program. They said that it took most people 3 or so months to get through and we had it done in a little over two weeks; we were pro-active and worked dilligently on completing it.
After e-mailing them about getting contacts in certain companies I was told they had a contact in a consulting firm. After being provided the contact I touched base with Stanley Barber to ensure the person had been told I would be calling him. I was told that he would be expecting my call and that I should call him. Upon calling he said he had not been informed I would be calling him and futhermore, he had not given his consent to be a Stanley Barber contact. He had been in the office once when in between jobs, he gave his resume to Stanley Barber. After speaking with a representative however, had decided they could not help him. Since then he said that he had received a number of e-mail and phone calls from people wanting to touch base with him who said that Stanley Barber had forwarded his contact details on to them as someone who could provide assistance.
During this time I attended their Career Advisory Forum. These forums were meant to provide an opportunity for those looking for jobs to get together with the Vice President - Executive Development Services (Chris Ebert) and talk about companies that were hiring, networking opportunities and tips and advice for securing interviews. It turned out to be nothing more than an 'Alcoholics Anonymous' type session with each person in the forum introducing themselves and what they had done since the last forum. Dissatisfied, I took it upon myself to make contact with these individuals and meet up with them outside the forum one on one, to talk to them about job hunting and networking; things that should have been discussed at the forum.in each of these forums, the moderator sat there, took notes and then wrapped up the session after 70-90 minutes leaving no-one any better off than before they arrived. Attendess often felt disgruntled and that their time had been wasted with little to show for it.
While these CAF's were occuring once a week I also met with a 'career counsellor' once a week, in this case Chris Ebert. I quickly determined that he knew very little about the field I wanted to go into (Project Mangement) or of the industry I wanted to get into (aerospace, adviation and defense). His primary response for all my queries and concerns was for me to look on Linked In and find someone who I could make contact with.
Becoming frustrated with the lack of progress, I approached Al several times and voiced my concerns that nothing was happening and that my requests for contacts and networks with senior people in the industry I wanted to get into were not being met. That was when I realised that the so called 'networks' they had access to were non existent and that those people they did have access to were not very responsive.
I was told to talk with Access Search Group (ASG) a recruitment compnay who has a cubicle in Stanley Barber's offices. Al said they would be able to help me. After meeting with them, I realised that they too, were not all they were hyped up to be. Although I had gone through the four phase process in the initial stages of joining Stanley Barber, I was asked to submit my resume to them.'Shouldn't you already have it?' I said as they were supposedly meant to work side by side with Stanley Barber. I submitted it to them numerous times, each time getting increasingly more annoyed and frustrated with the time it wasted, lack of progress they seemed to be making and the fact that their job search technicque amounted to nothing more than scanning job boards.
At one time I was told that an 'interview' had been set up with a company and that I should arrange a time to come in. I became suspicious when after asking what position it was for they just told me that it would be a meet and greet with some people from a company who liked the look of my resume.
The day I came in I discovered there was no interview, that they had found a job on one of the internet search boards and that they thought I might be interested. It turned out that the job was completely unrelated to the field I wanted to get into. It was now getting towards the end of the three month contract and I had seen very little progress from Stanley Barber; I was starting to feel like I had been duped, but I still had my guarantee so I thought it was time to raise this with them.
My wife and I met with Al and voiced our complete dissatisfaction with the services we were receiving. At this Al became very agitated and tried to intimidate us by standing up and raising his voice. At 6'3" and 205 lbs I stood up as well and being significantly taller than him (as well as having a second degree black belt in Taekwondo) told him to sit back down.in his agitated state he told us there was 'no way in hell' we were getting our money back and that he had bent over backwards to help us (my wife had worked for Stanley Barber for a month helping out on the phones; something which Al thought competely removed any obligation on his behalf) and that we should be greatful for the services we were getting. I told him that we hadn't received anything tangible for our money and that with our written agreement for guaranteed deliverables which he hadn't delivered on at all (to say nothing of the aggreed timeframe), we were entitled to our money back. He did not see it this way.
We sent a follow up e-mail to which the response was that he would 'see us in court' if we wanted our money back.
To sum up, my impression of Stanley Barber is:
1. They have no idea about the career services industry despite being involved in it for a long time (1974 as declared on their website).
2. They have a very slick front end sales pitch and once you sign up you are forgotten about.
3. Their four phase process is simply there to waste your time and there is no connection of this with anything else they do.
4. Their consultants have very little expertise and certainly do not deserve being labelled or having the title 'Vice President'
5. Their business model is purely one of reactionary cash flow, based on getting new people to sign up (and hence bring in money) from the career fairs and leave those they have already signed up (from which they can't get any more money from) to their own devices.
6. Their forums (CAF and Executive Forum) are a complete waste of time due to a lack of focus and zero outputs.
7. Their bearing is unprofessional at best (only one of their consultants wears a tie)
8. Their 'contacts' consist largely of past clients or people who have come into the office (some don't know they have been labelled a contact)
9.'Networking' seems to revolve largely around how many 'Linked In' connections you can obtain.
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